Sangfor HCI and Azure Stack HCI are competing in the Hyper-Converged Infrastructure space. Sangfor HCI generally has more favorable pricing, while Azure Stack HCI outperforms with superior features, making it a better investment for enterprises seeking advanced capabilities.
Features: Sangfor HCI offers seamless integration, user-friendly configuration, and a comprehensive management console. Azure Stack HCI excels with its Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure hybrid integration, and advanced software-defined networking.
Room for Improvement: Sangfor HCI could enhance advanced cloud features, improve hybridization with public clouds, and expand its virtual network capabilities. Azure Stack HCI might benefit from simpler initial deployment processes, more cost-effective pricing structures, and improved standalone functionalities.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sangfor HCI is known for easy deployment and robust in-house support, resulting in quicker implementation. Azure Stack HCI, while reliant on existing Microsoft infrastructure, comes with comprehensive Microsoft support, which is valuable for detailed deployments.
Pricing and ROI: Sangfor HCI is cost-effective for small to medium enterprises, offering an attractive ROI with lower initial costs. Azure Stack HCI, though higher in price, provides considerable long-term ROI potential through its flexible and scalable features ideal for enterprises focused on future cloud capabilities.
There has been some return on investment in terms of just time usability and reduction of footprint.
Not every support team member is very knowledgeable about Azure Stack HCI, creating delays in resolution.
It does not feel like a well-oiled machine yet, with too many idiosyncrasies and insufficient documentation and integration, feeling more like software that is still in beta.
There are discrepancies between managing VMs through Azure Arc versus managing them directly, as changes made not using the Azure Arc integration are not easily reflected in Azure Arc.
Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware.
The licensing is quite expensive because it's per call.
The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent.
Azure Stack HCI efficiently integrates software-defined networking and Azure Kubernetes Service, offering a streamlined hybrid setup for VM management while maintaining top performance.
Azure Stack HCI enhances data center operations with high-end processors and storage, optimal Kubernetes support, and integration with Azure Arc and Azure Site Recovery. High application density in four-node configurations improves both time and infrastructure efficiency. Despite its strengths, the platform can improve in areas like software-defined networking, operational management, and simplifying deployments, which currently rely on PowerShell. Users often desire better training and integration with Microsoft Azure Portal, along with multi-cluster capabilities and storage architecture enhancements. Improvements in Hyper V virtualization are also needed to match competitors like VMware.
What are the key features of Azure Stack HCI?In sectors like government, Azure Stack HCI is crucial for running secure on-premise services with selectable Azure features to ensure data privacy. Businesses leverage the platform for VM creation, management, and monitoring through Windows Center, alongside Kubernetes production environments. Connectivity with Azure allows for smoother cloud transitions, appreciated for its dashboard manageability and substantial network capacity.
Sangfor HCI is an IT infrastructure platform built on converged architecture. It integrates server virtualization, distributed storage, and networking. Sangfor HCI provides a unified management platform that converges compute, storage, networking, and security on a single software stack. This approach delivers a simplified architecture, ease of use, and reliability for business-critical applications.
Hyperconverged infrastructure is a unified system of data storage. HCI combines storage, computing, networking, and management, unlike traditional storage solutions. HCI systems enable you to build your private cloud, expand to a public cloud, or have your own true hybrid cloud. Sangfor HCI presents two product models: The Sangfor HCI server appliance is a hardware version that enables easy deployment. Sangfor HCI software is the digital version combined with a third-party server that enables flexible deployment.
Sangfor HCI supports Windows systems on desktop and is web-based. Its range of use cases cover a wide spectrum of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing. It is applicable for mid- and large-sized businesses. The software is customizable. Users can customize the logo and contact information in the user interface.
Benefits and Features
Use Cases
Sangfor HCI can be applied tin various scenarios:
Reviews from Real Users
Gabriele P., Senior Software and Systems Engineer at SAMU.IT, says "It is flexible like a hyper-convergence system. You can add nodes, and you can scale to have better performance and stability. I also like the backup feature, the recovery system, and the web interface GUI to handle everything."
A Junior Solutions Engineer at a tech services company adds that "Sangfor has many solutions, and you can easily manage their machine servers with just one management. They're always striving for greatness, and they continuously update their products. For example, they have now built endpoint security within the firewall. They are continuously improving not only the security but also all other products."
We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
