Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs Dell PowerFlex comparison

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and Dell PowerFlex based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, VMware, Nutanix and others in HCI.

To learn more, read our detailed HCI Report (Updated: July 2024).

Buyer's Guide

HCI

July 2024

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Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.1%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] is 1.9%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerFlex is 14.1%, up from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Unique Categories:

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

9.2%

No other categories found

Featured Reviews

Felix E.

Technischer IT-Berater at ITC GmbH

Mar 8, 2024

Good monitoring and configuring capabilities but disaster recovery documentation is sparse

My impression has been mostly positive. However, there have been some pitfalls. For example, it runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear. This consequently follows a long learning curve and can take some time until this can be done efficiently. The feature log-structured file system has been removed. While I have not used it, I know some colleagues who have reported some performance benefits under certain circumstances. Additionally, vSAN does not offer extended SAN features like inline deduplication, compression, or S3-compatible access, which is part of most modern SAN feature sets, also in hyper-converged scenarios.

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Md Shahnewaj Hossain

Senior Deputy Director of IT at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 27, 2023

Offers very good data protection and provides effective system uptime availability

We are partners and integrators of HyperFlex and I am a company Deputy Operative Director of IT HyperFlex has benefited us because there are no additional storage requirements and it requires less effort from the server and services in general. This solution offers very good data protection and…

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Mohammed Farooqui

Platform and Backup Support Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 20, 2024

The hyperconverge automation makes it easy to deploy the machines

Dell PowerFlex helped our organization in many ways. The hyperconverge automation makes it easy to deploy the machines. They are stable and offer high availability. If we have to perform maintenance on a single-blade server, we don't need to bring down the complete hyperconverge. We can move it live. We are primarily using it for VMware so the availability is important for us. A reset takes only five minutes, while planned downtime for regulatory approvals and adjustments would take three weeks. PowerFlex's ability to manage storage across multiple environments depends on our requirements. We can go with only compute nodes, or storage nodes, or we can go with both. There are no restrictions or limitations. It is based on the workload. We are thinking about moving our containerized solution, Openshift to be on PowerFlex. Openshift is more compute-related consumption for our banking services so storage nodes are not heavily required for this and we are targeting to purchase PowerFlex more for compute nodes. Most security solutions are monitoring logs and events which requires more storage. PowerFlex gives us the flexibility to use either or both. We are happy with the combination of reliability and scalability that PowerFlex offers us. The most important aspects of PowerFlex for us are stability, performance, and availability. PowerFlex is good in all these areas. For example, we had VxRail in our call center. Our call center is using Avaya's telephone solution to support customer calls and five years before we purchased VxRail we forced Avaya to convert all of their physical appliances to virtual appliances. So the complete Avaya solution has been working on VxRail for five years now and the call center has had hundreds of thousands of calls without a single interruption from the infrastructure. This is the beauty of the solution. We are now in the process of upgrading the Avaya solution which requires infrastructure upgrades. I purchased the latest version of PowerFlex and the implementation is in place now. In two weeks I will be moving the entire Avaya solution from the old VxRail solution to the new PowerFlex. The beauty of it is we will be able to make the switch without any interruption to the banking service because of the version. This makes life easy for us when we go for a complete software-defined solution. Dell PowerFlex helped streamline our organization. The local Dell team is close to us and understands our infrastructure. They are not just trying to sell the Dell products to us. There was one time we discussed with them about converting our complete infrastructure to the hyperconverge and they told us that though they are the leaders in hyperconverge, they don't recommend we move our complete workload onto the hyperconverge. It depends on the use case. Some of the banks need to be run on three-tier infrastructure and some services can run on the hyperconverge. So based on the requirement, they proposed the right solution for us.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."

"The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices."

"One of the most valuable features is the way it sets up the virtual SAN, because we don't have to buy a separate appliance for storage. It uses the existing storage on the servers, which is definitely a cost savings for us."

"We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."

"The failover protection and the ability to expand storage and nodes with no downtime are by far the best physical features we have benefited from."

"It has reduced our overall maintenance and overhead by having to only maintain physical boxes for one cluster instead of having to manage physical boxes for two clusters."

"The product's core feature of virtualizing our storage is by far the most valuable."

"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"It is a stable and scalable solution."

"It saves space for data centers, which is good."

"It is a hyper-converged solution which integrates with the network instead of the product."

"The technical support has been helpful. We are always able to get through to the right person."

"There are some slight cost advantages when you need fewer resources to manage it."

"On the VDI side, because the storage is local to the HyperFlex, it was very easy and convenient. The performance is exceptional."

"The solution is stable."

"It consumes a smaller footprint when I compare it with other competitors."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros

"The support is highly responsive."

"Dell PowerFlex improves our latency which allowed us to reduce a lot of our Microsoft Enterprise SQL licenses."

"The solution is scalable."

"The program is stable."

"We've had no issues with scaling the solution."

"The support team responds quickly."

"It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place."

"The most valuable feature is the overall integration and just seeing the three different layers which make up the machine software. Altogether, it's something that I would say is much better than any other solution that I have experienced before."

More Dell PowerFlex pros

Cons

"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"

"Initially, when we first started, the sync was horrible."

"One point for improvement is to increase the performance capabilities of the Windows-based executable as compared to its Linux Controller Virtual Machine (CVM) equivalent."

"Perhaps more reporting features on the utilization, usage, and performance of the configured high-availability images and underlying physical disks would be helpful."

"It would be great if the Linux version of the management console offered the same features as Windows."

"The interface of the management console of the StarWind Virtual SAN is complex, and it's difficult for the novice user to interact with the management having less knowledge or training in the product."

"For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper."

"StarWind really needs to market its product more."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"Deployment on-prem was quite difficult."

"We are operating two clusters for site resiliency. I would like to support running redundant/resilient vCenter server instances on each rather than a supported external server."

"The product does not have a cloud version...The product should be made more flexible in terms of integration capabilities."

"I haven't been too impressed with the Cisco HyperFlex HX, honestly. It's a hard concept."

"I would like a lighter product; something which can be carried by a mere human. The typical size still looks like a stack of data center-sized servers, which is typically fine, but not so good if you want to carry it around."

"I would like to see more analytics. It could use better infographs in the HyperFlex Connect on how traffic is running in the network. If you were reaching any capacity issues on the Fabric Interconnects, it should be able to cool all of the servers and Fabric Interconnects, then possibly integrate it with, e.g., Nexus Series switches. This should all be available in a single pane of glass."

"You have to get the same servers with the same storage; they need to be identical. However, in vSAN or in VMware we don't have to do that. We can just add storage and manage it in the same server."

"We would like to see better integration in the next release of this solution."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons

"We're also running Hyper-V virtual machines. But we recently discovered that migration of the Hyper-V virtual machines is a bit challenging. Maybe if Dell EMC can come out with a tool that will make it very easy for us to migrate the Microsoft Hyper-V machine, that may be an improvement."

"The storage capability must be improved."

"The tool needs to improve its storage. It should also make migration to the cloud easier."

"The solution needs to offer more documentation and educational materials."

"The installation is complex."

"Licensing restrictions can be frustrating."

"The biggest issue with the solution is that it doesn't support Hyper V. It's a big problem."

"I would like to see a more user-friendly interface."

More Dell PowerFlex cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."

"It's priced fairly. It was definitely cheaper than the competition. The licensing terms are straightforward and reasonable."

"Once you buy the license, you are free to build your own hardware solution based on your needs."

"The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."

"The cost, including OPEX, is lower compared to other solutions."

"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."

"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."

"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"Pricing is better if you buy more Cisco products."

"It is relatively expensive, but it can easily return value by freeing up other resources."

"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a bit pricier compared to other brands in the market...There is a need to make additional payments towards the maintenance and support of the solution."

"Its price is high. Cisco needs to work on the pricing model for this product. Nutanix or VMware are cheaper products, and they provide almost the same functionality. Its price is a big road blocker when we are working with an end customer, and Nutanix and VMware are in competition. If they can reduce its price, it is actually a better choice for customers."

"We would not have invested if we didn't feel the return was there for our customers."

"If you don't look at the costs of the systems, the scalability is quite good."

"Cisco is quite expensive, but not in the initial first buy."

"We have a yearly license."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pricing and cost advice

"We have a good contact in Dell and he prepared all the information and provided everything to us."

"The price could be improved."

"The price of the solution is fair, it is priced in the average range amongst competitors."

"The product is expensive."

"The solution's price is medium."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"The cost of this solution is fair."

"The solution is expensive and I give the cost a two out of ten."

More Dell PowerFlex pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

26%

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?

It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combin...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

Make the most of your 30-day trial license, and if needed, you should contact the sales department of StarWind to ext...

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

The dashboard is functional, but it could benefit from a more modern and visually appealing design. A facelift would ...

See all answers

How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?

Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from ...

See all answers

How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?

VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series?

It's easy to get the tool started.

See all answers

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?

VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not bein...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerFlex?

The support is highly responsive.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerFlex?

I have good partners who prepared the price for us. I told them what we needed and everything worked out perfectly. W...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 32% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 16% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 14% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 5% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

VMware vSAN vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 30% of the time

VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 27% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 16% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 6% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 5% of the time

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors

VxRail vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 50% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 17% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Alletra dHCI vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 4% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 4% of the time

More Dell PowerFlex Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

June 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

July 2024

Download Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex

July 2024

Download Dell PowerFlex product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

No data available

VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex

Learn More

StarWind

Cisco

Dell Technologies

Overview

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

The Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform is a purpose-built, high-performance, scale-out file system with a wide array of enterprise-class data management services. The data platform’s innovations redefine distributed storage technology, giving you complete hyper-convergence with enterprise storage features:

Enterprise-class data management
Continuous data optimization
Securely encrypted storage
Dynamic data placement
Clusterwide parallel data distribution
Linear and incremental scaling
API-based data platform architecture
A simplified approach

VxRack System consists of hyper-converged rack-scale engineered systems, with integrated networking, to achieve the scalability and management requirements of traditional and cloud native workloads. The VxRack series is purposely designed to enable customers to quickly deploy Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and/or Private Cloud architectures. VxRack Systems tightly integrate hardware with software and management layers.

The result is a fully tested, pre-configured, hyper-converged system with simplified operations at data center and Service Provider scale. VxRack Systems support the deployment of a variety of application workloads, allowing IT to rapidly deliver new services while improving overall agility and efficiency.

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Ready Pac Foods, Bryant University, Bellevue Group, KPIT Technologies, City Harvest

Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, VMware, Nutanix and others in HCI. Updated: July 2024.

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