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

Cisco and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the HCI category. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...

Read 90 Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] reviews

89% willing to recommend

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Read 21 Dell vSAN Ready Nodes reviews

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1,995 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

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Executive Summary

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

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

To learn more, read our detailed HCI Report (Updated: January 2026).

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HCI

January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HCI (10th)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2133501

Assistant VP, Information Technology at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Effective deduplication feature, but lacks a unified architecture

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series could be improved by reducing the number of nodes. Currently, the architecture separates data, computing, memory, and storage into different parts. For example, if I need around 200 servers with a requirement of TB of storage, I would need 200 clusters, which can be quite cumbersome. Other solutions like Dell and Nutanix have a single combined unit that includes computing, memory, and storage, which can reduce the number of nodes required and also reduce licensing and power consumption. Therefore, I suggest improving the architecture of the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series by combining computing, memory, and storage into a single unit, making it more efficient and easier to manage. It will also reduce the number of nodes required and licensing costs and help to reduce power consumption. I would like to see improved internal integration capabilities in the next release. Currently, it is constrained only to VMware only. So, there is no integration part of the RAC or IEL or anything, and it isn't easy to manage it. If I want to hold another partner, then that part will not be possible. So, you have to manage that particular integration. Another feature could be in terms of memory usage.

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KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Experience improved efficiency and customer satisfaction with enhanced integration and management capabilities

Scalability involves two types of environments: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and non-VCF environment where we use VMware Validated Foundation. With VCF we have significant automation built-in within the VCF console within SDDC manager as the primary management console. For non-VCF environments, it depends on customer choice. For small environments, we do manual scalability and sometimes use Terraform scripts to keep the host ready and add in the cluster automatically. For large environments with frequent scalability actions, we propose the Terraform solution that builds ESXi, does necessary configuration, and automatically starts up for associating with the existing environment. If scaling is infrequent, with one or two hosts per month, it is a manual job. From a challenge perspective, it seems easier, with just a few pre-checks regarding make and model compatibility, disks, and server health on the hardware level.

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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

"Its most valuable feature is its flexibility."

"The most valuable feature is that it is something small that can be more easily deployed than a full data center set of servers."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is its performance."

"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."

"Easy to spin up and operate virtual machines without the overhead of managing a storage network."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the connectivity, consistency, and that we now have fewer vulnerabilities on the network."

"It allows us to authorize our residents to come in using their own personal devices to access any of our clinical applications and ensure that the PHI is secure and protected."

"Cisco provides the ability to configure BIOS, something that no one else can do, on a remote basis. That's really helpful sometimes. The bus-snooping alteration tool for BIOS is fantastic. That's one of the game-changing features that Cisco alone has at this point."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros

"Dell's technical support is generally very good."

"We find the initial implementation process simple and straightforward."

"No concerns regarding the footprint in the data center."

"I rate vSAN ReadyNodes as a nine out of ten."

"It is easy to install."

"The solution immediately expands storage area when you add nodes."

"The tool's most valuable feature is high availability."

"The product is useful for DR and other things."

Cons

"We would like to have the ability to not have to reboot while doing updates. Being able to work through updates with as minimal amount of impact to users."

"Deployment scripts can be improved since several clans need to be created before the deployment effectively works."

"The initial setup of the Cisco HyperFlex HX platform was medium-level difficult. It's a little bit different from traditional servers. It takes getting used to the learning curve."

"HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two."

"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."

"If we could have just a single pane of glass, where everything can be managed through that one app, rather than have multiple apps, it would be great."

"You cannot just apply the VSXi updates. You are dependent on Cisco HyperFlex for metric services, analytics, and everything else. I don't like that dependency."

"Unlike other options, you need to pay a subscription to Cisco yearly instead of paying for the hardware outright, which makes it more expensive in the long run."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons

"Upgrades are carried out manually."

"The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified."

"The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster."

"Sometimes we experience performance issues and disk failure issues frequently. Sometimes it impacts another disk group situation."

"When customers want to expand capacity but all the drive slots are full, they are forced to buy new servers or nodes which adds more costs with licenses and hardware, rendering it less scalable than other storage setups."

"Compatibility with other hardware nodes needs to be improved."

"The solution doesn't scale."

"We have experienced some issues with performance."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We negotiated with Cisco and we got some price benefit from that."

"There is no additional licensing cost other than the cost for each part."

"Our licensing costs are large, but it is combined between all of the Cisco products that we have."

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

"Comparable solutions with switches, storage, and services are cheaper than HyperFlex. It should be cheaper."

"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."

"It's roughly $30,000 per Hyperflex license, so that would be about $60,000 a year."

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

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

"The price of the solution was reasonable."

"There is a problem, which is the lack of an integrated price structure."

"The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions."

"The solution is more expensive than a traditional array. The prices are skyrocketing."

"We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."

"My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the solution. The solution is expensive."

"Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Marketing Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

16%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	57

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	11

Questions from the Community

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 core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...

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 to invest in. Even if you are working with a limited budget, this platform offer...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

There is no specific licensing model for vSAN ReadyNodes as it is linked with Broadcom VMware's solutions rather than Dell's. As a group under Comcast, we receive very good pricing from Dell due to...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

I would want VMware to ensure that when there's a hardware failure on a host, it should gracefully migrate the VMs to another host available in the cluster without restarting, which would be a grea...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 11% of the time

FlexPod XCS vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors

VxRail vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 18% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 9% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile MX Certified Node vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 9% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 8% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

January 2026

Download Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

January 2026

Download Dell vSAN Ready Nodes product report

Also Known As

No data available

vSAN Ready Nodes

Overview

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

Cisco

Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are pre-configured building blocks that reduce deployment
risks with certified configurations, improve storage efficiency by up to 50%1
, and can help
you build or scale your vSAN cluster faster.14 Whether you're just getting started, and/or
expanding your existing VMware environment, Dell EMC is here for you every step of the
way with consulting, education, deployment and support services for the entire solution.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

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

Rackspace

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Broadcom, StarWind and others in HCI. Updated: January 2026.

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