Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs Rubrik comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
185
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st), HCI (4th)
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Rubrik
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
88
Ranking in other categories
Backup and Recovery (4th), Cloud Backup (4th), Disaster Recovery (DR) Software (4th)
 

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 Rubrik is 0.4%, down from 0.5% 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
Backup and Recovery
8.7%
Cloud Backup
14.9%
 

Featured Reviews

Martin Van - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 22, 2024
Easy to implement, great for creating redundancy, and supports various storage types
StarWind vSAN is easy to use and has a very clear GUI. The most valuable in StarWind vSAN is the way it works seamlessly with the Microsoft fail-over cluster. We are working with a two-node setup that suits our needs perfectly. It just works without any technical know-how needed. The best part is the easy way it operates with a very clear GUI without any unnecessary items. It's also easy to add an extra node if necessary or connect if you've rebooted one of the nodes. Also, the speed of support is very valuable to us. If you have a problem or question, you'll get almost an immediate answer.
Md Shahnewaj Hossain - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
DT
May 22, 2024
A easy-to-deploy solution with masterless architecture and good SaaS support
One improvement I would suggest for Rubrik is to have an inbuilt media layer facility for direct backups to tape. Currently, this requires involving a third-party partner like QSR for backup integration. Additionally, Rubrik could improve security measures for Oracle database backups by enhancing Oracle database-level capabilities. It also offers limited capabilities for backup administrators to explore and analyze backup failures. I haven't had direct experience with it yet, but I believe Rubrik is working on incorporating AI into its data management capabilities. It's gaining traction in the market, especially in India, over the last few years. I can only provide more feedback once we assess its effectiveness in data security and overall performance compared to other tools like NetBackup and Commvault.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We went from "no way DB applications would have good performance" to "Wow! We can now actually have a DB running and have some VMs running at the same time.""
"You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."
"The management interface on the software is very simple. It is insanely simple compared to most SANs. The interface is also powerful when used to complete tasks that an IT administrator needs to complete."
"A typical system administrator with minimal experience in Hyper-V, VMware, or Windows can do VSAN configuration and maintain VSAN operations."
"The ability to run the software virtually on every virtualization platform and the ability to eliminate all storage vendor locking are the most valuable features."
"One of the standout features of StarWind.com is its remarkable ability to seamlessly integrate with Dell systems. This integration provides users with an unmatched level of convenience and compatibility, allowing for streamlined operations within a Dell environment. This compatibility factor alone can save significant time and effort for IT professionals, ensuring a smooth integration process and optimized performance."
"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."
"Without the need for any downtime, enterprises can simply grow their storage infrastructure using StarWind Virtual SAN by adding new servers or disks to the current infrastructure."
"The price of the solution is good, especially when it comes to complex network solutions, such as UCS and Connect."
"On the VDI side, because the storage is local to the HyperFlex, it was very easy and convenient. The performance is exceptional."
"The solution can scale up and out."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Easily facilitates remote work opportunities with storage and compute resources."
"Cisco HyperFlex is helping us to put everything in centrally so that we can manage in one place."
"It is a stable and scalable solution."
"The solution is easy to use and to learn. It is well integrated with VMware."
"Features we have requested are typically added to the next product release."
"The archiving, off-of-box, is awesome. It lets you put your data where you want it and gives you the peace of mind of having more than one copy of it. And it's smart about the way that it does the archiving. It doesn't just copy one-for-one. It does all of its processing of the deduplication and compression before it sends it off to the archive, which helps with our cloud costs."
"The most valuable feature has been the Live Mount feature."
"It has reduced our maintenance efforts. The amount of time and effort that would have gone in troubleshooting various issues related a data crash has been addressed by Rubrik. So, it has helped to improve our productivity. The data is being captured about our customers periodically that is secure and safe."
"Cut backup remediation to nearly nothing."
"Rubrik is cheap, and you get good performance."
"CloudOn allows for backed up virtual machines stored offsite in Azure to be instantiated as an Azure virtual machine and spun up."
"The main benefit is that we are secured in terms of workloads. We know that if we need to restore any VMs, or even any files inside a VM, that we will succeed 100 percent. This means that we don't need to spend much time administering the backup environment because we know it is self-healing and efficient. So, we are spending that time on something else, which is always a plus."
 

Cons

"The most disappointing side of the application is the free edition. There used to be GUI attached. That has recently changed to only CLI management of the application."
"The system performs as expected, but we're always looking for performance improvements regarding the best utilization of NVMe disks."
"The documentation is good. However, if compared with competitors, it could be enhanced and made more professional."
"I'd love to see more clarification for us folks who are smart enough to do some damage yet not smart enough to use CLI."
"The console is something that I believe could be enhanced."
"If it's possible to make a driver/solution that does not make use of the iSCSI targets of Windows, that would be great. I don't know if that's possible, however, it could make the configuration a little easier."
"It should reclaim white spaces after big files are deleted."
"The gathering of monthly consumption and performance reports for future dissemination to concerned parties is very important. Unfortunately, StarWinds vSAN doesn't offer this functionality."
"HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two."
"It is quite new solution, so it is not very stable."
"The infrastructure team thinks that there are a lot of issues."
"Deployment scripts can be improved since several clans need to be created before the deployment effectively works."
"Sometimes when there are multiple technologies involved in a support case, this is when there is a bit of a lag."
"The documentation could be substantially better, but the product itself does everything it needs to do."
"Some of our customers do not want to adopt the Cisco ACI solution. They want to manage Cisco HyperFlex by integrating it with their own management solution."
"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."
"Rubrik could improve in customization options for dashboards."
"We would like to be able to do granular restores directly from Exchange. Also, more granular management of VM backups would help."
"They need to find a solution for SMBs. It is currently only suitable for enterprises or big customers. They need to find a solution that suits SMBs."
"I have a personal want which might not necessarily make sense with Rubrik as a company or Rubrik as a software, but it'd be really nice if they could also handle things like item-level backups and restores of Active Directory objects and DNS and DCP objects."
"Collecting logs in Rubrik is very difficult compared to other tools."
"With Windows, it is difficult to configure Oracle Database."
"I would love to be able to just get from the dashboard to a file that I need, or a system that I need."
"Its cost is high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."
"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."
"The support contract is well worth it. The price for it was very reasonable and their team has been very engaged whenever we reach out."
"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."
"This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."
"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."
"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."
"This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."
"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is expensive. It's a standard license, and we pay for it yearly. I think we pay about 700."
"There is a recurring cost for the VMware license and the HyperFlex licenses."
"Pricing is better if you buy more Cisco products."
"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."
"The licensing is perpetual and the only thing that you may need to pay for on a monthly basis is if you're going to use their cloud-based management features."
"There is no additional licensing cost other than the cost for each part."
"One of the challenges we have with HyperFlex is that they have a subscription fee for the operating system that runs on it, and if I remember correctly, it costs approximately $15,000 USD per month."
"There is a 30 percent additional premium that all the companies are charging for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series because of the lack of chips and bottlenecks in the market. The cost of the solution is high right now."
"High priced when considering a total change in backup solution."
"We do perpetual licensing... It was all based on the amount of storage we needed to use. We did a cost analysis compared to Tivoli and it was in line with other solutions."
"It is a great value, but its cost is still a bit high."
"Rubrik is fairly priced."
"Due to this effective, faster backup and recovery solution, we are now able to focus on other creative tasks to meet our entire pipeline. So, we have seen ROI in terms of the improvement of productivity in our team. We save around one million dollars a year."
"Rubrik's competitive pricing and strong return on investment make it a compelling choice, especially compared to alternatives like Data Domain and Avamar. Commvault was considered but deemed too expensive."
"The product is not cheap, but for good reason. It simply works and is very fast."
"Originally, we bought the units on perpetual licenses. Now, we have switched to Rubrik Go. I think the Rubrik Go subscription is a better model, where it is based on your onsite environment and you consume what you use."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
26%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Which would you choose - Rubrik or Veeam Backup & Replication?
Veeam Backup & Replication provides an easy-to-set-up solution to the issue of data storage and recovery. Setting...
What do you like most about Rubrik?
It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rubrik?
In many cases, the customers I speak with want to have a one or three-year license. Because it's for backup, they nee...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Driscoll's, Red Hawk Casino, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Wabash National, Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, Galliker Transport & Logistics
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