Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs FlexPod XCS comparison

"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 software defines networking, storage, and processing."

"The feature that we are most interested in is the scalability. When needed, we are able to add more nodes and scale it up further."

"The implementation process is okay."

"The speed, storage, and management are the most valuable features."

"Our customers have seen ROI in terms of the time they save troubleshooting."

"When we use it for VDI solutions, it is very easy to deploy and support."

"The management from the switches to the hyper-convergence solutions are quite good and well-developed."

"Our customers get their applications to market more quickly, and it has taken the risk out of their business, because there is less for them to try to figure out."

"FlexPod's unified support for the entire stack is very important. Before, the customers would log a ticket by Cisco and a ticket by NetApp. It's better when vendors can parter and look for a solution together."

"It reduced the total cost of ownership."

"The flexibility, operational efficiency, and scalability of FlexPod has been a huge factor for us because our customers have workloads that need to run on classical HTTPs, flash storage, or possibly in the cloud. This flexibility and enhanced ability of the solution is very important for this. We trust in it."

"The most valuable is the one support. I have a 1-800 number. I call one number rather than figuring out whether it's a network, compute, or storage issue. It is beautiful and works out nicely."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automation point because it's a lot less staff to have to manage it."

"Not a perfect ten because it could use better integration on the network side between UCS and the switching layerKnowing that everything works, having a single place to be able to find out compatibility and things like that are the biggest benefits of this solution. The fact that LACP is not supported on UCS blades isn't so great. It would be nice if it was."

"It runs our VMs. Our SQL databases are all on VMs, so everything is virtualized."

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

"With the cache disk fails in Cisco, the whole node fails, and the workload goes down."

"Its price could be better."

"The problem is that we always have to keep an eye out for new releases to make sure that the version we're running is up-to-date."

"One of the biggest problems with HyperFlex HX is that if you want to adjust your solution in terms of processing power, memory, or disk capacity, you have to buy completely new hosts. From a financial perspective, it can be very expensive to do so, and from a legal perspective, there are all kinds of compliance issues we would have to sort out before buying any new solution or application."

"The architecture separates data, computing, memory, and storage into different parts."

"If we compare it with VMware, the VMware product is basically very open, and it can be easily integrated with any platform. VMware product is also available on the cloud and is not an appliance-based product, whereas Cisco HyperFlex is an appliance-based product. Companies that want to use HCI as a platform or as a service would prefer something without an appliance. A SaaS-based product is better for a customer who is using the cloud and has multiple resources, workflows, and devices on the cloud and wants to go for a hyper-converged solution. This is where improvement is needed. In addition to an appliance-based product, Cisco should provide a SaaS-based product. Its price should be lower. Cisco needs to work on the pricing model for this product. Its price is a big road blocker when competing against Nutanix and VMware, which are its main competitors."

"In the next release, I would like to see them able to connect to the public cloud."

"We would like them to improve the validate designs. It is hard to stay in a supported config with the software and firmware versions of the platform. It's always a concern to ensure things not only work well, but they work at all. If we run into incompatibility inside of the NetApp, Cisco, or VMware versions, it can cause real issues."

"Sometimes, when the newer versions of any of the partners’ firmware or software come out, there's still sometimes a lag of the partners to support all of those new components."

"Support could be more integrated. For example, you might call NetApp, and they'll determine that VMware is the issue. It would be helpful if they could automatically engage VMware and bring them onto the same call to transfer ticket information and work together."

"The initial learning curve is pretty steep."

"They just announced that they are going to move it along with Intersight from Cisco. That can be a private or public cloud, which is one of the areas where it can grow more and has a lot of potential."

"The networking configurations with UCS need improvement."

"There are times where we have had issues with technical support."

"The majority of the time, if we need more storage, then we need to work with customizing the NetApp deployment. Right now, we just do a generic deployment, then wherever we have a need for storage, we have to move some application out of the next FlexPod deployment. One thing is to customize based on the requirements, but the requirements change so frequently, they are absolutely obsolete in six months."

"The product could be cheaper."

"There is a recurring cost for the VMware license and the HyperFlex licenses."

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

"HyperFlex is a little pricey."

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

"For customers in the private sector, this product can have a very high return on investment."

"We are on an annual subscription and the price is fair."

"It is highly priced compared to other vendors."

"We pay approximately $1,400 USD in total for between five-thousand and ten-thousand ports."

"The total cost of ownership with this solution is good."

"It is cheaper than other products. For example, Dell EMC VxBlock is more expensive."

"We would like everything in one piece of hardware. This way we can just sell the product like a silo by putting everything in a stack together."

"It is not cheap, but there is a return on investment in time saved and efficiency."

"It created lower total cost of ownership. Previously, we had disparate storage and servers, and there were bits of kits everywhere. Now, we have two data centers with almost identical setups in both."

"Pricing and licensing is very affordable from a FlexPod perspective."

"The product's pricing is high and I would rate it a nine out of ten."