We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and FlexPod based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"Having the ability to scale horizontally if needed is a huge plus for future growth."
"It's quite easy to manage."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements."
"The install itself is easy as pie."
"It enables us to provide more solution options for our clients, with the reassurance that, when implemented, they will be efficient and stable."
"The price was right."
"It is extremely stable."
"Starwind made it easy to deploy fully redundant, highly available storage at a low cost."
"The management feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Great integration with backup software."
"The technical support has been very good for this solution."
"The solution is stable."
"The workload can handle anything and has an extended capacity."
"It is very scalable. It is also very secure. Cisco's security portfolio is integrated with it, which makes it secure. It is a platform-based device. Its performance is also fairly good in comparison to any other solution."
"Stretch cluster allows us to warranty a service for the customer."
"The solution is easy to use and to learn. It is well integrated with VMware."
"If the network or site is down, you just need to go to a single vendor. You don't have to open up multiple cases with each vendor to get things done. That is one of the financial benefits of this solution."
"Integration is most valuable. This is a reference architecture. So, we don't have to design something from scratch and figure out how it is going to work."
"FlexPod's native integration with hyperscalers is one of the reasons we chose to look at it and NetApp. That is one of the key components of our infrastructure. That native integration is very important."
"FlexPod’s prevalidated architectures are very important to our organization... Especially in healthcare, it is absolutely critical that we have a validated performance platform. It has to work every time."
"We’ve seen an improvement in application performance."
"The feature I have found most valuable is data protection."
"FlexPod is the primary solution we recommend for clients with high-availability server requirements. Our clients find FlexPod's management helpful. You can manage everything via plugins."
"FlexPod has reduced our overall TCO and simplified our operations."
"Management of VSAN itself could be improved. A Web UI for management would be great rather than an application installation. StarWind is testing a command center virtual appliance that I have installed in my environment."
"Although minor, some of the documentation could be rewritten to be clearer."
"I found that certain browsers are not fully compatible with the administration web access portal."
"The documentation could be better."
"I would like an automated installation/configuration despite the fact that their service is very collaborative, a customer should be able to deploy the solution by themselves."
"There is no Italian-language version of the software available."
"There needs to be more visibility on how long the cloud replication will take as there is no current ETA."
"A better overall view of the different deployments could be beneficial, although this is difficult due to how flexible the solution is."
"Lacks some integration and documentation could be improved."
"When it comes to customer needs, the licensing price could be better."
"The initial setup could be faster, due to the prerequisites."
"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."
"Deployment on-prem was quite difficult."
"The solution could improve by having more customization."
"There are sometimes issues with memory failure."
"The pricing is pretty expensive."
"I would like to see increased performance."
"Since 2018 or 2019, maybe due to COVID and the chipsets, my DIMMs are dying left and right."
"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."
"We would like one-click upgrades."
"I'd like them to bring back the GUI for NetApp ONTAP. They changed the interface in version 9.8, and it's not great. In 9.9 they've tried to bring it back a little bit, but it's still not great."
"As the technology grows, we're looking to upgrade our storage systems to something faster, and we're hoping to improve our servers with next-generation technology. So we want to enhance our server infrastructure and explore server virtualization with VMware. That's the improvement that our clients are demanding."
"With the UCS X-Series, I would like to see the fabric interconnects in the chassis. Instead of hanging out so the chassis is 7U, you are increasing your footprint to 9U with the fabric enhancer, where some of the competing solutions are 7U and have collapsed that network fabric into the chassis. This is another thing that I would like to see from Cisco, though not really on the NetApp side since that is pretty solid."
"The integration between both companies, Cisco and NetApp, is very good but it still needs to be enhanced in terms of visibility and observability."
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Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 8th in HCI with 28 reviews while FlexPod is ranked 1st in Converged Infrastructure with 12 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 7.6, while FlexPod is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series writes "An all-in-one option that is stable and offers good management". On the other hand, the top reviewer of FlexPod writes "Integrates everything so you are using fewer tools". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, whereas FlexPod is most compared with Dell VxBlock System, Dell PowerEdge VRTX, Dell PowerFlex, VxRail and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI).
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.
