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

The compared Cisco and NetApp solutions aren't in the same category. NetApp is ranked #3 in CI , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 10.1% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.
FlexPod XCS
Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews
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  • 799 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and FlexPod XCS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Buyer's Guide
HCI
September 2025
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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
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
FlexPod XCS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Nuno Mendes - PeerSpot reviewer
High performance solution that makes it easy to efficiently manage VM resources
In our case as a credit recovery company working with the state, our infrastructure is fixed and stable as we don't have the same need for growth as other types of companies. That said, 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. Since we as a company will only be operating for perhaps the next ten years, when our HyperFlex solution comes to its end-of-life in 2024 our next step will likely not be with HyperFlex or any other solution from Cisco. Instead, from a financial point of view, we will likely turn toward a cloud solution because, that way, we won't have to spend so much money on physical infrastructure. We are, after all, only a small company and HyperFlex can be very expensive for other companies of our size, whether in Portugal or elsewhere like the United States. One other area for improvement is in regard to HyperFlex's integration with VMware. HyperFlex integrates with a specific version of VMware in such a way that HyperFlex doesn't always resolve security issues with VMware at the same pace as what you see in native implementations of VMware. This has happened in one or two situations in the past. On the other hand, the integration is otherwise adequate, especially in terms of availability and virtualization features (such as being able to split up each of our four hosts within VMware).
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John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems
The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.
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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

"I find the usability very valuable."
"The most valuable feature is that it is something small that can be more easily deployed than a full data center set of servers."
"It's easy to get the tool started."
"I love the Cisco design, the visual interface to manage and use the platform."
"By configuring networks, we are saving power."
"The initial setup was straightforward. With our partners and the consultancy that we had, we knew what we wanted to do. Therefore, we didn't have any problems with the installation and parametrization."
"We used to have a single customer-facing data center, which was vulnerable to failure. This product has allowed us to create high availability between two private data centers."
"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability, performance, and reliability. It scales well inside of a large data center."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automation point because it's a lot less staff to have to manage it."
"I like the combination of the brands that they decided to include, in terms of its compatibility, e.g., they integrated UCS into this solution."
"We save days of work when doing new service deployments. With LUN clones we have a template provisioned for the image of our hypervisor on our NetApps, and we can deploy a brand new hypervisor in under an hour. Everything is scripted. We just clone a template LUN and boot from SAN, so there are no single points of failure."
"The ease of set up is probably the most valuable feature for us."
"The real benefit of this solution is that it is pre-architected with the ability to scale-up and scale-out."
"For anyone who needs the flexibility of moving around profiles from physical device to physical device, it really adds an additional layer of virtualization."
"It scales easily. We went through an upgrade of adding additional chassis, and it wasn't a big deal."
"One of the most valuable aspects is its integrated convergence infrastructure, particularly the LAN and SAN cloud features that offer a unified fabric."
More FlexPod XCS pros
 

Cons

"It needs more detailed documentation."
"We are working with a lot of different technologies and trying to manage them with one tool. The API could be improved for better integration with other systems."
"I would have liked it to be able to back up the system to a cloud, to be able to work from any other place"
"I would rate the installation of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten. It can be complex."
"The product needs work in the area of deduplication which currently is inefficient."
"There should be the opportunity to create more than one div group"
"The initial setup can be a bit complex."
"This solution is lacking in replication and backup abilities that I would like to see in a future release similar to HPE SimpliVity."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons
"According to the product managers, there are some new products coming which will address some of our concerns around portability and compliance."
"Automatic tiering would be good to have."
"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."
"Mainly, the interface needs improvement. I'm not a big fan of UCS Manager, sometimes. I believe they released the new one, and it seems like in every version something changes and something else doesn't work. When they switched to HTML5, I believe we had issues in version 3.2. They fixed it in the next version. The amount of work to upgrade a system for change control is tedious to have issues every time. I would recommend more regression testing, then testing the different browsers in that."
"On the NetApp side, there are definitely things to improve in terms of software updates."
"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."
"Because when you try to do automation, there are many bits and pieces tied together. Sometimes, automation gets a little tricky for provisioning."
"Sometimes, it can take awhile for support cases to get to the right people, especially if it's not a P1 case."
More FlexPod XCS cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is relatively expensive, but it can easily return value by freeing up other resources."
"We have a yearly license."
"When we negotiated with Cisco for the HyperFlex solution, they gave us a good price because they wanted to break into the market in Portugal for the first time. However, in general, I think it's a very expensive solution. It's a huge amount of money to acquire this kind of infrastructure."
"They are not the cheapest on the market. But there's an old saying I like to quote: "If you know that you are getting what you pay for, it's fine if it's expensive.""
"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."
"Our licensing is Hybrid. We have all of our applications for billing and outage management through this."
"I would like the pricing to be cheaper."
"The cost is expensive, but there is a chance to save money in the future."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pricing and cost advice
"The scalability is very good. I wish it was a more cost-effective, but you get what you pay for."
"It's expensive, but when you pay for enterprise support and enterprise products, you have to pay the big bucks."
"The cost is a little high."
"As a startup, for the amount of budget we have and the amount we spend, we are getting what we expected."
"In terms of the cost, the last bill I saw was about $3.5 million, from the latest contract. That might have been for a five-year contract."
"The solution has saved our customers' organization in terms of CapEx. E.g., with the cloud availability, it's turned into sort of a hybrid CapEx/OpEx model."
"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."
More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Educational Organization
15%
Performing Arts
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise57
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
 

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 Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series?
It's easy to get the tool started.
See all answers
What do you like most about FlexPod?
The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?
The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...
See all answers
What needs improvement with FlexPod?
FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 62% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 38% of the time
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors
Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS Logo
Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS
Compared 28% of the time
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS Logo
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS
Compared 16% of the time
Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS Logo
Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS
Compared 13% of the time
HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS Logo
HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS
Compared 12% of the time
HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS Logo
HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS
Compared 11% of the time
More FlexPod XCS Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
September 2025
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] reportDownload Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
September 2025
FlexPod XCS reportDownload FlexPod XCS product report
 

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

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp
 

Sample Customers

BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Ready Pac Foods, Bryant University, Bellevue Group, KPIT Technologies, City Harvest
University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Buyer's Guide
HCI
September 2025
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