Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs HPE Hyper Converged comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and HPE Hyper Converged 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.
To learn more, read our detailed Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. HPE Hyper Converged Report (Updated: September 2023).
746,723 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It integrates (fully) with VMware and Veeam, my hypervisor, and backup vendors, so for me, all the puzzle pieces simply fit and work smoothly.""This software lets us maintain storage redundancy across both of our Hyper-V hosts, so if one goes down the environment fails over to the other and we have minimal to no downtime.""The features that I found most valuable are ease of use of the software that StarWind offers - with the first setup being a bit painful.""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 failover protection and the ability to expand storage and nodes with no downtime are by far the best physical features we have benefited from.""StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V.""StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements.""The ease of reaching the support team and their promptness for support is great."

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"Deduplication is a valuable feature available in Cisco HyperFlex.""Cisco offers very good quality.""It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution.""Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is simple to use, user-friendly and has been best for our purposes.""We are providing this solution for the customer or converting the customer from a traditional environment to a hyper-converged environment which consolidates all management and support on a single port. This is the main benefit of using the hyper-converged versus the traditional.""With our four HyperFlex HX hosts (consisting of processor, memory, and disk), the performance is very fast and we have no problems at all. In all of the five years that we have been using HyperFlex, we haven't needed to increase our budget to buy additional hosts.""It's very easy to integrate with the ACI network.""The initial setup is very straightforward."

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"HPE Hyper Converged is stable.""Hyper Converge is easier to manage and performs better than traditional infrastructure.""One of the good features would be the fast backup solution Hyper Converged offers, which is more efficient compared to other vendors.""It is a scalable solution.""One of the solution's strong points is the deduplication capabilities of SimpliVity.""It's a very complete product with residencies to protect data and secure it end-to-end. It includes storage, computing, and networking, offering a fully ten-key solution.""The solution has good backup resolution updates.""It is easy to manage; the administration is simpler. It saves a lot of rack space in the data center because you can consolidate 20 servers into three to five nodes. The client will be able to benefit from power savings and cost savings as well."

More HPE Hyper Converged Pros →

Cons
"vSAN's free version does not have a graphical user interface.""We just need more integration with Veeam.""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.""Though I have learned some of the nuances with the upgrading of firmware/windows/etc., it would be nice to have a more efficient method of doing so.""It could have a dashboard so that you can check all servers' SAN health and performance.""StarWind Virtual SAN could benefit from better integration with other tools and technologies, such as backup and disaster recovery solutions.""Security on the ISCSI protocol could be improved by adding features like OS-type control access, especially for the data center environment.""StarWind doesn't really have any performance reporting, especially compared with other vSAN products we've used."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series could improve by having the documents be more readily available and the support could be more flexible.""It would have been nice if the product provided some cloud integrations.""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 architecture separates data, computing, memory, and storage into different parts.""I have been receiving a memory overflow message every day when I use the solution.""HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series Cons →

"If the solution could further compress the data, it would use less storage.""We have faced some challenges when upgrading. With Hyper Converged, you have to fully upgrade because there are no incremental upgrades available in this solution. For example, let's say we have two nodes. If we want to upgrade storage, we also need to upgrade computing. That means a full upgrade EME.""One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good to have an open kind of platform for other hypervisors, maybe. Like Nutanix is doing, it's very open.""The improvements could be customization and backup efficiency.""This solution is very costly.""The solution needs to add a module or plugin of vCenter for clear monitoring and insights.""Could be more secure and more economical.""Though with HPE Hyper Converged, you get everything, the documentation part is very much required, especially if you opt for the solution's subscription-based licensing model."

More HPE Hyper Converged Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."
  • "If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is a license required to use this solution."
  • "There is no additional licensing cost other than the cost for each part."
  • "HyperFlex is relatively expensive, but you get good value for money."
  • "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."
  • "There is a recurring cost for the VMware license and the HyperFlex licenses."
  • "We have a yearly license."
  • "Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is expensive. It's a standard license, and we pay for it yearly. I think we pay about 700."
  • "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."
  • More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I would rate the price at seven out of ten. There are no additional licensing fees, but it would be cheaper to go with a dHCI solution."
  • "It is a cost-effective solution."
  • "The entire solution is packaged with all licenses and support."
  • "HPE Hyper Converged is an affordable solution."
  • "We have a very good return on investment due to data savings through compression and deduplication methods. It simplifies IT management and enhances security, including the end-to-end security of the IT data engine. The product is complete, simple, and provides visibility."
  • "The product's pricing is very competitive because HPE provides a buyback policy to users...Users can make either monthly or yearly payments towards the licensing cause of the solution."
  • More HPE Hyper Converged Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment.
    Top Answer:The Premium ProActive service price is a little high, yet worth the price.
    Top Answer:It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website. However, they have a fantastic technical… more »
    Top Answer: Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from… more »
    Top Answer:VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to… more »
    Top Answer:It's a very complete product with residencies to protect data and secure it end-to-end. It includes storage, computing… more »
    Top Answer:The pricing is very competitive. I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten. There are no additional costs to the… more »
    Top Answer:One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    StarWind SAN & NAS
    HPE Hyper Converged 380, HPE Hyper Converged 250, HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS
    Learn More
    Overview

    StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

    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

    HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.

    Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a single generalist; consume with cloud flexibility to deliver a cloud-like experience, with multi-tenant workspaces that eliminate stranded resources and flexes on demand; and deploy at cloud speed to empower developers and lines-of-business with a self-service portal that can instantly compose and recompose VMs in minutes. Built-in enterprise grade features, such as performance and resiliency enable HPE Hyper Converged systems to easily handle a wide variety of virtualized workloads, including general purpose virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud.

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    Learn more about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series
    Learn more about HPE Hyper Converged
    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
    North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Construction Company9%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company24%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company25%
    Computer Software Company19%
    Security Firm6%
    Construction Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Government11%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise59%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise46%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise61%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. HPE Hyper Converged
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. HPE Hyper Converged and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    746,723 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 7th in HCI with 23 reviews while HPE Hyper Converged is ranked 13th in HCI with 10 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 8.0, while HPE Hyper Converged is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series writes "High performance solution that makes it easy to efficiently manage VM resources". On the other hand, the top reviewer of HPE Hyper Converged writes " Ensures end-to-end data security with redundancy measures and provides visibility into the system but node expansion challenges". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and HPE SimpliVity, whereas HPE Hyper Converged is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, HPE Nimble Storage dHCI and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. HPE Hyper Converged report.

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