We performed a comparison between Cisco Hyperflex Hx Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Cisco Hyperflex Hx Series seems to be a superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers found Nutanix Acropolis AOS to be more difficult to deploy than Cisco Hyperflex Hx Series. Additionally, Nutanix Acropolis AOS lacks the level of integration that Cisco offers.
"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."
"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run."
"The configuration is so much simpler than that of a traditional SAN with fewer points of failure to worry about."
"It provided the much-needed HA on an extremely low budget."
"It has reduced the amount of switching, network connections, etc., because the converged StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to connect high-speed network interfaces between different boxes instead of having to connect SANs via the network, then connect those two clusters together."
"The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection."
"The performance of the solution is accurate and concise."
"The user interface for this application is amazing."
"You can administer things easily. E.g., if you need more power, you can add a system."
"Easy to spin up and operate virtual machines without the overhead of managing a storage network."
"The initial setup is easy."
"It is very scalable. It is also easy to scan."
"The workload can handle anything and has an extended capacity."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is simple to use, user-friendly and has been best for our purposes."
"The product is stable. No one complains about the stability, which is fabulous."
"Nutanix Acropolis AOS is flexible and has helped people to work from home during the pandemic."
"The scalability is great."
"The solution is well integrated with other vendors."
"One of the main features of the solution is that it works on many hypervisors. It is a big advantage. Additionally, the solution is compatible with VMware and Hyper-V, and the management interface, which is called Prism, is very intuitive and user-friendly."
"There are a lot of features in Nutanix that are different from other hyper-converged solutions, such as site-to-site replication. VM-based site-to-site replication is bundled with the software licensing. For the DR, it has the availability groups, which is one of the key features that Nutanix provides."
"It consolidates our servers, and improves our electricity consumption and cooling as well."
"We really love the Lifecycle manager and one-click upgrades."
"The most valuable feature is the solution's ease of upgrading."
"For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper."
"The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation."
"The cluster configuration is time-consuming and tedious."
"I would like them to invest time in reducing the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure."
"A mobile app to sync up for overview and status would really be helpful."
"I am expecting to see it more user-friendly in the future."
"This product could be improved with the inclusion of new health check procedures."
"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."
"Unlike other options, you need to pay a subscription to Cisco yearly instead of paying for the hardware outright, which makes it more expensive in the long run."
"Deployment scripts can be improved since several clans need to be created before the deployment effectively works."
"There is a VMware plugin for HyperFlex, which sometimes it hangs up in our environment, and doesn't function well."
"Lacks easy integration with other vendors."
"Their technical support is very bad. We had an issue where instead of an engineer we got a PDF "doctor" that didn't know anything about our problem which was very frustrating."
"It is quite new solution, so it is not very stable."
"Cisco is quite expensive but not in the initial first buy."
"I would like it to be easier to manage the server, create VMs, and manage the VMs on the client."
"If they can simplify the software slightly for the installation, that would make all the difference."
"Benchmark testing indicated that workloads did slightly better on our Vblock by a few percentage"
"There is a need is to be able to consume Nutanix storage from outside the cluster for other, non-Nutanix workloads."
"The licenses for Nutanix are very complicated."
"There should be a little more access to Nutanix files."
"While the customer support is truly incredible, for Spanish speakers it would be appropriate to have support in their native language to further improve problem-solving conditions."
"We had a few problems with the foundation machine that you can use to build your systems out. We've got it working now, but it should be improved."
"The file services that they also provide need some more features, like on the Windows file server."
More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 8th in HCI with 90 reviews while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 2nd in HCI with 194 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 8.0, while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series writes "A fast and easy deployment that allows secure access to our medical applications ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "A powerful solution with easy deployment, upgrades, and management". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, Dell PowerFlex, HPE SimpliVity and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, whereas Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and Proxmox VE. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) report.
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With Nutanix you have the freedom of choice. You can deploy it with several server hardware vendors or completely in the cloud.
I don’t know Hyperflex at heart, though.
Also, support at Nutanix is outstanding.
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-converged infrastructure at scale. We looked into it but then ultimately chose Nutanix Acropolis.
We liked Hyperflex’s virtualization feature and the unified network fabric it provides. The Integrated Managed Controller was a nice feature to have. It is expandable, stable, and has good redundancy. If you require more processor cores per box, Cisco HyperFlex is a good solution for you. Support will depend on the type of contract you have, with some requests taken care of immediately and others taking longer according to the engineer’s expertise.
While Hyperflex is designed for any company size, I wouldn’t recommend them for small businesses. It also requires a solid knowledge of Cisco products, as the UI can be difficult to manage. Upgrading to a newer version can also be cumbersome and could use some improvement.
We chose Nutanix because it is easier to use and is more cost-effective. Nutanix allows us to deploy, run and scale applications both on-premises and in the cloud. It has excellent support. You can log the query straight to a technical expert, which is good if you have staff not familiar with AOS. It is easy to scale by adding new nodes, and the company is constantly adding new features.
Nutanix is not for everyone, though. The Nutanix Cloud System can be complex to maneuver when at the command line or when troubleshooting.
Conclusions
Nutanix is better for medium-sized companies and when you need a cost-effective solution. Cisco Hyperflex is a complete solution but is better suited for large enterprises. It works better if you are already a Cisco user.