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.
"The ability to run the software virtually on every virtualization platform and the ability to eliminate all storage vendor locking are the most valuable features."
"Having the ability to scale horizontally if needed is a huge plus for future growth."
"The most valuable feature is the reliable storage replication, which enables me to create a robust infrastructure to run our business."
"It is extremely stable."
"The install itself is easy as pie."
"StarWind vSAN has allowed us to leverage our server infrastructure more completely without the need to add more hardware."
"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."
"High Availability is the best feature of product."
"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."
"Its most valuable feature is its flexibility."
"It is a complete package. For any kind of on-premises hyper-converged solution, we usually have to separate networks, but Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a complete solution. It has its own network and storage. The storage part is the most valuable feature."
"The technical support has been very good for this solution."
"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is simple to use, user-friendly and has been best for our purposes."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature is full integration with Cisco API and UCS, which means you can have complete networking and storage from Cisco."
"The price of the solution is good, especially when it comes to complex network solutions, such as UCS and Connect."
"It has been stable so far."
"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."
"The HCI environment itself is very intuitive. Everything is centralized under one solution. And, they also have fast server built in in addition to a network analyzer."
"The most valuable feature is the integration of all parts in Prism Element, the browser-based management tool."
"Nutanix Acropolis AOS is easy to use, it is a great platform."
"The pricing is pretty good."
"The most valuable features are simple management and one-click upgrades."
"The virtualization environment is now much easier to manage and maintain, there is only one vendor to call in case of issues and one single console to manage everything."
"Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items."
"If there was a way to automatically put disks in maintenance mode when shutting the host down and exit maintenance mode automatically, that would simplify things."
"The main thing I would like to see improved is the level of documentation."
"The system failovers properly on its own without too much worry."
"The console is something that I feel could be improved. There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it can be jazzed up and/or made to be a little more intuitive."
"It would be nice to add the ability to use raw partitions instead of file containers."
"I would like to see different levels of support offered."
"It would be nice to see a new UI for the windows client, as it is not the easiest to find settings."
"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."
"There are sometimes issues with memory failure."
"With the cache disk fails in Cisco, the whole node fails, and the workload goes down."
"The pricing is pretty expensive."
"I have been receiving a memory overflow message every day when I use the solution."
"The initial setup can be complex."
"HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two."
"The initial setup can be a bit complex."
"This product would be improved if it included a hybrid cloud solution."
"With some projects that we are deploying, there are errors that arise when adding nodes."
"Deployment could be more user-friendly - currently, it requires certain skills with the network and nodes."
"The pricing of the solution is too high. It needs to be adjusted or lowered to be more competitive."
"Could have better visibility with the main OEM backup integrators."
"I would like to see Acropolis add the ability to migrate VMs between storage containers. I don't know if they've added this in the latest versions, but I haven't seen it yet. It's mainly about AHV. When we use VMware, we can move between storage containers. In VMware, it's just like regular storage, and we can move it."
"The software-defined networking should be improved. It is quite substandard as compared to the VMware variant. The software-defined networking is quite limited, and we usually use other products to do that. We're aware that Nutanix is working on that and will be coming out with better solutions, and we can't wait because to do a fully software-defined architecture, the abstraction layer needs not only software-defined storage, which you have, but also the software-defined networking piece."
"The cost of the solution is too expensive. There are other options, such as VMware, that are offered for less money. In Latin America, it seems to be overpriced for the market."
Try it today
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 8th in Hyper-Converged (HCI) with 22 reviews while Nutanix Acropolis AOS is ranked 1st in Hyper-Converged (HCI) with 92 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 8.0, while Nutanix Acropolis AOS is rated 8.6. 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 Nutanix Acropolis AOS writes "What you might not know about Nutanix that makes it so unique". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, Dell PowerFlex and FlexPod, whereas Nutanix Acropolis AOS is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and Hyper-V. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. Nutanix Acropolis AOS report.
See our list of best Hyper-Converged (HCI) vendors.
We monitor all Hyper-Converged (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.