Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs VxRail comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 31, 2022

We performed a comparison between Cisco Hyperflex HX series and VxRail based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Cisco Hyperflex HX series users feel that the setup can be a bit complex and that some technical expertise and know-how are necessary. VxRail reviewers consistently tell us that deployment is simple and easy to carry out.
  • Features: Cisco Hyperflex HX series users like that you can manage the whole cluster from the traffic interconnect. The solution is very stable, secure, and scales very well. Cisco Hyperflex HX series offers great performance and great integration options. Many users say that Cisco Hyperflex HX series is very heavy and uses a lot of memory and hardware resources. Users would like to see better replication and backup abilities.

    VxRail users like that you are able to seamlessly deploy to a hybrid cloud and you can easily create developer-ready Kubernetes platforms. Users feel VxRail provides fast data center modernization, excellent integration, and powerful performance and reliability. Some users would like better support for SAP HANA and better documentation and feel that everyone should have access to the simulator.
  • Pricing: Cisco Hyperflex HX Series users feel that although there are several pricing options, the solution is still quite expensive. VxRail users are satisfied with the flexible pricing options available and feel it is a very cost-effective economical solution.
  • Service and Support: Users of both of these solutions are extremely happy with the support and service they receive.

Comparison Results: In our comparison, VxRail is the preferred solution. VxRail is easy to use and performs well without causing undue stress to operating systems. The competitive price and overall cost-effectiveness make it an easy choice for many organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. VxRail Report (Updated: March 2023).
686,748 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?
Answer: 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 offers freedom of choice and a number of different options. In contrast, Cisco HyperFlex HX does run on the more expensive side and cannot offer the same level of cost-effective solution. VxRail is able to provide both an ability to upgrade the system with an ever-growing library of resources as well as to provide powerful processors. This is something that I greatly appreciate. Being able to simply add upgrades to the system without necessarily having to worry about the system being bogged down is invaluable. The ability that it provides to apply updates to the system with ease is something worthy of note. If you add this to the fact that VxRail runs on multiple cores at 2 gigahertz or higher, then that means that in terms of ability, the VxRail is difficult to match. In terms of usability, it is hard to argue that VxRail delivers. It is pretty simple and easy to both set up and manage. Once the system is set up, all of the management tools are centrally located to assist in providing ease of use. The Cisco Hyperflex HX Series is both stable as well as reasonably easy to set up. Cisco has a step-by-step program guide that leads you through the process. Once it is set up, it is not prone to glitching or freezing. However, the pricing model that Cisco applies to this product requires users to pay a yearly subscription. This can end up being rather expensive in the long run. Conclusion Both systems offer stable solutions. Ultimately, VxRail is more cost-effective.
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 has been extremely stable for the three years we've been running it.""Having the ability to migrate machines live in our environment was made possible by this software.""The most valuable feature is the reliable storage replication, which enables me to create a robust infrastructure to run our business.""The installation of StarWind Virtual SAN was pretty easy, and the configuration was done in no time.""It has allowed us to save a lot of time and money by letting us create a vSAN within a Windows VM on the environment it controls.""vSAN we found was simple to set up, easy to configure and manage and allows us to achieve storage redundancy.""The ability for us to manage all of our nodes from the same console makes systems administration very easy.""The StarWind products have enabled our organization to modernize stations where larger and more expensive equipment was not an option."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Pros →

"Great integration with backup software.""The management feature is the solution's most valuable aspect.""It is helpful as a backup solution.""I find the usability very valuable.""The technical support has been very good for this solution.""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.""Performance-wise, everything is good. So far, we haven't had any issues. There has been no downtime at all.""The implementation process is okay."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series Pros →

"What I like the most in terms of features is the fact that the VxRail update can be done in one week. It takes much less time to do a whole server upgrade and an infrastructure update as well.""VxRail performs well in the VDI environment.""This is a good solution if you want to deploy an ACI Environment but don't have all the necessary resources.""We like the design and that it meets data storage needs.""The ease of deployment and management of the solution are the most valuable aspects of the product.""VxRail can manage the whole cluster at the same time, so it's easy to expand. VxRail has more features vSAN ReadyNodes that make it easier to implement from scratch.""The stability of VxRail is good, we have not had any issues.""I have found that the admin deployment, monitoring off-premises, and the many services important features. Additionally, the solution has good integration."

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Cons
"A web management interface would be good, especially for those coming from other solutions that have one.""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.""There is no Italian-language version of the software available.""We ran into an issue with alerts.""Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers.""I wish the sync after a failure, such as hardware failure or power-related issues, for example, was faster.""vSAN's free version does not have a graphical user interface.""I see no need for major improvements but there could be some improvements in the form of notifications and the simplifying of maintenance mode."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"The initial setup can be complex.""We'd like the product to offer better integration with other products.""When it comes to customer needs, the licensing price could be better.""I would rate the installation of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten. It can be complex.""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.""Lacks some integration and documentation could be improved.""They should give us a little more information about how to use the CLI and offer more commands.""The price could be better. I think it's more expensive than VxRail. In the next release, I would like to see a better level of protection and availability with six clients."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series Cons →

"VxRail could be easier to set up. It's tricky to configure the network properly and match the requirements.""I would like to see VxRail add duplication features to its hybrid solution.""We'd like to see more automation capabilities in the future.""When we have a vulnerability or we need to upgrade VxRail, it takes a long time. It takes eight hours each time we upgrade.""The update for the graphics integration and the media drivers isn't included in the VxRail update.""The price could be better. The backup mechanism could also be better. Some of our clients prefer to work with backup software from a different vendor. They don't do a built-in backup solution. It would be better if they had guidelines on proper sizing and the whole life cycle from the requirement collection. If there aren't any proper guidelines, how do I go to the customer and evaluate their existing infrastructure? How can you do appropriate sizing to migrate to a hyper-converged environment? I think this is a requirement because most of our clients are migrating to a hyper-converged environment. In the next release, they can improve absolutely anything you can think of to improve the product in general—for example, the clusters and backup software.""We do not use the storage part of VxRail, we use Pure Storage to map out the VxRail because the disk performance from Pure Storage was far better than the performance of the disk on the inside of VxRail.""It would be nice if its installation can be simplified, but it is currently not too bad. They can provide deduplication and compression in hybrid configurations. To the best of my knowledge, these features are not there, and it would be nice if these are added. Some of its competitors already have these features, so it will help VxRail to have a better feature set and compete more effectively."

More VxRail Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."
  • "This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."
  • "StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."
  • "The support contract is well worth it. The price for it was very reasonable and their team has been very engaged whenever we reach out."
  • "This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."
  • "We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."
  • "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 →

  • "Its price is high. Cisco needs to work on the pricing model for this product. Nutanix or VMware are cheaper products, and they provide almost the same functionality. Its price is a big road blocker when we are working with an end customer, and Nutanix and VMware are in competition. If they can reduce its price, it is actually a better choice for customers."
  • "We are on an annual subscription and the price is fair."
  • "The licensing is perpetual and the only thing that you may need to pay for on a monthly basis is if you're going to use their cloud-based management features."
  • "HyperFlex is a little pricey."
  • "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."
  • More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The solution is priced well for businesses."
  • "The licensing aspect is the most painful for some of our customers. Customers go for a VMware license that's standard and then they find they have to go with the enterprise solution and adjust the license. If you have a limited budget, that's difficult."
  • "There is a license required for this solution."
  • "The solution is very expensive."
  • "I do not believe that the price should be lower, as I feel it to be reasonable."
  • "The price is rather on the high side."
  • "We made a one-time purchase of the solution and the price is expensive."
  • "VxRail is quite expensive and could be cheaper. I would say that the main difference between VxRail and the competition is cost. There may be some differences in features, but I would say that it's mainly the costs."
  • More VxRail Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    VCE VxRail
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    Overview

    For SMB, ROBO, Cloud and Hosting providers, who look to cut down virtualization expenses, our solution is StarWind VSAN. It is software that eliminates any need in physical shared storage by basically “mirroring” internal hard disks and flash between hypervisor servers. There is less hardware to buy in general, consequently less money is spent on purchase and maintenance. The existing hardware is used with maximum efficiency, so there is no money wasted at all.

    StarWind Virtual SAN targets those who already have servers, or are bound to a particular vendor list to buy from. In case there is a new virtualization infrastructure to be built from scratch, StarWind offers a much better way – StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. It is a turnkey solution complete with hardware and software, powered by StarWind Virtual SAN. Those who need to build and maintain virtualization infrastructure at little to no expense, may be interested in StarWind Virtual SAN Free.

    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

    VxRail is a hyper-converged appliance based on VMware virtual SAN Software and is jointly engineered and built with VMware, for VMware, to enhance Vmware. VxRail software-defined architecture simplifies compute, storage, virtualization, and management. It will safeguard performance, reliability, and flexibility across your organization with a broad range of workloads and applications from business-critical to next-gen. With VxRail, you are covered.

    VxRail is a single turn-key appliance that is a validated, fully integrated, pre-configured,  pre-tested solution and offers non-disruptive scaling. Every node includes compute storage and IO. All-flash configurations can contain between 12-28 cores per node. The storage capacity options run from 7.6 TB to 19TB with either 256 GB or 512GB of memory. Hybrid appliances may have 6-20 cores per node, 3.6 TB to 10 TB of storage capacity, and 24GB to 256 GB of memory. 

    VxRail offers high availability fail-over, an active/active stretch cluster, and VSan Kernal integration. VxRail is a power-edged server with APIs built on automation. There are over 15 million different combinations of hardware available with VxRail. VxRail provides a simple, cost-effective solution that solves a large range of use cases. Additionally, you also get a mixed workloads automated system that is backed with fully automated system updates, and complete end-to-end lifecycle management all in a single two-rack appliance. 

    VxRail is a value-added suitable solution for distributed small to mid-sized enterprises, remote offices, private clouds, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). You choose the deployment option that best suits your organizational needs, from appliance to integrated rack offerings, with or without networking, and it will be delivered to you, ready to deploy out-of-box. 

    If you know VMware, you know VxRail.

    VxRail Features and Benefits

    • Seamlessly accelerate deployment to a hybrid cloud 
    • Fast data center modernization
    • Create developer-ready Kubernetes platforms
    • Powerful performance and reliability
    • Improve and simplify operational efficiency
    • Excellent integration 
    • Save time
    • Reduce costs

    Reviews from Real Users

    VxRail is an all-in-one solution: "You don't have to worry too much about the hardware and you don't have to work on integrating a storage device. We instead have this as an all-in-one solution and everything is available as a box."

    VxRail is remarkable: “The cover points feature in VxRail is remarkable. It's unique. It has an intervention failover system as well as an automatic failover system, reaching clusters existing in VxRail…

    VxRail is a powerful performer: “...VxRail delivers a very high number of IOPS for a hybrid configuration or an all-flash configuration. The processors that are available in the Xeon family are very powerful. They are multi-core with typically 2 gigahertz, 2.4 gigahertz, or higher frequency, so the performance is very much appreciated.” 

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    Learn more about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series
    Learn more about VxRail
    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
    World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Construction Company9%
    Educational Organization9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider14%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Government11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Government8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Insurance Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise15%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise62%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. VxRail
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. VxRail and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    686,748 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 8th in HCI with 29 reviews while VxRail is ranked 3rd in HCI with 53 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 7.8, while VxRail is rated 8.6. 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 VxRail writes "It's built on platforms that have been in the industry for more than 15 years, so it's very stable". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity, Dell PowerFlex and FlexPod, whereas VxRail is most compared with VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, Dell PowerFlex, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. VxRail report.

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    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.