We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes 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."The support team is available to solve any problem efficiently."
"Being hardware agnostic is a must and definitely scored points for us."
"The ability for us to manage all of our nodes from the same console makes systems administration very easy."
"Integration with Microsoft clustering has been perfect, allowing us to leverage our investment in MS server licensing to the fullest."
"Training is also easy as it is just one system to learn."
"StarWind support has been great in helping resolve other issues not caused by their software."
"StarWind vSAN has allowed us to grow rapidly while still providing flexibility and reliability."
"Virtualizing data infrastructure with StarWind Virtual SAN improves efficiency and reduces operational costs."
"The most valuable feature is the overall integration and just seeing the three different layers which make up the machine software. Altogether, it's something that I would say is much better than any other solution that I have experienced before."
"The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is integration."
"Dell PowerFlex is a one-stop-shop solution. Storage, compute, network, application monitoring, and support cases are all combined into one solution. It's very easy to administer compared to when you have a reference architecture where you need to design and build everything yourself. You would also then have to work with multiple vendors."
"It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place."
"The solution is scalable."
"The solution is quite stable."
"The support is highly responsive."
"No concerns regarding the footprint in the data center."
"I have found the most important features of Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are the capacity to manage the storage because the storage is built in the servers. The type of profiles you can attribute to the storage is a benefit. You can manage the storage by profiles. Overall the solution is a good speed and performance."
"The most valuable feature is the set of user tools that are available."
"The product is useful for DR and other things."
"The solution immediately expands storage area when you add nodes."
"If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability."
"You don't have to spend much time evaluating the hardware. It can be deployed in a short time. The tool is also easy to upgrade."
"The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is the flexibility of the nodes. Additionally, if there are any critical issues they update us through emails. The issues are taken care of remotely on the system."
"Regular updates to the software are required, and subtle design changes would be welcome."
"We would like to see the documentation more fully developed."
"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."
"It would be great if the Linux version of the management console offered the same features as Windows."
"A central management console may be nice to see all nodes."
"This solution should be more self-sufficient, running without creating domains or failover clusters."
"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"
"Geolocation could be better, for example, for site mirroring for DR purposes."
"The biggest issue with the solution is that it doesn't support Hyper V. It's a big problem."
"Exporting data from the dashboard is not very user-friendly. It's just designed in a way that it's going to cover let's say 90%, 80%, of the end-users needs. If you need more sophisticated reporting it's not easy to have."
"I think there might be some room for improvement when it comes to pricing, because although I know how to convert customers, at the end of day, it's quite expensive. Sometimes your feature architecture is still coming out much cheaper than hardware costs for your infrastructure."
"The storage capability must be improved."
"Compared to similar solutions, Dell PowerFlex is not cost-effective and has room for improvement."
"The installation is complex."
"We've had some issues around the licensing."
"The support of containers needs to be improved. At present, it is limited to VMware. There needs to be direct communication with the hardware rather than through a hypervisor."
"Dell vSAN Ready Nodes' deployment is complex."
"Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is a great hyper-converged system that is a perfect platform for supporting any kind of workload. The only workload that it's not designed to support is big data."
"Compatibility with other hardware nodes needs to be improved."
"The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster."
"This product is not sufficiently scalable."
"The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified."
"Dell vSAN Ready Nodes must be flexible since it is complex in designing concepts. It needs to improve stability. The product should integrate with the public cloud."
"Upgrades are carried out manually."
Dell PowerFlex is ranked 10th in HCI with 19 reviews while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked 12th in HCI with 14 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 8.2, while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Dell PowerFlex writes "Infrastructure management solution that offers rapid provisioning of computer storage but the APIs and enablers for custom automation could be improved". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes writes "Offers good performance and is easy to use". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity and FlexPod XCS, whereas Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and Fujitsu PRIMEFLEX. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report.
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