Dell PowerFlex vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes comparison

Dell PowerFlex and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are both solutions in the HCI category. Dell PowerFlex is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.5, while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. Dell PowerFlex holds a 12.1% mindshare in HCI, compared to Dell vSAN Ready Nodes’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell PowerFlex users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

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.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

October 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 813,418 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.2%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerFlex is 12.1%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is 2.7%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni

Senior System Engineer at Giza Systems

Feb 24, 2024

Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor

You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.

Read full review

Ayodeji Oyewole

Managing Director at Atlantic factorial

Aug 12, 2024

A hyper-converged infrastructure that is like a mini data center of its own

Dell PowerFlex is used for on-prem cloud solutions. It's a hyper-converged infrastructure, which means you can integrate it directly into your core network. You get all the computing and storage you need without bothering much about the network connection between the servers because all that comes…

Read full review

Saleh Khalid

college student at Imam University

Sep 24, 2024

Efficient consolidated storage and plug-and-play with room for more flexibility

We use Dell vSAN Ready Nodes for our insurance systems and employee systems, to host everything in one environment Using Dell vSAN Ready Nodes has consolidated our storage, which lifts most of the heavy work. The most beneficial feature is the consolidated storage which is the vSAN. It handles…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"With an uptime of 384 days, StarWind has improved overall server reliability."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the support. They are excellent and you can learn a lot from the support team."

"The license price is one of the cheapest in the market."

"The user interface for this application is amazing."

"We can lose a site or even two of our three, and we would lose no data and have no outage."

"StarWind Virtual SAN is a very easy-to-use solution that can be quickly and easily deployed and configured without intimate and specific knowledge in the virtualization sphere."

"The support has been amazing and quick to reply."

"It provided the much-needed HA on an extremely low budget."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"Dell PowerFlex is a complete hyperconverge that makes automation easy to manage and extremely stable."

"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 support is highly responsive."

"The most valuable feature is high availability."

"The program is stable."

"Dell PowerFlex is a highly scalable solution."

"Dell PowerFlex improves our latency which allowed us to reduce a lot of our Microsoft Enterprise SQL licenses."

"Saves us a lot of space in the data center."

More Dell PowerFlex pros

"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 of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is file sharing."

"They are heading in the right direction and moving to integrate everything with a hybrid cloud, and moving workloads back and forth."

"It is easy to install."

"We find the initial implementation process simple and straightforward."

"The most beneficial feature is the consolidated storage which is the vSAN. It handles most of the heavy work."

"The product is useful for DR and other things."

"The most valuable feature is the set of user tools that are available."

Cons

"The software could benefit from more tooling to help with initial deployment."

"One main thing this product needs to work on is reporting."

"While we had little to no issues in setting up StarWind and received excellent support from the StarWind technicians, we would have appreciated a clearer guideline for a setup with the free version of StarWind Management Console or, in other words - for the setup with the PowerShell."

"Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers."

"The only thing that I have any difficulty with is that in order to perform upgrades, it is required that the SANs be detached from the Hosts before that can happen."

"It should be improved in the way it detects the right filesystem image after a complete shutdown of the system or in the case of disaster recovery."

"I want to suggest that the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure needs to be reduced."

"Some configuration options still demand service restarting."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"The installation is complex."

"We've had some issues around the licensing."

"The biggest issue with the solution is that it doesn't support Hyper V. It's a big problem."

"Including instrumentation would be a helpful improvement."

"The solution’s automation and pricing could be improved."

"The tool needs to improve its storage. It should also make migration to the cloud easier."

"They should provide continuous support for data migration."

"We're also running Hyper-V virtual machines. But we recently discovered that migration of the Hyper-V virtual machines is a bit challenging. Maybe if Dell EMC can come out with a tool that will make it very easy for us to migrate the Microsoft Hyper-V machine, that may be an improvement."

More Dell PowerFlex cons

"The power switch on the hardware is located in a poor location where it can accidentally be pushed. In an update, they should solve this issue so people do not push it accidentally to have their service go down. A possible solution is the switch should be inside."

"Scalability is an area that could be improved. We are looking at a maximum of 32 nodes now in a cluster, but going to 64 or 128 would be a major advantage."

"Upgrades are carried out manually."

"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."

"The solution should provide daily task alerts for data recovery maintenance, usage, and other instructions to ensure the systems are in a good status."

"Compatibility with other hardware nodes needs to be improved."

"The solution doesn't scale."

"The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."

"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."

"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."

"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."

"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."

"If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."

"StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."

"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"The solution's price is medium."

"The price could be improved."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the price as eight and a half. The tool is expensive."

"The product is expensive."

"The solution's pricing could be much cheaper and affordable."

"The price of the solution is fair, it is priced in the average range amongst competitors."

"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

More Dell PowerFlex pricing and cost advice

"The solution is more expensive than a traditional array. The prices are skyrocketing."

"The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions."

"My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the solution. The solution is expensive."

"We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."

"Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."

"There is a problem, which is the lack of an integrated price structure."

"The price of the solution was reasonable."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which HCI solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

813,418 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?

It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combin...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

If you are comfortable with the solution and you feel that you don't need support, you can begin with the free licenc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limite...

See all answers

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?

VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not bein...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerFlex?

The support is highly responsive.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerFlex?

If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the price as eight and a half. The tool is expensive.

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

Comparing it with similar solutions, it was more pricey. Including the VCF solution, it was at a higher price point.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

The solution should offer more flexibility and freedom for the customer. Currently, it's like a black box that only D...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 28% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 12% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

VxRail vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 50% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 16% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 6% of the time

FlexPod XCS vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 2% of the time

More Dell PowerFlex Competitors

VxRail vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 35% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 15% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 5% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 2% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

September 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex

October 2024

Download Dell PowerFlex product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

October 2024

Download Dell vSAN Ready Nodes product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex

vSAN Ready Nodes

Learn More

StarWind

Dell Technologies

Video not available

Dell Technologies

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.

VxRack System consists of hyper-converged rack-scale engineered systems, with integrated networking, to achieve the scalability and management requirements of traditional and cloud native workloads. The VxRack series is purposely designed to enable customers to quickly deploy Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and/or Private Cloud architectures. VxRack Systems tightly integrate hardware with software and management layers.

The result is a fully tested, pre-configured, hyper-converged system with simplified operations at data center and Service Provider scale. VxRack Systems support the deployment of a variety of application workloads, allowing IT to rapidly deliver new services while improving overall agility and efficiency.

Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are pre-configured building blocks that reduce deployment
risks with certified configurations, improve storage efficiency by up to 50%1
, and can help
you build or scale your vSAN cluster faster.14 Whether you're just getting started, and/or
expanding your existing VMware environment, Dell EMC is here for you every step of the
way with consulting, education, deployment and support services for the entire solution.

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox

Rackspace

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

October 2024

Free Report: Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

813,418 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report.

See our list of best HCI vendors.

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.