Dell XC Appliance vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series comparison

Dell Technologies and Lenovo are both solutions in the HCI category. Dell Technologies is ranked #36, while Lenovo is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.0. Dell Technologies holds a 0.1% mindshare in HCI, compared to Lenovo’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Lenovo users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell XC Appliance and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series 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 XC Appliance vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series Report (Updated: September 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell XC Appliance vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

September 2024

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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 XC Appliance is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is 1.6%, down from 1.7% 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.

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reviewer1264599

IT Technical Operations Manager at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 22, 2020

Turnkey solution with low management costs that is easy to use

We did a lot of research ahead of time with this solution to make sure that it was stable, scalable, had a good interface, was easy to use, and that it had good technical support. I don't have enough time with the solution to know what areas need to be improved. When I have run into some difficulties, Dell has let me know that those have been addressed and instruct me or direct me to where I can find and enable certain functions. These functions are there, but with my inexperience, I didn't know they were there. I haven't found things that are missing yet. It's a single driver update that reduces management costs. I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

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Genesis Dapoza

Email Administrator at Technopaq, Inc.

Mar 1, 2024

simplifies management for clients familiar with VMware, and offers a user-friendly management and configuration experience

With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers. The drawback is that the hardware resources (CPU, memory, storage) are shared among all the VMs running on the VX Series. If the server's processor is underpowered for the VMs, many of the VMs might have performance issues. An improvement could be to have more granular control over resource allocation to VMs.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."

"We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."

"The most valuable feature for us is having the ability to configure our local storage using a limited number of disks and using the StarWind VSAN software to keep the cluster nodes in perfect sync."

"The ability to host high availability storage between existing servers without additional hardware is a great benefit. This not only saves money but also reduces the complexity of the hardware configuration creating fewer points of failure."

"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."

"Their support staff is comprised of true experts who can also communicate clearly."

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

"I've been really impressed with it so far. I think it's pretty great, actually. It does exactly what we need it to do, and it does it well, so I would recommend it. Plus, the support has been very good."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"The most valuable feature is that you can assign a volume to an off-shore workload on the fly."

"When we compare it to normal hardware servers, I'd say it is quite easy to configure and deploy."

"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."

"The solution's best feature is its simplicity. It's so simple to deploy it. You've got the VMware, and it's own appliance. It is really helpful. The system is online within half a day and saves so much time."

"The solution's hardware is great."

"The most valuable feature is the low management overhead, and the lower skill set required to manage it."

"What I like the most is that it is easy to implement, easy deployment and that it's easy to manage."

"We find the setup quite straightforward and very easy."

"Installation is straightforward because it's a vSAN. It only took one or two days."

"The VX machines are scalable."

"The clients like the solution’s simplicity."

"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series' deployment is easy. We are a tier-one platinum partner who is into multiple implementations."

Cons

"We would like to see the documentation more fully developed."

"Management tools could be improved, sometimes the usage seems to be slowed down and confusing. A native web interface could also be an option. I love to see in the future port of the software on a general Linux distribution like RedHat or Ubuntu in order to avoid windows license costs. I would also like to see features like erasure coding implemented. On the VSAN software, I would like to see some improvements in the storage pools (eliminate the usage of the file as a data container and use the raw partition)."

"There should be publicly available tutorials on YouTube or other platforms that help the users to integrate this solution with other platforms, for example."

"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"

"The only way I can see this product needing improvement is the consultation level of the StarWind sales and engineers."

"I found that certain browsers are not fully compatible with the administration web access portal."

"The documentation can be better for the free tier."

"There is no IPv6 support. That is our only issue at this time."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"The solution's storage size could be improved."

"The cost of using the public cloud deployment is astronomical."

"We are not always advised of new features or updates, so we must research to stay up to date."

"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."

"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."

"Currently, there is no support for the servers that are not in the cluster."

"Dell needs to do a lot of work to simplify the maintenance and life-cycle upgrades for the product."

"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series needs to improve its stability. Its resolution should be faster."

"The product must provide AI features."

"With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers."

"Support could be better."

"The user management could be a bit better. It's something they could improve upon in future releases."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."

"The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."

"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."

"For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."

"Cost is affordable and licensing is smooth."

"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."

"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."

"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"We received a good price from Dell."

"The price point is very fair for a product in this category but can vary depending on the components selected within the family of products."

"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."

"The pricing is dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."

"The pricing is good."

"You need to pay a license for additional features. If we need to monitor hardware for the automatic alert notification, we need to pay them."

"The tool is expensive."

"There is room for improvement in the licensing structure, maybe. Regarding sizing the resources, sometimes it's difficult to calculate/compute them based on the client's requirements."

"The tool's pricing is competitive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

No data available

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

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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...

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What advice do you have for others considering Dell XC Appliance?

My advice for people who are selling this product is to first make sure that you educate the customers. The customer ...

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What do you like most about Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The VX machines are scalable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The licensing model is moderately complex. The tool is expensive. It is VMware’s fault, though.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The product must provide AI features. It depends on VMware since the core is software. The solution must provide a mo...

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 13% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 6% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

No data available

VxRail vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 42% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 19% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 16% of the time

HPE Alletra dHCI vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 10% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 8% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

September 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

September 2024

Download Dell XC Appliance product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

September 2024

Download Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

No data available

Lenovo VX Series, ThinkAgile VX Series

Learn More

StarWind

Video not available

Dell Technologies

Lenovo

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.

XC Series hyper-converged appliances integrate Dell EMC 14th generation PowerEdge servers with Nutanix software to offer one of the industry’s most versatile and scalable hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platforms. By supporting a choice of hypervisors, XC Series appliances can be deployed quickly for all virtualized workloads to reduce management complexity and total cost of ownership.

Differentiating yourself from the competition is vital in today’s fast-moving business environment. To support your business, IT systems must be simple, agile, and cost-effective so you can meet your customers’ requirements to be ever online. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series enables you to meet these requirements by focusing on the business outcome you require, rather than on building your infrastructure.

ThinkAgile VX Series, powered by VMware vSAN, is available in several models. Each is preconfigured, pretested, and optimized to provide the simplest way to bring a new VMware hyperconverged environment online. If you have an existing VMware environment, the VX Series can integrate into it easily.

Designed for any size business from SMBs through large enterprises, VX Series can be used as infrastructure for remote office/branch office (ROBO) and retail stores as well as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and enterprise applications.

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Dell XC Appliance vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

September 2024

Free Report: Dell XC Appliance vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XC Appliance vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.

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