FlexPod XCS vs HPE ConvergedSystem comparison

NetApp and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. NetApp holds a 9.4% mindshare in CI, compared to Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s 18.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

533 Views
209 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE ConvergedSystem

Read 21 HPE ConvergedSystem reviews

665 Views
398 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

HPE ConvergedSystem

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and HPE ConvergedSystem compete in the Converged Infrastructure category. FlexPod XCS seems to have an upper hand due to its tighter integration with Cisco and NetApp, which offers significant advantages.

Features: FlexPod XCS offers comprehensive integration, validated designs, and a unified support model, enhancing deployment and support. It is highly scalable and guarantees compatibility. HPE ConvergedSystem, valued for its simplicity, reduces the IT footprint with its turnkey approach and provides excellent hardware support.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS could improve its unified management interface and vendor coordination, and accelerate adoption of new technologies. HPE ConvergedSystem should enhance the speed of supporting the latest versions and improve its integration with newer infrastructure components.

Ease Of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS excels in deployment through validated design and enjoys a strong vendor collaboration for support. HPE ConvergedSystem benefits from simplicity in setup and hardware support but may lag in version support. Its customer service is proactive and responsive.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is seen as expensive but offers high ROI through reduced operational costs and efficient resource management. Its pricing is justified by stable and unified architecture. HPE ConvergedSystem offers competitive pricing with ROI linked to lower data center costs and simplified management. Both systems stress the necessity of a thorough cost-benefit analysis based on organizational requirements.

To learn more, read our detailed FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

HPE ConvergedSystem

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure for SAP HANA (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 9.4%, up from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE ConvergedSystem is 18.2%, up from 17.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems

The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.

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Fatai Akinwande

Specialist Datacenter and Server at IHS Towers

Has the ability to easily scale resources and redistribute workloads across multiple hosts

HPE ConvergedSystem could be enhanced by improving the built-in backup solution, as the current one fell short of our needs and led us to opt for third-party tools like Veeam. Additionally, addressing challenges related to remote copy functionality, especially in low-bandwidth conditions, would significantly improve the overall usability and effectiveness of HPE solutions in our setup.

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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

"With FlexPod, it is about the synergy of the server, the storage, and the whole management layer. Together, it is really about minimizing staff. You don't have to hire more people. You can work with the minimum level of resources and the availability is really good. We have had very little downtime."

"The product is very stable and it does what it needs to do."

"FlexClone allows you to create copies of volumes in seconds, and without occupying physical space."

"We initially started out with siloed clusters and now we've been able to cluster everything together so that we have multiple nodes in our clusters. We have multiples on different data in different data centers. We've able to do replication between data centers. That's been very beneficial for us as we look to derive a mature DR model."

"It simplifies everything. It gives you a single place to go if you need support or if you need to expand."

"The ease at which it scales and its redundancy factors. It's extremely redundant and easy-to-scale."

"It's a new architecture, really scalable and programmable. When you look at SDN propositions it fits very well in a next-gen data center."

"FlexPods allow us to go through and roll out compute, having a converged infrastructure with the same level of simplicity that you would expect of a hyper-converged."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"Consolidation and duplications features."

"This solution is very simple to use."

"Most of the HP products I come across are they are easy to install. That's not very complex."

"The flexibility is the most advantageous aspect of the solution. Our system has a very big environment. Due to this, the replication and backup operation is not an easy task. We prefer HPE SimpliVity modules in our environment, even when we have some different cases in operations."

"The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."

"This is a scalable solution. Our customers begin with an initial configuration and later add more servers, memory and other options to meet the demands of increased processing."

"We find the deduplication and compression features to be most valuable, as well as that of the backup solution inside."

"The most valuable features of HPE ConvergedSystem are scalability and resilience."

More HPE ConvergedSystem pros

Cons

"The FAS in it, with all its flexibility and scalability, it is much more complex and could be simplified."

"There are too many management products: System Insight Manager, Oakum, etc. There are a lot of them and you have to know which one to use at which time. Whereas, with competitors, they have a single pane of glass view which has everything in it."

"If they could reduce some of the complexity at the system manager level for ONTAP. I find it gives a lot of flexibility. You can do as much or as little as you want. But to be able to do as little as you want, you do have to do a lot. So, if they could bring that down to a more manageable effort level, that would be nice and simplify it a bit."

"We would like them to have better features to integrate with the cloud."

"They could improve their technical support team. They need to have a specific phone number for you to call in for the FlexPod solution. Some of the partner support knows if it is for FlexPod, they will get you to the right department."

"Sometimes, it can take awhile for support cases to get to the right people, especially if it's not a P1 case."

"The GPU based VDA solutions could use improvement."

"I would like to see programmability into a SaaS-based offering, as I know Cisco's going in a lot of directions with their Intersight application."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"There is some scope for improvement in support. The response time could be better."

"The solution needs to add NFS features."

"Pricing is an area of concern in the solution where improvements are required."

"This is an expensive solution."

"HPE ConvergedSystem needs to improve its price."

"The solution has a complicated front-end."

"I would like to see monitoring solutions included, as well as brand support."

"Features that should be addressed concern the HPE functionality and the interaction with VMware."

More HPE ConvergedSystem cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The investment has been great. We put our money into it and it has given us something that we have been able to rely on for years."

"We pay approximately $1,400 USD in total for between five-thousand and ten-thousand ports."

"The FlexPod licensing can adjust to your purse, i.e. there are different levels available for businesses of all sizes."

"The main return on investment would be that instead of having to refresh all of our desktop hardware we have been able to go reimage existing machines and use those as thin clients, then also purchase new thin clients rather than buying actual hardware. It also reduces the overhead of having our technicians deploy those systems and maintain them."

"Make sure you are buying for performance, not just capacity."

"Overall, the solution works pretty well. The biggest complaint I have from customers is the cost."

"If your company really needs to be up 100% of the time, and you need to do a private data center, I don't know if I could realistically actually recommend another blueprint."

"Pricing and licensing is very affordable from a FlexPod perspective."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"This is an expensive system and not every customer has the kind of budget to support it."

"I rate the product price an eight and a half on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

"The pricing is competitive. Not a major problem. We have a subscription model."

"The pricing is sensitive."

"My company has a five year contract for HPE ConvergedSystem. The contracts depend on companies and sometimes it can be three years. The solution is worth its price."

"There are some extra costs in addition to the licensing costs for the yearly maintenance from professional third-party services."

"Pricing is good. We have not calculated what hyper-converged infrastructure has brought us but I think there has to be some lower cost for us, compared to the public cloud. Obviously, there would be a lower cost, probably by more than half."

More HPE ConvergedSystem pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

18%

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Real Estate/Law Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

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What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

See all answers

What do you like most about HPE ConvergedSystem?

The most valuable features of the solution are the flexibility and the availability of the machines.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE ConvergedSystem?

I rate the product price an eight and a half on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE ConvergedSystem?

Pricing is an area of concern in the solution where improvements are required.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 31% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs HPE ConvergedSystem

Compared 73% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs HPE ConvergedSystem

Compared 19% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs HPE ConvergedSystem

Compared 8% of the time

More HPE ConvergedSystem Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

June 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE ConvergedSystem

June 2025

Download HPE ConvergedSystem product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE ConvergedSystem 700, HPE ConvergedSystem for SAP HANA, CS500, HPE ConvergedSystem 900, HPE ConvergedSystem 500, HPE ConvergedSystem 300

Overview

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

HPE ConvergedSystem is designed for on-premises and hybrid deployments, hosting VMware ESXi, supporting cloud containers, and facilitating recovery and backup, making it ideal for large-scale virtual environment replacements.

Consulting firms, government organizations, healthcare, and education departments extensively use HPE ConvergedSystem. It efficiently supports VMware virtualization, enhancing internal customer service by meeting various client requirements. Notable for its scalability, stability, and ease of deployment, HPE ConvergedSystem integrates seamlessly with HP Data Protector and numerous storage devices, ensuring high reliability. However, it requires improved management and better integration with third-party tools and cloud services.

What are the key features of HPE ConvergedSystem?

HPE Synergy: Facilitates deployments and updates.
Backup Capabilities: Ensures data security and recovery.
Reporting and Management: Enhances operational oversight.
High Availability: Offers robust performance.
Flexibility: Adapts to diverse workloads.
Deduplication and Compression: Saves storage space.
Security: Protects sensitive information.
Ease of Configuration: Simplifies setup.
BladeSystems and Virtual Connect: Enhances connectivity.
Scalability: Grows with business needs.
Stability and Resilience: Ensures continuous operations.
Energy Reduction: Promotes efficiency.

What are the benefits or ROI of HPE ConvergedSystem?

Enhanced Service Quality: Improves customer interactions.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces operational expenses.
Operational Flexibility: Adapts to varied business models.
Reliability: Minimizes downtime and data loss.
Scalability: Supports future growth without major investments.
Energy Efficiency: Lowers power consumption.

HPE ConvergedSystem sees extensive use across several industries. Government, healthcare, and education departments benefit from its reliable and scalable infrastructure. Consulting firms implement it for diverse clients, ensuring solutions tailored to specific needs. Chilean customers efficiently use it for servers and DDI with VMware for virtualization, while it also excels in replacing large-scale virtual environments, making it a versatile choice for companies and integrators alike.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

FAW-Volkswagen, NICS, NBrIX, Pinpoint, HPE Technology Services, SWS, Ko Sistem, HPE

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem

June 2025

Free Report: FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem

Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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