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FlexPod XCS vs HPE ConvergedSystem comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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
2nd
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
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure for SAP HANA (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 12.8%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE ConvergedSystem is 10.9%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
FlexPod XCS12.8%
HPE ConvergedSystem10.9%
Other76.3%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
PF
Project Engineer at Astellas Pharma US
With good integration and expansion capabilities, the tool also offers good technical support
It is a solution that we could expand in our company. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. Our company has 400 users, all of whom have used it at one point or the other. All of the departments are involved in the usage of the tool.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"FlexPod has enabled us to consolidate some of our stuff, the validated designs for major enterprise apps are an integral part of our company, and it simplifies the infrastructure from edge to core while simplifying the configuration metrics and saving time overall for all of the configuration and deployment."
"I have built over 15+ datacenters on UCS FlexPod, and every solution has been solid."
"CVDs reduce risks for implementations. We always make sure that all installations are based on best practices."
"It is a very nice solution because, traditionally, we used to spend more time administrating and managing, but now we put it in a self-service mode for the developer community."
"This solution has helped to make more things consistent within our organization."
"The solution can be innovative when it comes to compute storage and networking. FlexPod is very flexible and innovative. We can design it as we like."
"Provisioning servers used to take hours, and now it takes up to five minutes."
"One of the easiest solutions to implement, maintain, and scale."
"The best value was in the service because we receive the solution as a managed service from HPE, so it's a box somewhere in the data center that we don't care about, it's always running and so far, no problems."
"Consolidation and duplications features."
"The tool's most valuable features are stability and scalability."
"As far as what we are doing now, there is no problem with stability; it's pretty flexible, it's efficient, and it is centralized management, cost-effective."
"The best feature of this solution is the backup system."
"The solution is incredibly stable; it's one of the great advantages of the product, and we've never faced any problems when it comes to stability."
"One of the valuable components in this solution is HPE Synergy, which is a useful tool for deployments and updates."
"The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"The tool is obsolete and we are migrating to HPE. It should improve the pricing."
"Make it cheaper."
"Most of the implementations that I've seen don't take advantage of its features. Where I work now it's been more costly to implement it."
"FlexPod has not decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our company. There was a problem with the back-end configuration and we had a downtime of three hours."
"If you have expertise setting up such environments, then you are good, but for customers or novices, it becomes a nightmare and stuff may actually be left out."
"The continued simplification will be a continued battle and evolution for both Cisco and NetApp, especially on the FlexPod product."
"The setup was complex, but mostly because of our environment."
"The ability to manage the templates across sites. We would like to easily take out the configuration of one FlexPod and copy it over, just making minor changes. There is a way to do it, but it's clumsy."
"Perhaps they can work on providing faster allocation of memory or storage."
"HPE ConvergedSystem needs to improve its price."
"There is some scope for improvement in support. The response time could be better."
"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."
"I would like to see a full flash array added and the pricing improved, as HP is expensive."
"I would like to see monitoring solutions included, as well as brand support."
"It could be enhanced by improving the built-in backup solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."
"Sometimes you may end up spending a little more to get it in the first place, but you gain it back in terms of infrastructure upgrade costs and troubleshooting costs. The solution also lasts a surprisingly long time."
"Storage is very expensive. To buy MIC cards and additional storage either on-prem or in the cloud, the IT department does not have money for it, so you need a more niche product or a more flexible way to store your data. That is the benefit that you get from this product."
"We purchased from CDW•G. They are great partners on the government side."
"The pricing and licensing are quite expensive. However, compared to other solutions, it is okay."
"The scalability is very expensive."
"We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable."
"Licensing can be interesting with the new version because of the Intersight integration. I don't know what that looks like yet. I have seen some of the different licensing models, but with the new purchasing, all customers are going to have to buy some sort of Intersight licensing with the Blades or FlexPod. I am curious to see how that option shakes out. Previous to the UCS X-Series, the licensing was the same."
"There are some extra costs in addition to the licensing costs for the yearly maintenance from professional third-party services."
"The pricing is competitive. Not a major problem. We have a subscription model."
"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."
"The pricing is sensitive."
"This is an expensive solution."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"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."
"This is an expensive system and not every customer has the kind of budget to support it."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Marketing Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
 

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

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. HPE ConvergedSystem and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,646 professionals have used our research since 2012.