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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
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure for SAP HANA (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 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 11.2%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
FlexPod XCS12.8%
HPE ConvergedSystem11.2%
Other76.0%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Director 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.
Charu Mazumdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Architect at DXC Technology
A robust product that offers great flexibility
The initial setup process was neither easy nor difficult, as it is somewhere in the middle, but at times, it is difficult to make certain decisions. The availability of the product is high. The deployment model of the product is chosen depending on the requirements of the customers, but our company does sea consultancy to figure out what the advantages and disadvantages of both deployment models are. The discussions mostly led my company to opt for a hybrid cloud deployment model. It doesn't take more than two days to complete if the installation is only for a couple of systems, or else if there are multiple ways to decide, then the installation part depends on the rate type.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have been using this FlexPod since then, and now, we have grown to about mid-scale, however, FlexPod is still able to scale out the way we want, and we are happy with it."
"This solution has been helpful to our organization in many ways including provisioning storage, provisioning applications, and maintaining applications."
"We enjoy the standardization and having things consistent across the whole data center sphere."
"It reduced the total cost of ownership."
"Go for it as a solution."
"Our footprint is lower than it used to be."
"I am happy with the stability. I haven't had any major issues with it in four years. This includes upgrades."
"The technical support is amazing."
"The flexibility is the most advantageous aspect of the solution; our system has a very big environment and, due to this, the replication and backup operation is not an easy task, yet we prefer HPE SimpliVity modules in our environment even when we have some different cases in operations."
"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."
"One of the valuable components in this solution is HPE Synergy, which is a useful tool for deployments and updates."
"Previously, with a traditional extract transform load process, it would take us three hours to load our large volume tables, now it takes us about ten minutes on SAP HANA on a ConvergedSystem platform."
"One of the biggest things is, the fact that it can be a turn-key solution."
"Consolidation and duplications features."
"This solution is very simple to use."
"The user interface, reporting, and management are good, and we are quite happy with the performance."
 

Cons

"I would like to see an easier implementation, but I think that with newer versions of ONTAP and new versions of FlexPod, it's getting better."
"The only support call that we have had in six years was related to an ONTAP upgrade, where one of the controllers didn't patch properly."
"Make it cheaper."
"I would like to see synchronous replication and easier automation in the next release."
"I would like to see improvements in the documentation. I understanding how things are coming together and a lot of that is from the UCS side."
"FlexPod's technical support is bad, as with everything regarding Cisco support."
"Frontline support was atrocious, but once you bludgeon them properly, you get through to somebody who knows what they're doing, and it's very quick, easy, and clean."
"We haven't seen ROI yet."
"It could be enhanced by improving the built-in backup solution."
"The solution has a complicated front-end."
"The solution needs to add NFS features."
"Perhaps they can work on providing faster allocation of memory or storage."
"I would like to see better manageability and integration with third-party tools."
"This is an expensive solution and could be improved with lower pricing."
"This is an expensive system and not every customer has the kind of budget to support it."
"With ConvergedSystem, we'd like to see just how portable and scalable HP can make it. Is it really just an add-on each time and not a complete redesign?"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The footprint in the data center is quite large, especially when you scale out. Maybe find some hardware in the future, where if a new blade comes out, then Cisco can say, "Look, we'll buy those blades back off you, and we'll give you this blade for X amount of money." A buyback scheme would be good for hardware, and even NetApp as well. Something like a buyback scheme for blades and stuff moving forward would be good, because I know that they're going to put more power into them. E.g., replacing four blades might equal one blade, which would be awesome, but we are still going to have those four blades around. Maybe having something where it will give you this much money for these blades so we can upgrade. That would be perfect."
"The scalability is very expensive."
"I have saved time on new service deployments. I've done deployments in under a week, and if it's a cloud-based deployment, it's even faster."
"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."
"Because the solution is now stable, we are saving about $100 million USD a year."
"Anytime that you are buying any storage make sure you understand storage. Do not just buy storage based on what somebody sells you in terms of IO or throughput."
"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."
"The scalability is very good. I wish it was a more cost-effective, but you get what you pay for."
"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."
"This is an expensive solution."
"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 tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"The pricing is competitive. Not a major problem. We have a subscription model."
"The pricing is sensitive."
"There are some extra costs in addition to the licensing costs for the yearly maintenance from professional third-party services."
"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."
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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
15%
Construction Company
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
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: August 2026.
910,437 professionals have used our research since 2012.