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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 June 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 12.5%, up from 9.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE ConvergedSystem is 11.1%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
FlexPod XCS12.5%
HPE ConvergedSystem11.1%
Other76.4%
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

"The most significant benefit is storage flexibility. FlexPod is a reference design to build on and add the appropriate resources you need for your workloads. That's what differentiates it from something like HCI, where you have to buy certain size pieces when you want to expand."
"It is easy to add-on to the tool. If we need to add a new switch, a new server, or a new chassis for Blades, it is easy. It is not disruptive. You just do it."
"That it works. That it does exactly what it says on the tin."
"NetApp is always coming up with features that I want before I know that I want them."
"A valuable feature of the FlexPod solution is that it is all one architecture and I can call one number and get support for Cisco and NetApp without having to jump through open TAC (Technical Assistance Center) cases and do multiple things to get issues addressed."
"It provides ease of automation."
"This solution has had a serious impact on our organization; it has allowed us to do business without any interruptions, which means that I can sleep well at night."
"It allowed us to scale out as our business grew without any issues."
"The tool's most valuable features are stability and scalability."
"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."
"Over the last four years we had a 99.9% uptime."
"Most of the HP products I come across are they are easy to install. That's not very complex."
"Consolidation and duplications features."
"It's a great solution that is very secure, and very easy to configure."
"The solution's technical support was good. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten."
"I recommend this solution, I think it's easier to implement Converged than other solutions."
 

Cons

"The cost is an issue – it is not a cheap solution and the other piece of it, is that for EMC users (like my current company) it may not be relevant."
"The initial learning curve is pretty steep."
"I'd like to see better integrations with some of the third-party tools, like Terraform. That would be good. We use Ansible to deploy and that's good, but it's slower than it needs to be."
"Our environment does not always require this solution, so we are not reaping the optimal ROI."
"We used an integrator. That experience was not as good as it could have been."
"I've had lots of issues with firmware upgrades. I'm locked on an unsupported firmware because I have three production servers that, if I upgrade the firmware on them, I lose those servers."
"The solution could be improved by including automation for user updates."
"Surprise me with something I haven't thought of. Maybe it's out-of-the-box and can configure itself."
"Currently, we have problems with the HPE StoreOnce module in regards to the backup operations."
"Technical support hasn't seemed to be that simple or that easy."
"It was a very rough ride. The people they sent, I don't think they had experience in doing these kinds of implementations before."
"I think the MTG inside HP could be improved."
"This is an expensive system and not every customer has the kind of budget to support it."
"My biggest pet peeve with the HC250 are the descriptions that they put on our parts list."
"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

"We would like everything in one piece of hardware. This way we can just sell the product like a silo by putting everything in a stack together."
"We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable."
"In terms of the cost, the last bill I saw was about $3.5 million, from the latest contract. That might have been for a five-year contract."
"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."
"The FlexPod licensing can adjust to your purse, i.e. there are different levels available for businesses of all sizes."
"We pay approximately $1,400 USD in total for between five-thousand and ten-thousand ports."
"You get better management and orchestration, but it still costs you money."
"We purchased FlexPod though Datalink."
"The pricing is sensitive."
"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."
"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."
"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 solution."
"There are some extra costs in addition to the licensing costs for the yearly maintenance from professional third-party services."
"The tool's licensing costs are yearly."
"The pricing is competitive. Not a major problem. We have a subscription model."
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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
16%
Construction Company
14%
Marketing Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

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: June 2026.
899,917 professionals have used our research since 2012.