FlexPod XCS vs HPE Hyper Converged comparison

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

808 Views
378 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

HPE Hyper Converged

Read 34 HPE Hyper Converged reviews

3,643 Views
3,151 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

HPE Hyper Converged

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 24, 2024

FlexPod XCS and HPE Hyper Converged are advanced data center solutions. FlexPod XCS appears to have the upper hand due to better pricing and support, while HPE Hyper Converged is noted for superior features and management.

Features: FlexPod XCS offers robust hardware integration, exceptional performance, and scalability. HPE Hyper Converged provides simplified management, flexibility, and a comprehensive solution set.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS needs better software updates, more intuitive management tools, and enhanced analytics. HPE Hyper Converged requires improved analytical capabilities, more streamlined support, and stronger software updates.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS is known for straightforward deployment and mixed support reviews. HPE Hyper Converged offers quick deployment and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is competitively priced with a good ROI. HPE Hyper Converged, although more expensive, offers significant value in terms of features and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: June 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

June 2024

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Categories and Ranking

FlexPod XCS

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (2nd)

HPE Hyper Converged

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HCI (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 13.5%, up from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Hyper Converged is 1.9%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure

Unique Categories:

No other categories found

HCI

3.6%

Featured Reviews

John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

Jan 4, 2024

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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Tomas Sajauka

Systems Engineer-Consultant at Blue Bridge Bond, UAB

Jan 30, 2024

Easy to setup and manage and offers good scalability

Scaling and ease of management are good features. In my country, the biggest issue is probably pricing. I have been working with HPE for the past ten years. In my experience, some business cases existed in the past. From my own country's perspective, currently, we haven't seen new customers…

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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

"When our clients choose to call NetApp or Cisco directly, the cooperative support model means they can get passed back and forth between the two organizations freely. It works really well."

"Software flexibility. Everything is fully configurable. The reliability results from the design. Elements are well projected (disks, blade, network, etc.). No single point of failure is identifiable."

"If the network or site is down, you just need to go to a single vendor. You don't have to open up multiple cases with each vendor to get things done. That is one of the financial benefits of this solution."

"I live by the Validated Designs. I do exactly what those designs say and I haven't had a problem as a result. For example, they used to do the FCoE. They figured out there was a problem and they went over to the NFS. I moved over and I agreed with them. It worked better."

"The fact that it can run the entire stack in terms of protocols. The integration for most of our customers is VMware; the full-stack integration. Also, the ability to do rapid cloning."

"The tool provides a single point for storing applications and it increases the availability of them. It also has improved the way we handle applications within VMware."

"It has been very stable. There has been no downtime."

"Not a perfect ten because it could use better integration on the network side between UCS and the switching layerKnowing that everything works, having a single place to be able to find out compatibility and things like that are the biggest benefits of this solution. The fact that LACP is not supported on UCS blades isn't so great. It would be nice if it was."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"It provides unmatched performance, productivity and reliability."

"The product enables me to use any software or database."

"The solution has many good features."

"HPE Hyper Converged is stable."

"The provisioning is very fast. It’s not a problem for us to achieve the goals of the client."

"We like the fact that the hyper-converged infrastructure provides a simple to grow, easy to configure platform."

"The most valuable feature is the in-built backup system. The backup speed is also excellent."

"One of the solution's strong points is the deduplication capabilities of SimpliVity."

More HPE Hyper Converged pros

Cons

"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."

"Hardware stability needs improvement. We replaced a lot of RAM this past year. We had to replace the complete blade once after extensive troubleshooting. Any given time, we have approximately one blade down within the entire infrastructure, unfortunately."

"FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities."

"The last two calls that I have made to NetApp support have been handled too casually. People are too lax, not quite as professional as I would have liked."

"There are apparently some new products coming around the whole FlexPod side of things with regards to auditing, to ensure everything is configured correctly. It's basically a "delta" if there have been any changes. It's important to us, from a support perspective, to know if there have been changes and what impact they have actually had."

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

"If there were going to be any improvements, they should probably be UI improvements, overall. It can get a little kludgy sometimes when trying to figure out what to do."

"One touch upgrades would be nice."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"Scalability is an issue because it becomes very expensive. When you need to upgrade memory, you have to upgrade memory across the nodes. Suppose a customer has gone with a three-node HCI solution, then to increase the memory, you have to do it across the three nodes."

"Though with HPE Hyper Converged, you get everything, the documentation part is very much required, especially if you opt for the solution's subscription-based licensing model."

"The solution is not very stable."

"The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM."

"The storage efficiency is weak and needs to be improved."

"The improvements could be customization and backup efficiency."

"The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced."

"Some improvement is required in the availability of the data and performance. The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower."

More HPE Hyper Converged cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has saved us hundreds of man-hours by using this converged infrastructure."

"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 product's pricing is high and I would rate it a nine out of ten."

"The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers."

"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."

"We have seen a five to ten percent savings on new service deployments."

"We purchased from CDW•G. They are great partners on the government side."

"We definitely saw a lot of operational cost savings using FlexPod. As far as capital outlay goes, that was a little bit too much for us to swallow and we weren't able to recognize enough savings in that area to afford it."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"If I'm comparing with Dell, HPE Hyper Converged is definitely cheaper in my experience."

"HPE Hyper Converged is an affordable solution."

"There are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The solutions cost us a lot."

"The product's pricing is very competitive because HPE provides a buyback policy to users...Users can make either monthly or yearly payments towards the licensing cause of the solution."

"The entire solution is packaged with all licenses and support."

"I would rate the price at seven out of ten. There are no additional licensing fees, but it would be cheaper to go with a dHCI solution."

"It could be cheaper, everything could be cheaper."

More HPE Hyper Converged 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

21%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

11%

Financial Services 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...

See all answers

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 Hyper Converged?

The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Hyper Converged?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with HPE Hyper Converged?

The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 21% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

VxRail vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Exadata vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 9% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

VxRail vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 41% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 13% of the time

VMware vSAN vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 11% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 8% of the time

More HPE Hyper Converged Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

July 2024

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

HPE Hyper Converged

July 2024

Download HPE Hyper Converged product report

Also Known As

No data available

HPE Hyper Converged 380, HPE Hyper Converged 250, HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS

Learn More

NetApp

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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.

HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.

Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a single generalist; consume with cloud flexibility to deliver a cloud-like experience, with multi-tenant workspaces that eliminate stranded resources and flexes on demand; and deploy at cloud speed to empower developers and lines-of-business with a self-service portal that can instantly compose and recompose VMs in minutes. Built-in enterprise grade features, such as performance and resiliency enable HPE Hyper Converged systems to easily handle a wide variety of virtualized workloads, including general purpose virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud.

Sample Customers

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

North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

June 2024

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Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: June 2024.

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We monitor all Converged Infrastructure reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.