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FlexPod XCS vs Oracle Exalogic [EOL] comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (3rd)
Oracle Exalogic [EOL]
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Robin Saikat Chatterjee - PeerSpot reviewer
The product is best used to create private clouds for middleware based on the Oracle stack and on Oracle Enterprise applications that use the WebLogic platform.
The product is best used to create private clouds for middleware based on the Oracle stack and on Oracle Enterprise applications that use the WebLogic platform.This is simply the best-performing platform for this particular use case. However, the product is not appropriate for other technology stacks. Even though it might in some cases be able to run them, the results will not be as optimal. For example, Oracle E-Business Suite version 12.13 is not based on WebLogic, but on OC4J; hence, the advantages of running it on Exalogic are not as significant as the benefits with E-Business Suite 12.2, which is WebLogic based. Also, virtual machines in Exalogic need to be based on special templates that allow VM access to the native InfiniBand protocol, something which is not available in all the other virtualization solutions that use InfiniBand as a backbone but do not expose it to the VMs.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has simplified our support."
"It's less resource-intensive, given that it comes in a package."
"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."
"We have significantly less latency now with our imagery."
"Performance-wise, it is actually doing quite well. The end users are very happy with it."
"NetApp is always coming up with features that I want before I know that I want them."
"FlexPod is the primary solution we recommend for clients with high-availability server requirements. Our clients find FlexPod's management helpful. You can manage everything via plugins."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the stability."
"The main benefit of using the solution is for the performance it provides."
"Server consolidation. In a cloud architecture, moving the HA VM from one to other is faster. This is because of the InfiniBand network fabric between the compute nodes and storage nodes (ZFS Storage)."
"Provides high-speed network, strong storage features (ZFS), High Availability out of the box, and is Integrated with a large number of products."
"The automation and provisioning of the environment, as well as the centralized monitoring, have all improved over the years."
"Enterprise high-speed interoperability: With IPoIB we can deliver to other environments, either IP-Ethernet-based or IP-InfiniBand-based protocol, both with minimum bandwidth capacity of 10Gbps, 20Gbps, or 40Gbps, redundantly."
"Exalogic offers integration with other engineered systems, which increases the throughput capability and enables processing of bigger and heavier workloads."
"Scalablility: When we need to upgrade from an eighth-rack to a full-rack, the real downtime is less then an hour."
 

Cons

"With the UCS X-Series, I would like to see the fabric interconnects in the chassis. Instead of hanging out so the chassis is 7U, you are increasing your footprint to 9U with the fabric enhancer, where some of the competing solutions are 7U and have collapsed that network fabric into the chassis. This is another thing that I would like to see from Cisco, though not really on the NetApp side since that is pretty solid."
"The procedure for contacting technical support could be simplified."
"The GPU based VDA solutions could use improvement."
"Upgrades are always scary because you just don't know. Nobody has six or seven different systems sitting around that you can test on before you go into production data."
"Sometimes, it can take awhile for support cases to get to the right people, especially if it's not a P1 case."
"I would like them to scale more to rack unit servers instead of blade servers."
"FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design."
"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."
"The solution needs to add a network virtualization feature similar to that of VxRail. If they could implement that, it would be great for the product."
"Middleware application services, such as statistics, data mining, could be better."
"The solution is prone to disk failures. This needs to improve. Over the past four years we've had to replace about six of them. They've failed almost every three to six months."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."
"You get better management and orchestration, but it still costs you money."
"It is cheaper than other products. For example, Dell EMC VxBlock is more expensive."
"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."
"The solution has saved our customers' organization in terms of CapEx. E.g., with the cloud availability, it's turned into sort of a hybrid CapEx/OpEx model."
"We have saved time and money for new service deployments. Without FlexPod, it probably takes about ten hours. With FlexPod, within two hours, we are up and running. So, we have seen about an 80 percent time decrease."
"Coming from a rack and stack server model to FlexPod, it has saved us a lot of time (approximately hundreds to thousands of hours)."
"To expand the hardware's capability requires a massive investment."
"Pricing and licensing are two very delicate aspects when talking about Oracle, especially engineered systems. The prices are quite high compared with other similar products, so the CapEx analysis and investment return have to be very well studied."
"Get the price of the license you will need for the middleware that will be running on top of the Exalogic. Otherwise, you can use another middleware solution, as long as it can run on top of Oracle Linux."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Manufacturing Company
20%
Educational Organization
15%
Performing Arts
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
No data available
 

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 Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
 

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.
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...
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...
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Comparisons

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Also Known As

No data available
Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Sascar, Banca Transilvania, UL, Agilent, Reliance Commercial Finance, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, Bank of Qingdao, Yarra Valley Water, FAW Car Co. Ltd.
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