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FlexPod XCS vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance 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
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 9.2%, down from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is 14.9%, up from 10.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure
 

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.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers comprehensive support and performance but initial deployment requires expertise
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance ( /products/oracle-private-cloud-appliance-reviews ) is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud ( /products/oracle-cloud-infrastructure-oci-reviews ) Infrastructure. It simplifies the management of virtual machines, networking, compute, and storage, allowing me to create multiple virtual machines easily without logging into the storage system. It offers free licensing of Oracle Linux ( /products/oracle-linux-reviews ) and Solaris, and provides high-performance capabilities through extreme performance storage options. Additionally, the product ensures comprehensive customer support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The hardware has been rock solid so far. It has gone up easy. It runs well. We have not had issues with it."
"The ability to converge a lot of different data and platforms into a single common platform, then scale horizontally and vertically."
"The solution has decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our organization by 25 to 30 percent."
"It definitely streamlined operations. TCO-wise, it reduced cabling in the architecture. So, there has definitely been some savings. There have been a lot of reductions in the IT admin's time: reduced time to troubleshoot, reduced time to inventory the infrastructure, and reduced time to set up a host with templates and storage. The solution is saving easily 10 hours a week in time."
"Our footprint is lower than it used to be."
"The Validated Designs are very good because they act as a reference to see whether we have done things properly."
"It has had a big, positive impact, because now everything is centralized."
"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."
"It has helped us to reduce Oracle licensing costs for database and applications."
"It is scalable as the box can be increased by one compute node, if required."
"Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."
"Supports connection to most of network topology, such as VLAN and network segmentation."
"The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA."
"You will find the high availability and License Team with Oracle very valuable."
 

Cons

"We dislike going online with the robot stuff. Many times, it has delayed our reaching out to a real support engineer."
"Perhaps having a unified interface for managing the entire company could lead to improved efficiency and performance."
"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."
"I think they are working on it, but I would like to be able to log into a portal and see the end-to-end solution and understand where it stands, from a supportability perspective."
"We would like to have a single pane of glass available for it. It is something that the management in the business would like to have."
"We would like them to improve the validate designs. It is hard to stay in a supported config with the software and firmware versions of the platform. It's always a concern to ensure things not only work well, but they work at all. If we run into incompatibility inside of the NetApp, Cisco, or VMware versions, it can cause real issues."
"I would be interested to see more integration with other applications."
"We want always more speed, capacity, fluidity, and growth that we can easily integrate."
"The initial setup was very complex."
"In comparison to competitors like VMware, there's a perceived need for Oracle to enhance OVM, making it more flexible and user-friendly."
"Patching processing takes a long time. Only one compute node is patched at a time."
"The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration."
"OVM Manager Interface is using HTML5. It should be reconverted to be a Java interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's expensive, but when you pay for enterprise support and enterprise products, you have to pay the big bucks."
"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."
"It seems very cost effective once it's in place, and it's easy to expand and easy to add capacity without a lot of extra money."
"Coming from a rack and stack server model to FlexPod, it has saved us a lot of time (approximately hundreds to thousands of hours)."
"We have saved time with Snapshots, SnapMirrors, and backup and DR capabilities versus other platforms that we have looked at in the past."
"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."
"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."
"The pricing and licensing are quite expensive. However, compared to other solutions, it is okay."
"It is relatively cost-effective."
"It is more expensive than the normal solution or the hyper-converged system."
"No licenses for the shipped software or firmware."
"If you have many Oracle products, such as databases, middleware, and apps, it will help you reduce Oracle app licences and support costs."
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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
23%
Educational Organization
14%
Performing Arts
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
25%
Government
15%
Comms Service Provider
12%
University
6%
 

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.
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...
What do you like most about Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?
The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA.
What needs improvement with Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?
The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration. Streamlining and simplifying the deployment process would make ...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?
I use Oracle Private Cloud Appliance ( /products/oracle-private-cloud-appliance-reviews ) as a complete solution for hypervisor management. It includes a built-in hypervisor, Appliance Manager, and...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Agnitum Information Technologies, Mediacloud, Xait AS, Atos Global Managed Services, CaixaBI, ICA AB, BT Spain, Secure-24, Xait
Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
864,155 professionals have used our research since 2012.