FlexPod XCS vs Oracle SuperCluster comparison

NetApp and Oracle are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Oracle is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0. NetApp holds a 9.4% mindshare in CI, compared to Oracle’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

533 Views
209 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Oracle SuperCluster

Read 13 Oracle SuperCluster reviews

320 Views
86 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Oracle SuperCluster

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Oracle SuperCluster are two competitive solutions in the converged infrastructure category. Based on the analysis, FlexPod XCS tends to have the upper hand in terms of deployment flexibility and support, while Oracle SuperCluster stands out with its high performance and seamless integration in Oracle environments.

Features: FlexPod XCS is recognized for its flexibility, scalability, and compatibility, allowing for seamless integration of various components and a certified architecture that eases support processes. Users appreciate features like single-vendor support, high availability, and ease of deployment. Oracle SuperCluster offers high performance and integrates components such as Oracle and Exadata well, providing a performance-oriented system mainly suited for Oracle environments.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS could improve with unified management, streamlined certification processes, and better pricing structures. Users see potential enhancements in automation, cloud component integration, and a unified support model. Oracle SuperCluster could benefit from improved integration with non-Oracle systems and a better GUI for administration, alongside a more user-friendly interface and enhanced compatibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS is known for its verified architecture and excellent integration capabilities, which enhance deployment experiences. Customer service is generally responsive with a unified support model despite the occasional complexity. Oracle SuperCluster, primarily integrated within Oracle infrastructures, requires specific expertise for deployment. Customer service is comprehensive but focuses on Oracle-specific solutions.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is often considered expensive, but its scalability, management ease, and reliability justify the costs for many users, who report efficiency and reduced operational costs but still have concerns about pricing. Oracle SuperCluster's pricing aligns with its rich features for Oracle ecosystems. Despite the cost, users value the performance benefits for Oracle-based workloads, making the decision dependent on specific business needs.

To learn more, read our detailed FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 859,129 peers since 2012

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 SuperCluster

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 9.4%, up from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle SuperCluster is 4.7%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

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.

Read full review

Shafiq Khan

Senior Manager IT Operations at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides excellent internal communication and scalability

Scalability depends on the workload because SuperCluster is available in three models: small, medium, and high-end configurations. The high-end configuration is suitable for very large organizations. However, scalability is limited by the initial configuration. You can upgrade to medium or high configurations if starting with a small configuration. Expanding with a high-end configuration requires adding a new rack or configuring a new SuperCluster instance and integrating it with the existing setup. Approximately three thousand or more users can simultaneously access the SuperCluster.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has had a big, positive impact, because now everything is centralized."

"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."

"The solution was simple to deploy."

"It scales well. It allows us to have very flexible architecture but to have the same level of simplicity that we'd normally expect in hyper-converged environments."

"The most valuable feature for me is that you can swap out pieces when you have to lifecycle your equipment."

"FlexPod impacted us by making things easier to deploy. The solution is a private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environment. That's very important to us. We're doing a lot of hybrid cloud."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that there is one call for support."

"The ease at which it scales and its redundancy factors. It's extremely redundant and easy-to-scale."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"A valuable feature is the Exadata Storage appliance, optimized for database queries."

"Scalability and technical support."

"The two features that I find to be the most valuable are high availability and high performance."

"SuperCluster is basically a combination of Oracle, with Exadata and Compute node features, so it is a computing cluster that is integrated in a single infrastructure such that we don't need a separate solution for the application database, the data storage database, and everything else the application needs."

"The performance is significantly improved, and the administration is easy because it is a single platform end-to-end."

"It is easy to integrate Supercluster into IT workflow. It has a forty-gigabit InfiniBand switch. It also includes Exadata and a very powerful M-series machine. These are not mainframe processors but provide excellent internal communication and scalability."

"Because SuperCluster is a specially engineered system, we have confidence in that all the components are compatible with one another. Everything runs together as a well-coupled group of machines, and the performance is great (especially the memory)."

"Because it's classified as an engineered system, it's all integrated, it's all supported by one vendor. We don't have to go to multiple vendors for support, it's all integrated under Oracle."

More Oracle SuperCluster pros

Cons

"I would like to see increased performance."

"I would like more support for different platforms, possibly different database platforms. I don't know if it supports Oracle today, but that would be a big improvement."

"The biggest problem we have seen is, we were using the vStorage which comes with the NetApp environment, a kind of fiber connect. We were missing fibre channel connectivity and we got lots of I/O errors."

"With the next solution, if there is a virtual Flex part where we can deploy it to private clouds or in public clouds rather tying up the hardware, it would reduce costs and complexity. Then, we could do a lot more automation."

"FlexPod will do very well on the average app, but there's room for improvement in performance and the data center side."

"FlexPod has not decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our company. There was a problem with the back-end configuration and we had a downtime of three hours."

"I would like to have the installation of the top virtualization on its own rather than doing it through the admin. For example, if FlexPod is configured after the configuration of the host, the ESXi is installed also, but it should be part of it rather than doing it as a separate system."

"Sometimes, it can take awhile for support cases to get to the right people, especially if it's not a P1 case."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"A major issue for us is that after the most recent update of SuperCluster, they have now stopped all future production of new versions. That is to say, after M7 there was M8, and now there are no future versions planned (e.g. M9) in the market."

"I would like to see control domain and zone management via a management console, similar to that of OVM."

"If they had an application that centralized the administration, not about the monitoring, but for the configuration, it would be better."

"There are many areas for improvement. For example, better guidance in terms of troubleshooting issues relating to ZFS, as well as better tools/diagnostics for monitoring that specific component, to better identify potential issues. Hardware monitoring via OEM 13.2 is not 100 percent, as Ops Center is still required in some instances."

"Speaking from a business perspective, our main problem is that our particular edition of SuperCluster is now at end-of-life status, making it obsolete and impossible to get support for. This presents a challenge for us, as finding a path to our next solution is not easy."

"They may have made some improvements but based on the version that I am using, it is a little complicated because it is based on the Unix Operating system."

"It would be more convenient if the Agta Logic worked within the SuperCluster with the Agta data, as it may boost the speed of the applications."

"We have faced network connectivity issues."

More Oracle SuperCluster cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Because the solution is now stable, we are saving about $100 million USD a year."

"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."

"The product is kind of expensive even from an entry-level standpoint. I would say FlexPod would be the way to go if you are a larger business or one with large data volume."

"The scalability is very good. I wish it was a more cost-effective, but you get what you pay for."

"We have seen our data center rack space collapse about 90 percent. We have a data center which only has two racks now out of the 20 that were there previously."

"We immediately saw a return on investment due to the fact that replacing our legacy storage arrays with the new AFFs reduced the footprint and maintenance costs. Overall, we saw an almost immediate ROI."

"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)."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"For us, the licensing costs are a large amount, but we are also paying for the rack, the SLA, and other extras. When I look into our organization's requirements regarding performance, machine load, etc., I believe that, while expensive, SuperCluster is nevertheless good for us."

"Due to the multiple products involved in our use of SuperCluster (including different software, hardware, etc.), I cannot comment on the licensing aspect."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Converged Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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

22%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

No data available

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 Oracle SuperCluster?

In this setup, the traffic is distributed among the nodes, enhancing the overall performance compared to a scenario where all traffic is directed to a single server.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle SuperCluster?

The pricing is low as per performance but high as per synchronization. They justify the price. I rate the product’s pricing a four or five out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle SuperCluster?

It would be more convenient if the Agta Logic worked within the SuperCluster with the Agta data, as it may boost the speed of the applications.

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 31% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs Oracle SuperCluster

Compared 100% of the time

More Oracle SuperCluster Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

June 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle SuperCluster

June 2025

Download Oracle SuperCluster product report

Also Known As

No data available

Oracle MiniCluster, S7-2, M7, M6-32

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.

NetApp

Secure cloud infrastructure with the industry’s most advanced security, extreme performance, and a complete suite of efficiency enhancements, tools, and automation that work together to dramatically lower cost and complexity.

Oracle

Sample Customers

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

Advania, Dimension Data, Atos, Etisilat Nigeria, HDFC, Specialized Bicycle Components, Uganda Revenue Authority, iQor, United Energy, Portic Barcelona, B Logistics, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, CSC, CNSI, REDISA

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster

June 2025

Free Report: FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster

Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster report.

See our list of best Converged Infrastructure vendors.

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.