We performed a comparison between FlexPod XCS and Oracle SuperCluster based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Converged Infrastructure solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"The solution's granular scalability and broad application support helps us to meet the needs of diverse workloads."
"The solution makes our staff more efficient, enabling them to spend time on tasks that drive our business forward. The environment is more homogeneous, so there are not as many technologies to study and learn. People can focus on improving their knowledge in existing technologies."
"With FlexPod, it is about the synergy of the server, the storage, and the whole management layer. Together, it is really about minimizing staff. You don't have to hire more people. You can work with the minimum level of resources and the availability is really good. We have had very little downtime."
"The solution’s unified support for the entire stack is critically important because we cannot afford downtime."
"The solution’s validated designs for major enterprise apps in our organization are very important. It's basically become critical to our organization to have that system functioning a 100 percent of the time. If that system is not functional, then our doctors and nurses can't provide the care to the patients in an effective way. So, it's important that it is stable, works, and easy to understand."
"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 of this solution is that there is one call for support."
"FlexPod has reduced our overall TCO and simplified our operations."
"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)."
"Scalability and technical support."
"Our primary use case is for E-Business Suite applications the applications for the government, and most of the applications that use an HCM."
"Unix is not as easy for the users, it needs more maintenance and costs extra."
"A valuable feature is the Exadata Storage appliance, optimized for database queries."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"We haven't seen ROI yet."
"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."
"The initial setup was complex. UCS is not the easiest thing to configure from the ground up. The networking pieces can get confusing, especially when you are talking about virtual segmentation. It is not as easy as other things now on the market, such as hyperconverged."
"Perhaps the automation interface could be improved."
"The majority of the time, if we need more storage, then we need to work with customizing the NetApp deployment. Right now, we just do a generic deployment, then wherever we have a need for storage, we have to move some application out of the next FlexPod deployment. One thing is to customize based on the requirements, but the requirements change so frequently, they are absolutely obsolete in six months."
"The management interface of the UCS part of it is a little bit clunky. It uses Java, so when we're managing it, if I have a computer that doesn't have Java on it or has the wrong version of Java on it, there's some iterations that have to happen to get into the manager of it."
"Our environment does not always require this solution, so we are not reaping the optimal ROI."
"If you have expertise setting up such environments, then you are good, but for customers or novices, it becomes a nightmare and stuff may actually be left out."
"If it had capabilities to integrate really well with DB2 or SQL Server or Hitachi SANs, those sort of things, that would be a real benefit. Right now, it's fully supported only under all Oracle infrastructure."
"We have faced network connectivity issues."
"If they had an application that centralized the administration, not about the monitoring, but for the configuration, it would be better."
"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."
"I would like to see control domain and zone management via a management console, similar to that of OVM."
"Not a very user friendly solution."
"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."
FlexPod XCS is ranked 2nd in Converged Infrastructure with 295 reviews while Oracle SuperCluster is ranked 7th in Converged Infrastructure with 12 reviews. FlexPod XCS is rated 8.6, while Oracle SuperCluster is rated 7.6. The top reviewer of FlexPod XCS writes "Integrates everything so you are using fewer tools". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Oracle SuperCluster writes "Great performance all round, but lacking in certain cloud features". FlexPod XCS is most compared with Dell PowerFlex, Oracle Exadata, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VxRail and Dell VxBlock System, whereas Oracle SuperCluster is most compared with Oracle Private Cloud Appliance. See our FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle SuperCluster report.
See our list of best Converged Infrastructure vendors.
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