FlexPod XCS vs Rackspace OpenStack comparison

NetApp and Rackspace are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Rackspace is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. NetApp holds a 9.4% mindshare in CI, compared to Rackspace’s 4.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Rackspace users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

533 Views
209 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Rackspace OpenStack

Read 12 Rackspace OpenStack reviews

99 Views
66 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Rackspace OpenStack

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

Rackspace OpenStack and FlexPod XCS are competing in the cloud infrastructure category. Rackspace OpenStack has the upper hand in scalability and flexibility due to its open-source nature, while FlexPod XCS shines in performance and integration through its pre-engineered solutions.

Features: Rackspace OpenStack offers an open-source architecture with a high degree of customization options, making it ideal for those needing extensive control over their cloud environments. It supports scalability and seamless integration with various third-party tools, enhancing cloud deployment flexibility. FlexPod XCS provides integrated infrastructure utilizing Cisco and NetApp technologies, ensuring performance optimization and reliability. Its design enables simplified deployment and excellent scalability, supporting robust performance for high-demand workloads.

Room for Improvement: Rackspace OpenStack could improve by simplifying its deployment process and enhancing user interface usability for less tech-savvy users. Supporting more out-of-the-box integrations with popular enterprise applications could also increase its attractiveness. Additionally, offering better documentation and educational resources might help users maximize the platform's capabilities. FlexPod XCS might benefit from more competitive pricing models to reach a broader audience. Its hardware dependence may limit customization options, suggesting potential enhancements towards software-defined configurations. Furthermore, expanding its integration capabilities with non-Cisco or NetApp solutions could also add value for diverse IT environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Rackspace OpenStack requires a more intricate deployment process due to its customization options; however, it excels in offering tailored customer support that helps users address specific needs. FlexPod XCS boasts a simpler deployment process due to its pre-integrated design, reducing the time and complexity involved in setup. Its customer service benefits from industry partnerships, providing a robust support network.

Pricing and ROI: Rackspace OpenStack typically features lower upfront costs owing to its open-source nature, presenting a favorable ROI for businesses capable of managing in-house solutions. On the other hand, FlexPod XCS demands a higher initial investment due to its engineered infrastructure but potentially offers better ROI over time by minimizing operational complexities and maximizing efficiency. Businesses should weigh the cost savings of OpenStack's flexibility against FlexPod's reduced management overhead and enhanced productivity.

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

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Rackspace OpenStack

June 2025

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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

Rackspace OpenStack

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

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 Rackspace OpenStack is 4.2%, up from 2.2% 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

Hai Dinh Van

Cloud Center Manager at FPT

Open-source nature enables seamless cloud management and customer transition

We deploy layer three managed services, and our customers manage layer two services. We combine the two-layer services and deliver them to our customers The open-source nature of OpenStack provides significant value. It allows for three-word cloud management, maintaining a stable customer…

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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

"Provides unified support: Being able to get a vendor from one company or another company on the line without having to go back through the call queue."

"The feature I have found most valuable is data protection."

"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."

"The flexibility, operational efficiency, and scalability of FlexPod has been a huge factor for us because our customers have workloads that need to run on classical HTTPs, flash storage, or possibly in the cloud. This flexibility and enhanced ability of the solution is very important for this. We trust in it."

"It scales easily. We went through an upgrade of adding additional chassis, and it wasn't a big deal."

"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."

"It has never fallen out from under us when we were trying to do a critical push."

"It ships in a rack, so it is very easy to deploy."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"It was a very flexible and scalable solution. It was very useful because we were not dependent on a single vendor's solution. Increasing the number of machines or changing the hardware configuration was very easy."

"Administrators are very comfortable with the functionality and services OpenStack offers."

"Rackspace OpenStack is stable and reliable, often compared favorably against other solutions."

"The most valuable feature is the customization. With the customization you can really give the customers what they want."

"I like its integration with GitLab and its simplicity. OpenStack has a lot of third-party libraries that it uses."

"It created a reusable library with OpenStack features."

"The documentation was plentiful and very helpful."

"Apart from the main features, I really appreciate OpenStack's microservices architecture and its flexibility for deployment with different tools."

More Rackspace OpenStack pros

Cons

"There are too many drivers and software combined all together, and we need to have compatibility between all of them."

"The technical support is slightly above average. I would like them to have quicker escalation"

"They just announced that they are going to move it along with Intersight from Cisco. That can be a private or public cloud, which is one of the areas where it can grow more and has a lot of potential."

"I would like to see drag and drop connectivity to Azure and Amazon."

"Automatic tiering would be good to have."

"I would like to see more storage-related features."

"The integration between both companies, Cisco and NetApp, is very good but it still needs to be enhanced in terms of visibility and observability."

"On the UCS side, sometimes it is difficult to set up."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"The seamless integration between MySQL services and the rabbitMQ database can be revised during the debugging phase."

"So for the main stability, there have been a couple of issues that I've experienced."

"It should have a single dashboard for cloud management and on-premises systems"

"VMware has a side-to-side replication feature, which is still more mature than Rackspace OpenStack's which can't be used in a production environment."

"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."

"The deployment process could be easy."

"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."

"OpenStack's UI, while user-friendly, could be improved to offer a more intuitive experience."

More Rackspace OpenStack cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a lease for approximately $10,000 USD per month."

"We purchased FlexPod though Datalink."

"Our licensing costs are about $50,000 per year."

"The footprint in the data center is quite large, especially when you scale out. Maybe find some hardware in the future, where if a new blade comes out, then Cisco can say, "Look, we'll buy those blades back off you, and we'll give you this blade for X amount of money." A buyback scheme would be good for hardware, and even NetApp as well. Something like a buyback scheme for blades and stuff moving forward would be good, because I know that they're going to put more power into them. E.g., replacing four blades might equal one blade, which would be awesome, but we are still going to have those four blades around. Maybe having something where it will give you this much money for these blades so we can upgrade. That would be perfect."

"We have saved money using FlexPod. We have saved time and money for new service deployments."

"If your company really needs to be up 100% of the time, and you need to do a private data center, I don't know if I could realistically actually recommend another blueprint."

"It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."

"We have seen an 80 percent improvement in application performance."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"I use it as an open-source tool."

"The pricing is low."

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

22%

Educational Organization

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

17%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

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...

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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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What do you like most about Rackspace OpenStack?

Apart from the main features, I really appreciate OpenStack's microservices architecture and its flexibility for deployment with different tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rackspace OpenStack?

The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market. It would be beneficial to see developments in features like threat prevention and analytics tools for network security within OpenStack.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Rackspace OpenStack?

We deploy layer three managed services, and our customers manage layer two services. We combine the two-layer services and deliver them to our customers.

See all answers

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HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS

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Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

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VMware vSAN vs Rackspace OpenStack

Compared 37% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Rackspace OpenStack

Compared 28% of the time

VxRail vs Rackspace OpenStack

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs Rackspace OpenStack

Compared 17% of the time

More Rackspace OpenStack Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

June 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

Rackspace OpenStack

June 2025

Download Rackspace OpenStack product report

Also Known As

No data available

OpenStack

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

OpenStack is an open and scalable cloud operating system for building public and private clouds. It provides both large and small organizations an alternative to closed cloud environments, reducing the risk of lock-in associated with proprietary platforms.

Rackspace

Sample Customers

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

X.commerce

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Rackspace OpenStack

June 2025

Free Report: FlexPod XCS vs. Rackspace OpenStack

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