FlexPod XCS vs Vblock [EOL] comparison

NetApp and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

2,640 Views
1,135 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Vblock [EOL]

Read 24 Vblock [EOL] reviews

84% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Vblock [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between FlexPod XCS and Vblock [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell Technologies and others in Converged Infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: October 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

October 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

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (1st)

Vblock [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

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.

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Fred Armantrout

Senior System Specialist at Burns & McDonnell

A reliable and highly-available solution with good technical support

It's difficult to think of anything that needs to be improved because it's a good stable system, but paid support is expensive so the cost of operation could be lowered. In the next release, I would like to see a smaller footprint in the data center and have improvements to disk performance.

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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

"Validate designs are a good. They work in the background to combine all the infrastructure and storage. They create automation which can create volumes and attach VMs directly to massive CIFS."

"It is very stable. We have had absolutely zero problems."

"From the Cisco side, the most valuable features of this solution are the data center density, the deployment, and the management of the servers and the networking."

"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."

"Our previous solution used to take 24 hours and now we're down to seven hours. It has really good performance."

"The solution can be innovative when it comes to cloud computing storage and networking."

"Since the addition of nodes, it is all automated now. What would normally take us around three to five hours in the past, has come down to 15 minutes to half an hour, creating a significant gain in time."

"It is innovative when it comes to compute, storage, and networking, because there are a lot of the storage efficiencies which allow us to keep a smaller footprint."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"VMware NSX: Provides the ability for our organisation to deliver true DR."

"The XtremIO All-Flash array delivers performance, reliability, and deduplication."

"UCS Manager worked well for net/blade management and has allowed fairly easy use of dedicated bare-metal blades."

"The high redundancy of components has minimized frequent service degradation/failure."

"Access to VMs is now faster due to the centralized management console."

"Systems run solidly."

"It's an integrated box Mac solution, so it's a plug and play. The deployment and build is pre-made and ready to deploy. It makes it easy to apply."

"The most valuable feature is that it is centrally managed, as it is quite easy for our customers to manage everything, end-to-end."

More Vblock [EOL] pros

Cons

"We want always more speed, capacity, fluidity, and growth that we can easily integrate."

"There could be room for improvement in terms of offering more flexibility in CBD options."

"The continued simplification will be a continued battle and evolution for both Cisco and NetApp, especially on the FlexPod product."

"Perhaps the automation interface could be improved."

"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."

"I would be interested to see more integration with other applications."

"The tool is obsolete and we are migrating to HPE. It should improve the pricing."

"The only support call that we have had in six years was related to an ONTAP upgrade, where one of the controllers didn't patch properly."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"OEM services requires too much planning and low availability of certified engineers."

"The integration with other vendors' products needs to be looked at. It's not as flexible as we would like it to be."

"I would like to see them improve their switching infrastructure and rely on Cisco configurations. They are a bit more complex and technical, but result in a slightly reduced cost in terms of switching on the network side of it."

"Troublesome relationships with VCE at the beginning of our use came undone quickly after we went live."

"RCM upgrades are painful."

"The user control could be more advanced. They should work to improve this in future releases."

"The implementation and support could be better."

"It needs more customer/client involvement in back-end management."

More Vblock [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen a five to ten percent savings on new service deployments."

"We have saved time, money, space, and power consumption on new service deployments. We have a data center in Toronto which had ten racks on one of the new servers. This was all reduced to two racks with six chassis, which is amazing."

"We have reduced our manpower with the solution."

"We purchased FlexPod though Datalink."

"We can just swap in new equipment or hardware as we need, which has probably saved us several weeks."

"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 FlexPod licensing can adjust to your purse, i.e. there are different levels available for businesses of all sizes."

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

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"Strive for a consolidated ELA."

"It is not cheap."

"I think the pricing is on the higher end of the spectrum. There could be some adjustments that could be made there. Regarding licensing, watch compatibility with external products that you run on Vblock. It has got to be properly architected, otherwise, you will run into licensing issues."

"The paid support for Vblock is expensive."

"I would not say the pricing is not good value. It is still on the expensive side, near the top-end of cost compared to what's available now. Also, the licensing has to be improved. There has to be a clear definition of the licensing from the initial set-up so the customer knows what they are paying for, without being hit later on with extra licensing. The licensing definitions should be clearer and, perhaps, have one set of licenses rather than multiple licenses."

"Vblock is priced at a premium because people don't want the headache of managing and deploying different products."

"Related to tech support: I believe it is too expensive."

"Vblock appears from the first while to be very expensive. There are more items you cannot see in the BOQ: customer service, support, delivery short time, and highly experienced VCE engineers."

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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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

22%

Performing Arts

10%

Educational Organization

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	182

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	15

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

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Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 24% of the time

HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 16% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Dell VxBlock System vs Vblock [EOL]

Compared 100% of the time

More Vblock [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

November 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

Vblock [EOL]

October 2025

Download Vblock [EOL] product report

Also Known As

No data available

VCE Vblock

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

VCE Vblock Systems is an all-in-one virtualization platform that integrates the leading storage, network, and compute technologies from the likes of EMC, VMware and Cisco. VCE Vblock allows organizations to easily and securely deploy cloud computing and virtualization in their environments, supporting these multiple technologies and providing flexibility and agility for changing business needs.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

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

Xerox, ACS, and Columbia Sportswear.

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

October 2025

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