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FlexPod XCS vs Huawei FusionStorage comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 (3rd)
Huawei FusionStorage
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (16th), File and Object Storage (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

FlexPod XCS and Huawei FusionStorage aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. FlexPod XCS is designed for Converged Infrastructure and holds a mindshare of 10.3%, up 9.5% compared to last year.
Huawei FusionStorage, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud Storage, holds 2.3% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
FlexPod XCS10.3%
HPE ConvergedSystem16.6%
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance14.2%
Other58.9%
Converged Infrastructure
Cloud Storage Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Huawei FusionStorage2.3%
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP10.2%
Nasuni8.5%
Other79.0%
Cloud Storage
 

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.
Wondwossen Abebe Kebede - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable platform that integrates well with different IT infrastructures and systems
The product integrates well with different IT infrastructures and systems in the telecom sector. Our partners manage services, including detailed integration and migration-related operations. The platform upholds the uptime and reliability of our business applications. We classify our systems into different tiers, ranging from machine-critical to business-critical, and FusionStorage helps us run all the services. It delivers a remarkable uptime of 99.9%. With our expectations for continuous service availability, we are operating 24/7. In cases where system interruptions occur, it enables rapid restoration, ensuring a prompt return to normal service levels. I rate it an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Large and small companies do not have time to design the compute, the amount of storage, and how it works together. They are buying pre-proven, pretested solutions with reference architectures already in place."
"Integrated support: It is all under one support contract."
"It ships in a rack, so it is very easy to deploy."
"Our time from customer interest to time of deployment has shrunk a lot."
"It simplifies everything. It gives you a single place to go if you need support or if you need to expand."
"It runs very well lights out. Set it and forget it."
"Simplicity and integration with NetApp are its most valuable features."
"UCS Profiles enable recovering a physical server in less than 15 minutes."
"The product has a very simple GUI-based management platform and it is very simple to use. There is a very easy step-by-step configuration procedure that guides you through, and you can configure it very easily."
"In cases where system interruptions occur, it enables rapid restoration, ensuring a prompt return to normal service levels."
"Huawei FusionStorage does well in its basic functions and offers broad utility."
"Provides easy access to our data."
"It is a stable solution."
"The solution’s most valuable feature is its performance."
 

Cons

"I'd like to see a little more on the provisioning and the replication piece... Also, I don't want to say analytics are lacking but I'd like to see more analytics."
"We want always more speed, capacity, fluidity, and growth that we can easily integrate."
"I would like to see improvements in the documentation. I understanding how things are coming together and a lot of that is from the UCS side."
"On the NetApp side, there are definitely things to improve in terms of software updates."
"The FAS in it, with all its flexibility and scalability, it is much more complex and could be simplified."
"The upgrade process needs to be improved and it would be nice to manage everything from a single pane of glass."
"I would like to see better operations, a single pane of glass to manage and monitor the entire design across VMware, Cisco, etc. I would also like the upgrade process to be a little smoother."
"Make it easier to refresh hardware. We got to the point where we couldn't fix vulnerabilities without refreshing the hardware, then that became a little too expensive for us to do."
"The solution’s support could be improved."
"Their cloud services could be improved."
"The problem with Huawei is that it generally oversells. As a principle, Huawei does not educate the partner or the end user enough to scale up their solution correctly."
"The initial setup and installation is not that straightforward. It should be made easier and the time to install should be reduced."
"The product needs improvement in terms of affordability."
"I hope for improvements in the product's processing ability and performance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have absolutely seen ROI. We have saved between two to four million dollars on travel alone over the past 24 months."
"The scalability is very expensive."
"We have saved 50 percent on new service deployments."
"Everything is purchased, so we do not do any leasing with this product."
"We fear high availability so we can't buy from different providers."
"The FlexPod licensing can adjust to your purse, i.e. there are different levels available for businesses of all sizes."
"We have saved time with Snapshots, SnapMirrors, and backup and DR capabilities versus other platforms that we have looked at in the past."
"We purchased FlexPod though Datalink."
"It is expensive but might be optimal based on the partnership."
"If one is a cheap solution and ten means it is a very expensive product, I would rate the price as two or three."
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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
22%
Performing Arts
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
10%
University
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

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 Huawei FusionStorage?
In cases where system interruptions occur, it enables rapid restoration, ensuring a prompt return to normal service levels.
What needs improvement with Huawei FusionStorage?
The solution’s support could be improved.
What is your primary use case for Huawei FusionStorage?
Huawei FusionStorage provides a scalable, high-performance, and highly available distributed storage solution designed to support critical enterprise applications and big data workloads. We deploye...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
China Merchants Bank, Liaoning, Zhejiang
Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, NetApp and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: October 2025.
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