FlexPod XCS vs VxRail comparison

The compared NetApp and Dell Technologies solutions aren't in the same category. NetApp is ranked #3 in CI , with an average rating of 8.3, and holds a 10.3% mindshare in the category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 in HCI , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 15.8% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

2,096 Views
859 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

VxRail

Read 133 VxRail reviews

14,337 Views
13,620 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

VxRail

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between FlexPod XCS and VxRail based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, NetApp 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 (3rd)

VxRail

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

133

Ranking in other categories

HCI (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. FlexPod XCS is designed for Converged Infrastructure and holds a mindshare of 10.3%, up 9.5% compared to last year.
VxRail, on the other hand, focuses on HCI, holds 15.8% mindshare, down 20.8% since last year.

Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
FlexPod XCS	10.3%
HPE ConvergedSystem	16.6%
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance	14.2%
Other	58.9%

Converged Infrastructure

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VxRail	15.8%
VMware vSAN	13.9%
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)	9.6%
Other	60.699999999999996%

HCI

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

Rami Jadallah

Data Center Solution Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Streamline management and integration with seamless upgrades

The primary reasons customers choose VxRail include ease of management, ease of upgrades, and integration with VMware. The hyper-converged infrastructure simplifies software and hardware upgrades. Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.

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 can scale, compute, and storage independently by what we need."

"Our customers get their applications to market more quickly, and it has taken the risk out of their business, because there is less for them to try to figure out."

"It is definitely easier for us to maintain and do build-outs, so it takes a lot less time to set things up for the customer."

"One of the easiest solutions to implement, maintain, and scale."

"It makes us more lateral and faster to production."

"The most significant benefit is storage flexibility. FlexPod is a reference design to build on and add the appropriate resources you need for your workloads. That's what differentiates it from something like HCI, where you have to buy certain size pieces when you want to expand."

"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 features of this solution are efficiency and simplicity."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"VxRail's technical support is very good."

"With VxRail, we can manage the life cycle of a virtual machine."

"We like the design and that it meets data storage needs."

"VxRail alleviates the operational constraints within an organization."

"VxRail performs well in the VDI environment."

"The manageability for controlling the console is the most valuable feature."

"VxRail is easy to deploy and easy to scale up."

"VxRail can manage the whole cluster at the same time, so it's easy to expand. VxRail has more features vSAN ReadyNodes that make it easier to implement from scratch."

More VxRail pros

Cons

"We would like better management of cases. For example, if you open a FlexPod case, it's not always straightforward. It would be nice to have centralized resource to open FlexPod cases and ease up management of our cases."

"If they could reduce some of the complexity at the system manager level for ONTAP. I find it gives a lot of flexibility. You can do as much or as little as you want. But to be able to do as little as you want, you do have to do a lot. So, if they could bring that down to a more manageable effort level, that would be nice and simplify it a bit."

"Not a perfect ten because it could use better integration on the network side between UCS and the switching layer. The fact that LACP is not supported on UCS blades isn't so great. It would be nice if it was."

"I would like them to simplify the UCS configuration. I appreciate that they have about a billion options and a million switches that you can mess with, but this creates a lot of confusion sometimes. I feel like you almost need a Master's course to figure out what you're doing with UCS."

"We would like more security features."

"In the SolidFire interface, if you use the GUI, you have to create one run at a time, or one device at a time, which is something that needs to be fixed."

"FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design."

"It would be very helpful if the upgrades for Cisco, VMware, and NetApp could be bundled together and performed at the same time."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"I would like to see VxRail add duplication features to its hybrid solution."

"During upgrades, some aspects get broken, requiring us to follow up with the VMware team to fix them."

"The solution could improve by having more storage performance because in some other solutions you can have a file system that can be mounted at several places at one time."

"During code upgrades, VxRail can be sensitive."

"Its price needs to be improved. It is very expensive. NSX should be licensed together. It will make the network virtualization layer more usable. It would be better if they come together in a bundle, not separately."

"There's a specific procedure to follow when shutting down a VxRail system."

"If they continue developing their product regarding VMware, it will be one of the best products in the HCI space. In terms of additional features, there is nothing missing because, for data protection, they also have the CDP option for VM. They can protect the VM at any point in time."

"Having a native replication would be an improvement."

More VxRail cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Everything is purchased, so we do not do any leasing with this product."

"The pricing and licensing are quite expensive. However, compared to other solutions, it is okay."

"We have absolutely seen ROI. We have saved between two to four million dollars on travel alone over the past 24 months."

"Pricing and licensing is very affordable from a FlexPod perspective."

"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 fear high availability so we can't buy from different providers."

"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."

"It created lower total cost of ownership. Previously, we had disparate storage and servers, and there were bits of kits everywhere. Now, we have two data centers with almost identical setups in both."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"There is an administrative cost savings. Instead of having seven to 15 separate boxes that someone has to administer on 15 different terminals, you can do the majority of it from one interface. Therefore, it saves on manpower costs."

"There is an advantage for those who have a good deal with Dell. Its price is good. From a company's perspective, it is always too expensive, but it is about value for money."

"The current VxRail pricing structure is quite opaque for me, especially considering the recent changes."

"VxRail does raise the price, but overall, it's well-priced. It's not more expensive than other similar solutions. If you were to create an in-house, tailor-made solution, you could potentially do it at a lower cost. However, I think a fully integrated solution like VxRail should be priced appropriately."

"There is a license required for this solution."

"It varies. It could be $100,000 at the smaller end and millions and millions of dollars at the higher end."

"While one could argue, from a strictly corporate standpoint, that the cost of VxRail has been in the higher range, the true evaluation lies in the return on investment."

"The price is good."

More VxRail pricing and cost advice

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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

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

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	41
Midsize Enterprise	42
Large Enterprise	56

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

How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, zero rule. That means I need three copies of my data on two different types of me...

See all answers

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major fac...

See all answers

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?

VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 26% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 14% of the time

HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 12% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

VMware vSAN vs VxRail

Compared 24% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs VxRail

Compared 23% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VxRail

Compared 15% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VxRail

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs VxRail

Compared 6% of the time

More VxRail Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

October 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

VxRail

September 2025

Download VxRail product report

Also Known As

No data available

VCE VxRail

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

VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance co-engineered by Dell Technologies and VMware, designed to optimize VMware environments by simplifying compute, storage, virtualization, and management.

Built on VMware vSAN software, VxRail ensures high performance, reliability, and flexibility. It supports a broad array of workloads, from business-critical applications to next-generation use cases. VxRail simplifies infrastructure management with powerful integration and seamless scalability, offering centralized management and user-friendly interfaces. Streamlined updates, robust lifecycle management, and one-click upgrades facilitate a user-centric experience that minimizes deployment complexity and staffing needs. However, its performance with disk deduplication, integration with public clouds, and processor support can be enhanced, along with pricing and licensing improvements.

What features define VxRail?

High Performance: Optimized for superior efficiency in VMware environments.
Seamless Scalability: Scales effortlessly to accommodate growing demands.
Centralized Management: Simplifies control through unified interfaces.
Effortless Integration: Easily integrates with VMware tools and services.
Automated Updates: Ensures ongoing system availability through streamlined updates.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Resource Efficiency: Reduces staffing requirements and optimizes resource use.
Flexibility: Supports a variety of use cases and workloads.
Reliable Support: Provides robust support to ensure operational continuity.
Reduced Complexity: Facilitates ease of deployment and minimized setup times.

Organizations across sectors such as finance, telecommunications, education, and manufacturing utilize VxRail for its scalability, ease of deployment, and infrastructure management capabilities. It aids in server and application hosting, storage, and virtualization management, often employing VMware integration. The platform is valued for its ability to consolidate IT components, support VDI solutions, and enhance cloud readiness and resource allocation.

Dell Technologies

Sample Customers

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

World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

October 2025

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