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HPE Alletra dHCI vs HPE SimpliVity comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE SimpliVity
Ranking in HCI
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
153
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.3%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 4.0%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE SimpliVity is 9.6%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor
You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.
Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable product that provides zero downtime and enables organizations to manage their infrastructure from a single console
The product is easy to deploy. Everything is through GUI. We don't have to go on the command line prompt. Everything is automated. The HPE engineers take the remote console and do the basic installation. It takes 10 to 15 working days to configure the tool and hand it over to the project team. We need one architect to design the solution and check whether the API plug-ins are certified or integrated with the solution. The existing infrastructure should be compatible with DSCI. We need one project manager to define the timeline and manage the daily activities. We also need two project engineers.
Xavier Perez - PeerSpot reviewer
Has a deployment phase that is straightforward but needs improvement in the area of scalability
The main issue with HPE SimpliVity is that you are very attached to VMware or VMware dependencies because the tool works with VMware technology. HPE SimpliVity is an add-on from VMware. Nowadays, my company has a lot of concerns about VMware's licensing policy. Another big concern of the tool is related to security because one has to continuously update patch vulnerabilities that are appearing continuously in VMware's different versions. Actually, the foundation of all the architecture is VMware and that is one of the main issues with the tool. My company is analyzing our virtual infrastructure strategy to see if we can move to Nutanix because maybe it may work better and might have another approach. Nutanix is absolutely independent of VMware. I could add that since HPE SimpliVity is very precisely dependent on VMware, it is not open to containers unlike Nutanix, for example. The aforementioned area is a concern that needs to be resolved by HPE.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Implementing Starwind in our organization has been a game-changer, particularly in terms of cost savings. By leveraging Starwind's virtual tape library (VTL) solution, we have been able to use virtual tapes for our backups, which are then saved in Azure Blob storage."
"It has reduced the amount of switching, network connections, etc., because the converged StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to connect high-speed network interfaces between different boxes instead of having to connect SANs via the network, then connect those two clusters together."
"The most valuable features of StarWind Virtual SAN include its cost-effective repurposing of older hardware, seamless integration with vSphere, and high scalability."
"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."
"The features that I found most valuable are ease of use of the software that StarWind offers - with the first setup being a bit painful."
"The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem."
"This was a great implementation for a small to mid-size business."
"A great feature is that I basically set it and forget it, as everything is automatic."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is stable."
"The product has cut down a lot of service tickets. Earlier, people complained about slowness."
"HPE Alletra dHCI was good because we could have the vVols, which we are using for our production server, with the snapshots."
"The latency is very low."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI's user interface is very easy to work with."
"We have the ability to increase the storage without any additional costs."
"With regards to performance, configuration, and longevity it is upgradeable, which means it has a good TCO rate. These are valuable aspects to me."
"Nimble Storage is a capable platform with high availability."
"It has instantaneous backup and lag-free restore. When everything is running, I can bring back a huge VM in less than 30 seconds. That's even better than Veeam."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use and the storage virtualization layer, together with the built-in backups."
"No SAN switches and having a native backup is pretty cool."
"It's very simple to manage. It has reduced the footprint in the datacenters quite a lot."
"The storage efficiency is valuable."
"Scaling is a piece of cake. We have been able to scale up in our Asia-Pac region. We even are doing site-to-site replication of certain systems that we need to have high availability on."
"Its performance and availability are most valuable."
"The built-in backup and quick restore are good features."
 

Cons

"Ability to to test the virtual storage are network area and storage speed from StarWind Management Console."
"Ongoing improvements in read and write performance would help meet increasingly demanding workloads."
"The management console of StarWind Virtual SAN is pretty complex."
"A central management console may be nice to see all nodes."
"It runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear."
"The setup and documentation for the installation with the free version could definitely be improved."
"While we had no problems setting the system up, and service technicians from StarWind could assist us very well, they could provide some form of in-depth documentation."
"Security on the ISCSI protocol could be improved by adding features like OS-type control access, especially for the data center environment."
"I'm not sure if there are features lacking."
"I can tier my data in different storage on the cloud, but I cannot tier the data with HPE Alletra dHCI."
"Nimble Storage's integration with the management software could be better."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI currently is promoting only VMware as a hypervisor, whereas if they can look into other OSs, such as KVM or Red Hat, it would be an improvement."
"The performance of HPE Nimble Storage dHCI could improve. Other solutions, such as Cisco, are better."
"They could expand product support to Microsoft Hyper-V and Red Hat Linux platforms."
"The only issue I'm really running into is we have a SQL server that we're having a lot of high IO latency on one of my drives and it's my data drive from my SQL server. It's not really giving me any good information as to where that latency is coming from, so that's what I'm trying to track down and troubleshoot."
"The product does not support file services."
"We would like to have more security with the solution."
"Simplify the backup and restore: With integrated backup and remote replication, it could reduce risk and eliminates the use of legacy data tools."
"The initial setup was a little complex because we were in the first version, fresh releases."
"The stability and scalability of the product are areas of concern where improvements are required."
"When we make some upgrades to the platform, it does take time to stabilize the structure again."
"The way that it handles the memory could be better."
"Needs to improve the cloud integration, such as Azure and AWS."
"It's a very complex installation. It's gotten easier, however, it's far from a double click on a link and a self-upgrade scenario. There's still an awful lot of magic that goes down to doing upgrades."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost, including OPEX, is lower compared to other solutions."
"We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."
"We are happy with the price."
"The pricing is more than reasonable."
"The pricing is excellent. It will run on anything. You don't have to buy a $100,000 server, with hardware you don't need. You just pay for the license and you're good to go."
"The free version is great to use for labs or test environments."
"The cost was ultimately low to implement, which allowed us to be 3-2-1 complaint."
"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is much cheaper than the competition and has value proposition. Customers can see an ROI in three months. There are no additional costs, and VMware licenses can be reutilized."
"With the features that HPE Nimble Storage dHCI provides, I cannot say its pricing is more."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The cost of the licensing is reasonable."
"The product is very affordable."
"The solution’s pricing was very good."
"I think it's priced right and it's extremely intelligent."
"ESXi licensing is a big part of initial investment if you do not already have that covered."
"It is not too expensive, but it is quite expensive for me."
"For most use cases, look to see if you can use all-flash as the price point, as it has come down significantly."
"We spent $250,000 back in the day, and that was for two servers in my data center for that cluster. We then ran what they call an arbiter, and that took the place of a third server or the third node in the cluster. My DR site was one standalone server, and its horsepower was more than the two at my main site. It included my Cisco Switches that I needed to re-upgrade. It was comparable to what we were paying a year in VM."
"The hardware is expensive. For the same price, Cisco can provide more hardware specifications for us."
"We did get some quotes from Nutanix, and they were ballparks. So, it is not cheap, and there is nothing free, but those two were comparable."
"There is not a license required for the solution."
"The licensing cost could be lower."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
58%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?
It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combin...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
Choose StarWind Virtual SAN, it is the most flexible, reliable and cheap solution.
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
While using StarWind Virtual SAN so far, I have not found anything missing. It is true that we are using it in a very...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We resea...
What do you like most about HPE SimpliVity?
The solution's technical support is good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE SimpliVity?
The price is almost equal to VMware vSAN, making it not much cost saving. However, the time-saving during upgrades is...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Information Not Available
Red Bull Racing, Mandarin Oriental, Brigham Young University, UCLA, Merlin Entertainments, Sasa Cosmetics, Travelport, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Princess House
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra dHCI vs. HPE SimpliVity and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
817,457 professionals have used our research since 2012.