HPE SimpliVity vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
185
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
HPE SimpliVity
Ranking in HCI
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
152
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
195
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (2nd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (3rd), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.1%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE SimpliVity is 9.1%, down from 11.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 8.4%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
Unique Categories:
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
9.2%
No other categories found
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC)
44.4%
 

Q&A Highlights

Janet Peng - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2019
 

Featured Reviews

BH
Jan 17, 2024
Highly available setup and synchronous replication with the ability for companies to choose hardware
We needed a solution that provided highly available storage via ISCSI, replicating to multiple physical sites synchronously. We needed it to be easy to use, easy to manage, and cost-effective. Ideally, there would be no vendor lock-in or special hardware needing to be purchased.  We found StarWind…
it_user592341 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 23, 2017
No additional training is necessary for support personnel and engineers. The federation is managed via a plugin in the VMware vSphere client or webclient.
Backup and DR applications are very good and easy to use. Due to inline deduplication, optimization and compression of data, very high IO throughput is possible. No additional training is necessary for support personnel and engineers, as the SimpliVity federation is managed via a plugin in the…
SB
Jan 17, 2022
Fast technical support, stable, but scalability could improve
We use Nutanix Acropolis AOS for compute virtualization. The main purpose was to replace FlexPod. The important problem we were trying to solve was to replicate between the two data centers. However, we encountered some issues I have been using Nutanix Acropolis AOS for approximately two years.…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"StarWind vSAN is easy to deploy and administer."
"When we need additional storage but want to keep the size of the SANs manageable, the StarWind Virtual SAN has allowed me to do everything needed."
"This solution has a very good user interface, with simple administration/management."
"The StarWind VSAN is always up and allows us to move VMS to other nodes for maintenance, without interruption to service."
"VSAN works great; it's very easy to install, configure, and manage."
"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."
"Active-active work mode leads to true redundancy of storage and allows us to distribute the load between multiple nodes."
"The fact that we can expand our storage and add on to our compute nodes easily and how amazing the StarWind technical support team is really adding value to our purchase."
"Technical support is perfect. They explain to us the solution in a very clear and simple way. When we call them, they know the right answer and get the right person automatically."
"SimpliVity's console is useful."
"I like SimpliVity because it can be adapted for small clients or the biggest ones. It's flexible."
"Improves backup time and DR solution."
"HPE SimpliVity is simple, it's very friendly."
"The main thing is its performance. In terms of performance, it is a lot better than VMware. Obviously, technology is changing a lot all the time. We were on just VMware with a separate attached array. The performance was kind of a step backward from just running separate servers. Now, the performance is much better, and we can take snapshots and backups of really big servers in just a matter of seconds. We can even restore them in a matter of seconds."
"I find the replication feature valuable."
"The accelerator card is a lifesaver for speeding up backups."
"The interface is very good. Before we used this solution, we had separate storage and switches, but with the hyper convert, it's all in one."
"The most valuable feature is the integration of all parts in Prism Element, the browser-based management tool."
"It has centralized management. It is easy for an engineer to manage. More work goes to patching, upgrades, and maintenance. Nutanix is very easy to upgrade. It takes one click. Engineers do not need to spend additional time with Nutanix for upgrades. With one click, it will complete the upgrade and show the results. Other hypervisor solutions are not like this, specifically since you must do all the components one by one."
"The solution is well integrated with other vendors."
"The most valuable features of Nutanix Acropolis AOS are ease of management, hyper-convergence platform, and it has robust operations."
"The feature that I have found most valuable is its software Move, which we use to migrate virtual info from another platform to the Nutanix platform."
"The fact that there is only one interface to deploy a complete solution for maximum storage is fantastic."
"Nutanix has the best virtual desktop infrastructure."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful to have a little more insight into what kind of performance the VSAN cluster is utilizing; something that would be more proactive on our side, versus their ProActive Support."
"I would like to see more advanced free versions."
"The documentation is good. However, if compared with competitors, it could be enhanced and made more professional."
"If there was one thing we could request, it would be the ability to shrink volumes. For example, we want to be able to decrease in the size of the volume."
"The documentation could be clearer in terms of explaining the installation."
"StarWind relies on the underlying OS to manage the "SAN files" whether that would be a RAID volume, software RAID (such as LVM), etc. It would be useful if StarWind could incorporate the actual physical drive management inside of the solution, similar to Storage Spaces Direct."
"Geolocation could be better, for example, for site mirroring for DR purposes."
"The software could benefit from more tooling to help with initial deployment."
"It crashes often. When one particular VM has random, large IOPS requests, it will bog down the node, and there isn't enough time for the replica to be brought up. So all the VMs on that one particular node will essentially become offline."
"SimpliVity has little to no integrations."
"Once I am onto the SimpliVity environment, I always have to go with HP because I am somewhat blocked, like Apple. Secondly, if I want to increase only storage, I need to buy an entire computing node for that, an entire HCI node."
"Its deployment should be easier."
"We definitely want to see more of the CLI commands come up to the GUI, and it is a legitimate question, if we are going to be happy with the integration in the vsphere web client, which is awfully slow."
"The technical support is weak. It is a layered product. It has a software solution on top of the SimpliVity solution, which is built on top of the hardware of the HPE DL380s. When we call for a problem that we know is related to the DL380, we get a SimpliVity guy trying to solve a SimpliVity problem. If it is not a SimpliVity problem, it's a hardware problem. So, it takes awhile for them to figure out which part of the organization should really be helping us."
"Integration with external solutions outside the HPE posed challenges."
"In terms of what I would define as a perfect solution, I am looking for one that is easy to manage, has a real user-friendly interface, and something that is not too complex."
"Storage utilization and optimization should be better."
"I would like them to update their licensing to provide more features with their basic license."
"The ability to create clusters faster would be nice to see in a future release."
"It is a CentOS-based operating system, but CentOS releases security patches almost every week or every other week. However, Nutanix releases their upgrade at three or four month intervals. According to my organization's SLA, if a critical patch is released during that time, then I need to implement the patches within 30 days. If it is a standard patch, then I need to patch it within 60 days. Since that is my SLA, I cannot meet my SLA for security because Nutanix will not release the upgrade within these 30 days. Between the critical patch release and the Nutanix release, my customers say they are vulnerable and I am accepting the risk while the SLA is breached."
"They need to improve the look and feel of the interface. The functionality is fine, but the appearance could be better."
"Nutanix needs to improve network features like Passthrough – SR-IOV. It could be improved by supporting SR-IOV, if they had that support, I would not have needed to implement the VMWare vSAN."
"The product requires a lot of resources."
"They could improve the graphical user interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would suggest that you download the free version, deploy in your lab, and play with it."
"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."
"StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."
"It's priced fairly. It was definitely cheaper than the competition. The licensing terms are straightforward and reasonable."
"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."
"The cost, including OPEX, is lower compared to other solutions."
"Cost is affordable and licensing is smooth."
"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."
"The licensing is on a yearly basis. The licensing cost also includes vCenter at a cost in the cloud solution."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. We have purchased a five-year license with all the support and upgrades."
"There is not a license required for the solution."
"Customers always complain that SimpliVity is a little bit higher in price point as compared to other solutions available in the market."
"Scaling isn't cheap"
"We're paying $3,000-$4,000 a month."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"We got the renewal done recently, and there was no cost involved."
"Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure could be cheaper. It's costly to upgrade the solution. There are no additional costs aside from the license."
"In terms of the solution's licensing, it's quite comprehensive."
"Our Nutanix license is for five years. There is a support arrangement there, but that aspect is more or less taken care of during the initial installation. With HCI architecture, whenever we do any kind of auto scaling or scaling of servers and resources, there is a significant amount of software licensing involved."
"Licensing depends on the features needed."
"Its price is fine. I can't really complain about that."
"We renew our license on a yearly basis and have no costs in addition to the standard fee."
"Nutanix Acropolis AOS price includes no additional costs for features."
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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…
 

Answers from the Community

Janet Peng - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2019
Jun 10, 2019
It depends very much on your use case. When I look at HP, they position their HCI offer primarily in the ROBO space for enterprise DC solutions. HP pushes its Synergy platform. Nutanix is well positioned in the data center space and has made huge strides there whilst HPE has lost a little bit of momentum with their HCI offer. You need to be aware that the native Nutanix hypervisor has its limit...
2 out of 17 answers
EI
May 29, 2019
In a Nutshell, to keep it simple, they are both SaaS (Storage as a Service) Solutions in a sense, but SimpliVity is “ONLY” SaaS locked on HPE serves and no awareness of Hypervisor metrics, whereas Nutanix is best suited to different workloads that REALLY traverse all the realms of Hyperconverged technologies, from Data Center Consolidation/Migration, to VM consolidation reducing the “V-Tax” that come with different Hypervisor offerings (Nutanix is shipped with free AHV), to specific workloads with NO guess-work like VDI or Kubernetes in-premise cloud. So my take is make a list of what you need and then compare apples to apples, two hints: 1. Check this document https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/products/simplivity-vs-nutanix.html 2. Try our sizing online tool to Assess: https://sizer.nutanix.com/#/ If you feel you have more questions, take your time to touch base with representatives alternatively, just one note, at Nutanix, because we USE hypervisors to deliver our Storage Controller, we have a unique insight of HOW different workloads behave for different customers, and that gives us an advantage on what we are able to do for them, whilst an ONLY SaaS solution is one that will only give you yet another tool to optimize your workloads. It is up to you to figure out HOW that set of resources benefit your specific needs.
KH
May 29, 2019
Nutanix is the only SW based HCI vendor in the market today giving customers the freedom of choice. You can deploy our HCI SW on your choice of hardware and hypervisor (we also have our own KVM-based hypervisor that is included with the product). Whereas with SimpliVity, you are tied to HP and VMware. What if you deploy on HP today and your organization makes a strategic choice to change to Dell, Cisco or Fujitsu? Nutanix is the only vendor that allows you to port your licenses between different HW vendors. Doesn’t hurt that we already created the HCI space and are the leaders. HP is also one of our close partners so you can deploy Nutanix on Proliant.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Educational Organization
53%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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?
Make the most of your 30-day trial license, and if needed, you should contact the sales department of StarWind to ext...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
The dashboard is functional, but it could benefit from a more modern and visually appealing design. A facelift would ...
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?
HPE SimpliVity is much more affordable than Nutanix or VMware vSAN, which are HPE's typical competitors. I don't have...
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from ...
Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Red Bull Racing, Mandarin Oriental, Brigham Young University, UCLA, Merlin Entertainments, Sasa Cosmetics, Travelport, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Princess House
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE SimpliVity vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.