Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: September 2023).
745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It's quite easy to manage.""One of the standout features of StarWind.com is its remarkable ability to seamlessly integrate with Dell systems. This integration provides users with an unmatched level of convenience and compatibility, allowing for streamlined operations within a Dell environment. This compatibility factor alone can save significant time and effort for IT professionals, ensuring a smooth integration process and optimized performance.""The top-notch support before, during, and after deployments are better than any other vendor I have come across.""The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem.""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 user interface for this application is amazing.""StarWind allows us to move virtual machines from one physical host to another, which greatly reduces the downtime required for maintenance.""I save both physical and virtual space."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Pros →

"The solution is well integrated with other vendors.""The features that I have found most valuable include its HA facility, viability, robustness, flexibility, it's time to go live is very short, and it has a friendly user interface.""The architecture of Nutanix is the best, and the virtualization we get, out of the box, is an advantage. Also, dedupe and compression are done natively, inside the platform, so there are no additional licenses. That adds value to it.""Nutanix Acropolis AOS makes it easy to use and manage projects and it has a good reputation.""The HCI environment itself is very intuitive. Everything is centralized under one solution. And, they also have fast server built in in addition to a network analyzer.""The administration console, automation, and the first cluster are all valuable features.""Great flexibility and scalability.""The most valuable feature of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure is its low cost, guaranteed to failover and failback with only a few clicks."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pros →

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten... Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.""Sangfor HCI's best features are the ability to scale to a bigger size and the roadmap, whereby if they need to replicate their production to disaster recovery, they can do so on the same platform.""Sangfor is user-friendly and simple to upgrade.""It was not expensive at all.""The most valuable feature of Sangfor HCI is the built-in recovery functionality. The migration is simple to do from other solutions, such as VMware.""Sangfor HCI has a really good GUI. It allows us to monitor the temperature of the server and many other things.""Sangfor HCI is a one-stop solution that enables you to store and centrally manage your VMs.""Sangfor HCI has a bundle of security features that are easy to monitor on the HCI dashboard."

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Pros →

Cons
"Ongoing improvements in read and write performance would help meet increasingly demanding workloads.""StarWind doesn't really have any performance reporting, especially compared with other vSAN products we've used.""Currently, the StarWind management console is a bit clunky to navigate and isn't the most user-intuitive interface.""Geolocation could be better, for example, for site mirroring for DR purposes.""The initial setup got a little confusing at a few points with differences between the VMware version in documentation vs the latest, etc.""It took a bit of knowledge and support to put in place but once installed it works fine. Migration (HyperV) from one server to another sometimes takes longer than expected but there is no data loss even if the host crashes.""I want to suggest that the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure needs to be reduced.""Our company was hoping for deduplication and encryption across HCI. That is currently not supported."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"We would like to see a cloud version of Acropolis AOS. Currently, we're trying to implement an AWS environment for some solutions, but we would like to use another technology also to enhance our organization, so we are looking for another technology for this, especially a cloud solution.""We'd like to have more resource management.""Our client had some old Citrix Xen servers for which there is no direct migration. Nutanix has a move utility for Microsoft Hyper-V clusters or VMware clusters. You can easily migrate them using the move utility, but the Xen clusters cannot be migrated in a simple way. That is the only thing that is lacking, but nowadays, no one uses the Citrix Xen server for their clusters. Everything else is already there. Nutanix keeps on upgrading its hardware's or hypervisor's capability to be able to support new technologies.""I would like them to update their licensing to provide more features with their basic license.""The scalability of Nutanix Acropolis AOS needs improvement.""Nutanix has a complex infrastructure, we have customers that consider VMware instead. Additionally, the performance could be better.""Compatible with third party hardware, but it's still very limited.""Usually, there are separate administration teams that take care of servers, but in our organization, servers are usually looked after by the application owner. However, the application owners cannot reinstall the software, OS, and other things. That only aligns with the role of the HCI administrator. If these rights can be provided, it will be very easy."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Cons →

"My company faced some issues with the product, as our virtual machines crashed, and we had to face some security issues.""The migration process could be easier.""Sangfor HCI has room for improvement in terms of integration. So, the integration with Sangfor HCI is not as extensive as in Nutanix.""The documentation and support from the community are not as good or as mature as VMware or Hyper-V.""Support may be an issue for customers in some industries. For example, financial institutions may require 24/7 support.""One question that has come up frequently in the last week is whether or not the renewal cost for Sangfor's HCI solution is too high.""The processing speed and cost should be improved.""The cost must be improved."

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."
  • "If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "In terms of the solution's licensing, it's quite comprehensive."
  • "The price of the solution is expensive. However, the price to performance is good. The cost for development and installation is very low."
  • "The one disadvantage is relative, financially Nutanix Acropolis AOS is a little bit more expensive than the old solution."
  • "It is less expensive than the VMware alternative."
  • "We just have a support license for Nutanix."
  • "Many of my customers have issues with Acropolis' licensing model because they are charging the customers based on two things— the CPUs and the capacity in the solid stack disk — and that's a problem. Nutanix's competitors are not licensing that layer, so this is something that they should change. They should abandon this licensing model because it's too complex. Technical support is bundled with the subscription."
  • "The solution could be a little less expensive."
  • "Nutanix Acropolis AOS price includes no additional costs for features."
  • More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Sangfor needs to be more aggressive because this is a new market or territory for Sangfor. Nepal is a very price-sensitive market, so Sangfor needs to be a little more aggressive with its pricing. I would rate them 3.75 out of five in terms of the price."
  • "I would say its pricing is between cheap and reasonable and would rate it as three out of five."
  • "The solution has a good initial cost but a high renewal cost."
  • "The solution is very cheap."
  • "The tool’s pricing is better when compared to VMware or Nutanix. The product’s licensing is on a yearly basis."
  • "The solution is on-premise which does not have a subscription. However, there is a need to purchase support. The solution is on a perpetual license model. There is not any extra cost other than the standard licensing fees."
  • "The product's pricing is less expensive and competitive than other alternatives. I would rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten."
  • "From a business perspective, we use Sangfor HCI due to its competitive pricing compared to other competitors such as Nutanix."
  • More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment.
    Top Answer:The Premium ProActive service price is a little high, yet worth the price.
    Top Answer:It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website. However, they have a fantastic technical… more »
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface… more »
    Top Answer: Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from… more »
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface… more »
    Top Answer:It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten... Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a… more »
    Top Answer:Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is a reasonably priced product.
    Top Answer:My company faced some issues with the product, as our virtual machines crashed, and we had to face some security issues… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    StarWind SAN & NAS
    Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
    Learn More
    Overview

    StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a top-ranking HCI software, cloud management tool, and Software Defined Storage (SDS) tool that is marketed as the foundation for users' hybrid clouds. It offers a powerful and secure hyperconverged infrastructure to deliver all data and applications at any scale and on any cloud. The solution offers a complete software stack that allows users to unify their hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

    NCI’s services include computer, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, and deployment in public or in private clouds. The product also comes with built-in resilience, disaster recovery capabilities, self-healing, and high-security capacities. It provides further deployment flexibility through several software and hardware options and platforms. NCI includes a full set of enterprise capabilities. It can also be deployed on a wide range of servers from popular manufacturers.

    The capabilities of the product are categorized into three main groups:

    • AOS storage
    • Flexible and open compute
    • Automated and secure networking

    Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:

    • Integrated disaster recovery
    • Full-stack lifecycle management
    • VMware with Nutanix
    • Intelligent operations

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers its customers various features and tools in each of the previously mentioned categories. The available features for users currently include:

    • High-performance: This set of features utilizes hardware advances such as NVMe and RDMA to accelerate users' most demanding applications with consistent performance. The tools in this feature category work alongside data locality to ensure successful results.

    • Foolproof resiliency: These Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure features protect data and keep it available by facilitating advanced distributed consistency algorithms. Users can utilize these features to protect their data from issues like bit rot, hardware failures, and even entire site failure.

    • Flexibility: This set of features allows storage to be sized for the needs of each organization and expanded promptly and easily so that the organization and its data can grow. The features offer flexibility to users in terms of applying storage policies logically on a pre-workload basis, instead of being tied to hardware.

    • Hypervisor choice: Users can choose from the leading hypervisors - Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi. They can also leverage the built-in hypervisor AHV that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides.

    • Integrated virtualization: These features offer simplified automation and AHV streamlined operations. The services in this category are optimized for high performance and reliability.

    • Kubernetes: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to build and deploy cloud-native applications on intelligent distributed infrastructure. Apps can be integrated with cloud-compatible storage and both building and deployment can be achieved within the same platform.

    • Microsegmentation: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to prevent malware spread and reduce attack surfaces by leveraging machine learning (ML).

    • Virtual networking: This set of features allows users to easily implement multi-tenancy in their environment or stretch networks across clouds.

    • Centralized network management: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides organizations with a way to manage networking configurations centrally. Users can utilize it across their human-computer interaction (HCI) environment with simple virtual switch management.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits

    The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:

    • NCI reduces technology sprawl and frees up technical resources to allow organizations to focus on other activities, potentially reducing costs for the business.

    • The product allows customers to deploy, scale, and bridge to the public cloud to be able to react in evolving business environments.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure improves data availability while simultaneously protecting it against several kinds of failures and attacks.

    • The solution offers high-performance, resilient distributed storage for all workloads.

    • Working alongside Nutanix Cloud Platform, NCI offers simple management of data from one console.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure works by the zero trust philosophy, protecting users' apps and data through specially designed security protocols.

    Reviews from Real Users

    According to Gerhard J., an IT manager at Q4 Fuel, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI.

    A solutions architect at a computer software company describes NCI as a stable, straightforward to set up, and scalable solution.

    Sangfor HCI is an IT infrastructure platform built on converged architecture. It integrates server virtualization, distributed storage, and networking. Sangfor HCI provides a unified management platform that converges compute, storage, networking, and security on a single software stack. This approach delivers a simplified architecture, ease of use, and reliability for business-critical applications.

    Hyperconverged infrastructure is a unified system of data storage. HCI combines storage, computing, networking, and management, unlike traditional storage solutions. HCI systems enable you to build your private cloud, expand to a public cloud, or have your own true hybrid cloud. Sangfor HCI presents two product models: The Sangfor HCI server appliance is a hardware version that enables easy deployment. Sangfor HCI software is the digital version combined with a third-party server that enables flexible deployment.

    Sangfor HCI supports Windows systems on desktop and is web-based. Its range of use cases cover a wide spectrum of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing. It is applicable for mid- and large-sized businesses. The software is customizable. Users can customize the logo and contact information in the user interface.

    Benefits and Features

    • Stability: Sangfor HCI delivers high reliability and availability with 0 RPO and 99.99% availability. The infrastructure is fully redundant to ensure business continuity. This means no data is lost in the event of hardware failure.
    • Simplified infrastructure: The solution supports visual management, making it easier to use. The single platform provides a central control with access to resources.
    • High performance: One unit of HCI can support up to 100,000 IOPS. The solution supports data striping, data locality, SSD caching and AI-based DB optimization. It also supports linear expansion without bottlenecks.
    • Hyper-converged infrastructure that enables working with different scenarios. For instance, cloud transformation and data center consolidation. It is fully converged, which means it provides unified management, full resource visualization, and orchestration with SCP. The standardized HCI unit consolidates hardware appliances, a storage network, IP network, and server into a single unit.
    • Integration: Sangfor HCI offers deep integration with NFV components. Users can deploy complex SDN networks.
    • Pay-as-you-grow model: The pay-per-use model reduces operational expenses and total cost of ownership.

    Use Cases

    Sangfor HCI can be applied tin various scenarios:

    • Enterprise applications: Users can benefit from the reliability and performance of Sangfor HCI for business-critical processes. The system is optimized for enterprise applications to enhance their performance and stability.
    • Datacenter consolidation: The unified and software-defined technology simplifies the operational management and the architecture of data centers.
    • Cloud transformation: You can add a cloud management platform, transforming Sangfor HCI into a complete cloud computing solution. You can then run your cloud workloads and benefit from the automation features of Sangfor HCI.
    • Data protection and recovery: Sangfor HCI offers multiple data protection features, such as continuous data protection (CDP), which ensure the integrity of sensitive and user data. You can protect backup snapshots and take backups. It records virtual machine IO logs at frequent intervals. It offers disaster recovery capabilities that ensure business continuity.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Gabriele P., Senior Software and Systems Engineer at SAMU.IT, says "It is flexible like a hyper-convergence system. You can add nodes, and you can scale to have better performance and stability. I also like the backup feature, the recovery system, and the web interface GUI to handle everything."

    A Junior Solutions Engineer at a tech services company adds that "Sangfor has many solutions, and you can easily manage their machine servers with just one management. They're always striving for greatness, and they continuously update their products. For example, they have now built endpoint security within the firewall. They are continuously improving not only the security but also all other products."




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    Learn more about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
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    Sample Customers
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
    TOSHIBA TEC Singapore, J&T Express Indonesia, Crowne Plaza Vietnam, Hermina Hospital Indonesia
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Construction Company9%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization25%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company23%
    Comms Service Provider23%
    Manufacturing Company15%
    Construction Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Government8%
    Insurance Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise31%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business18%
    Midsize Enterprise35%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business70%
    Midsize Enterprise26%
    Large Enterprise4%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    Buyer's Guide
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    745,775 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 2nd in HCI with 73 reviews while Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is ranked 9th in HCI with 22 reviews. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6, while Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "What you might not know about Nutanix that makes it so unique". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure writes "Low cost, great GUI, and helpful support". Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and HPE Nimble Storage dHCI, whereas Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, HPE Hyper Converged and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. See our Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure report.

    See our list of best HCI vendors.

    We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.