We performed a comparison between StarWind HyperConverged Appliance and VxRail 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."When using new (warranty) servers, you can forget about the storage service for several years. The users will not even notice the failure of two servers out of three."
"Besides being 80% cheaper than the other alternatives, the simplicity makes reconfiguration and support much easier."
"It has given the company an almost zero possibility of downtime."
"The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem."
"The ability to keep data accessible even in the event of hardware failures is highly valued, as it ensures business continuity."
"StarWind SANs come with outstanding support."
"StarWind Virtual SAN offers high availability and data resilience features to prevent data loss if hardware fails."
"StarWind vSAN has allowed us to grow rapidly while still providing flexibility and reliability."
"With StarWind's Proactive monitoring we can go about our day helping our customers and not have to worry about our cluster's health."
"The setup was easy to deploy, and management is simplified compared with traditional SAN solutions."
"Their service is top-notch and if a node goes down they immediately are following up with us to make sure that everything is working smoothly."
"We also opted for 24-hour support monitoring for any issues. They are extremely quick to respond on issues we even cause ourselves such as bumping a network cable."
"The low cost of this solution has also made a big difference in our budget, which has been very helpful."
"The added speed of using standard HDD and SSD meant we could increase what services are stored on the servers without having to have additional servers."
"Having this all backed up by pro-active support gives us good peace of mind."
"Overall, the solution has improved our system's performance. I was concerned about the physical-to-virtual conversion of our database server. It's actually much faster now, as a virtualized host on this Hyper-V cluster."
"The most compelling aspect of VxRail lies in its unwavering guarantee of sustained performance for my systems, regardless of their geographical distribution."
"It's a simple product, fast, and reliable."
"For me, VxRail's most valuable feature is its life-cycle management."
"This is a good solution for medium-sized installations especially when it will be coupled with VMware."
"It has a valuable deduplication feature."
"The updating of the features was one aspect of the solution that made us decide to use it."
"VxRail simplifies IT infrastructure management by providing a single management console for compute, storage, and network. The second advantage is that VxRail offers a continuously validated architecture from the OEM. This means that Dell thoroughly tests all firmware updates before being released or installed on the product, helping to prevent compatibility issues. The third benefit is its ten-year roadmap. Dell consistently announces a roadmap for the product spanning the next decade."
"The implementation was quick, we used a checklist and it took approximately one hour."
"They require more media visibility."
"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"
"I did not see any indication that StarWinds vSAN is a usable solution with non-GUI instances of Hyper-V."
"I would like to see an extensive set of cmdlets that could allow for easier automation as well as status management."
"The console is something that I feel could be improved. There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it can be jazzed up and/or made to be a little more intuitive."
"They recommend RAID10 for HDD, which reduces the usable storage capacity."
"With data verification, I would like to know how does the solution perform validation of data being synced between two VSANs."
"It would be good to have a little more access to control certain aspects within the UI."
"One area for improvement of the solution is that I had to get Windows, which I really didn't want because of the extra maintenance or overhead, as well as viruses, etc. It's going to take time for them to get their Linux to that point. They already have Linux but it's not as mature and they don't really support it on HCAs. They have it for individuals who want to use it on their servers, but not on HCAs."
"Most meetings are done via Zoom, and I'm sure you could switch to a text based conversation if needed as they seem like a very accommodating team. It's not something I would worry about if you are a potential client."
"Not much can be improved, to be honest."
"Over the past three years, there were two instances where our cluster had an issue, yet StarWind proactively notified me of those issues and effortlessly guided me through the process of correcting the issue with minimal effort on my part."
"There is room for improvement in the setup and installation phase. We had massive problems connecting the StarWind appliances to our network infrastructure. That wasn't necessarily a StarWind problem. I don't know if their business partner in the UK wasn't used to having to deal with the supply of the cabling infrastructure, but that's where the problems started."
"We struggle a little with capacity management with the StarWind Hyperconverged appliance."
"If I had to pick something to add to the product, it would be nice if you could have more than one user account on their command center VM."
"The monitoring and reporting console can be improved in the sense that it can have more information on it."
"When using hybrid nodes, such as VxRail, there should not be compression and deduplication, only in All-Flash nodes."
"They should have better compatibility with other processors, such as AMD processors."
"The agility of the support team to provide you with better solutions should be improved. VxRail also has to be improved in terms of simplicity. Adding a simple node seemed like quite a project."
"The only issue which is every now and again is that when you log in it will tell you that there's an issue with VxRail when there actually isn't. All that's required is a refresh or reload. The solution itself works but you may get some bad reports every now and again. Probably once every couple of months; there is no effect to the solution's capabilities."
"What I find very valuable is VxRail's life cycle management. The life cycle management takes care of everything from firmware to the actual upgrading of the hypervisor and keeps everything up to level."
"My main issue so far is that the installation created a default datacenter name of "Marvin" and it cannot be changed."
"Next release, we would like to see online applications."
"At present, VxRail is a hyperconverged state of the art product being installed in a legacy way. We need hyperconverged install teams."
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StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 6th in HCI with 65 reviews while VxRail is ranked 1st in HCI with 115 reviews. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.6, while VxRail is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Straightforward to use with good remote management and a simple GUI". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VxRail writes "Offers a hassle-free, complete package, and is energy-efficient". StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, StorMagic SvSAN and HPE SimpliVity, whereas VxRail is most compared with VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series. See our StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs. VxRail report.
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