Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users
NetworkA5035 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Administrator at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have seen a huge improvement in application performance and it enables us to run mission-control workloads

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution in our on-premise production environment.

It does optimize operations. There is a huge improvement, between fifteen and twenty percent, in application performance.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution allows us to have a highly diverse environment. It is scalable and has been helpful with our DB deployment and DB management.

The solution infrastructure enables us to run mission-control workloads.

This gives us a good opportunity because it allows us to connect different Cisco devices, giving us a highly diverse environment. It is diverse and allows connections between two different vendor’s systems.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this solution are the scalability, the speed of deployment, and physical server management.

What needs improvement?

Cisco should work closely with other vendors to ensure that their specialized hardware can be integrated.

Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about FlexPod XCS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
853,831 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is really stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a very scalable solution.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate technical support a nine out of ten.

It does simplify our support experience. We used to have a SAN environment that was managed by a dedicated team. Now, management is handled by separate teams.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

FlexPod was recommended by our architect and vendor, WWT.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of FlexPod is straightforward. This solution reduces our application deployment time by approximately five percent.

What about the implementation team?

We had assistance with our deployment from WWT, and our experience was good.

What was our ROI?

The solution has not reduced our data center costs. From the finance perspective, it doesn't save us money. But performance-wise, we benefit.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Our licensing fees are on a yearly basis.

What other advice do I have?

I highly recommend this solution.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
AGM at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Stable private cloud solution that has reduced our deployment time
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has granular scalability."
  • "I would be interested to see more integration with other applications."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for my private cloud. We are providing a service.

How has it helped my organization?

FlexPod has helped us reduce our time of deployment because we are really only missing integration with different applications.

It has also allowed us to streamline our IT administration.

What is most valuable?

The integration is something else.

The core cloud is a good feature. If we had a login that extended from the private cloud to the public cloud that would be the best, but it's up there.

The solution has granular scalability.

What needs improvement?

I would be interested to see more integration with other applications.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using FlexPod for four or five months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FlexPod is very resilient. So far, it has been stable. Keep in mind we are still deploying it, so the real use case has yet to be seen.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability looks okay because it’s based on the capacity of the device, so I wouldn’t normally assume any scalability issue.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support has been okay.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, but the migration has taken some time.

What about the implementation team?

We used a reseller for the integration. 

What was our ROI?

FlexPod saves us money. There is definitely a return on our investment.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate FlexPod as seven or eight out of ten. It's too early to say anything, but for now, my only concern is the limited integration with applications.

The biggest lesson I learned was that from the automation point of view, this should be saving us time. When you’re doing it for the first time it’s not going to be very easy.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
FlexPod XCS
May 2025
Learn what your peers think about FlexPod XCS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2025.
853,831 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Practice8f4d - PeerSpot reviewer
Practice Lead at Bedroc
Real User
A good solution for integrating compute, networking and storage in data centers with easy deployment
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to deploy and use."
  • "It could be more innovative."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is to integrate the compute, networking and storage in our data center.

How has it helped my organization?

FlexPod simplifies our deployments and the automation. It enables us to handle mission-critical workloads and applications.

What is most valuable?

The best feature of the product is not exactly a feature. It is the ease of deployment and use.

What needs improvement?

As a solution, it isn't really very innovative. It could have better support for portals.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. Any outage can be brought back up quickly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is easily scaled. It is possible to integrate new capabilities and technologies which we have successfully done with no issues. It's a valid, viable model.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer service is above average.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

The product was adopted as a solution before I came to the company. 

How was the initial setup?

The installation was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant for the implementation. That was Bedrock and they are okay at what they do.

What was our ROI?

The reduction in data center costs is the obvious return on investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution has reduced data center operating costs by about five percent.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Other options were considered. That included IBM and HP solutions.

What other advice do I have?

The product is an eight out of ten. It's stable and we've had no issues. It is definitely worth considering as a solution depending on your particular needs.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
NetworkEcbe4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Offers high availability and scalability and has increased back-end productivity

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for FlexPod is for better storage.

How has it helped my organization?

The FlexPod solution increased back-end productivity and streamlined our IT admin.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of FlexPod are high availability and scalability.

What needs improvement?

In the digital future, I would like to see included more code compatibility. The storage should be more mobile. We should be able to move it from place to place.

FlexPod needs more support on ML/AI networks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FlexPod is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We're still working on scalability. We have to keep low price versions of the high-end equipment. I would like to see a little more data compression on the solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

The FlexPod technical support has been fairly good. I cannot complain.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We knew that we needed to invest by talking with consultants.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of FlexPod was complex in the way that we had to manage the data.

What about the implementation team?

We did not use a consultant. We do it all by ourselves.

What other advice do I have?

On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate this product an 8. Consolidation is possible. 

FlexPod doesn't compare to other products. Do many tryouts first. Try to just mimic different environments to get a different view of the platform.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Director at HCL Technologies
Real User
Reduced the complexity of our network monitoring but the setup is complex
Pros and Cons
  • "FlexPod has affected the workload of our network admin team awesomely. We have fewer employees. It's good."
  • "The initial setup for FlexPod is complex."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for this solution is for educational content.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has improved our organization in the way that we now require fewer employees. It has reduced the complexity of our network monitoring. 

It has reduced the workload on our network admins and our network availability has been reduced. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of this solution are instant scalability and reliability. The solution has good granularity in terms of network visibility.

What needs improvement?

The main area that this solution has room for improvement is in Cisco support.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is very good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How are customer service and technical support?

FlexPod's technical support is bad, as with everything regarding Cisco support.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup for FlexPod is complex.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultancy company for the implementation. 

What other advice do I have?

The solution forces us to ACI to make quotas and we will do that.

FlexPod supports both traditional and SCN reduced costs.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this product a seven. It's not perfect.

I believe that FlexPod is the best solution. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
NetworkE1ffa - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
An all-in-one solution that helps our teams work better together
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that it is all-in-one, and it is easy to get support on it."
  • "There are times where we have had issues with technical support."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for our servers. We are getting ready to move to the cloud.

How has it helped my organization?

We have a network team and assistance team in our organization, and this solution has helped them to combine and work together a lot better.

The solution's granular scalability and broad application support help us to meet the needs of diverse workloads.

The performance has improved with a couple of applications that we have. I’m not sure of the percentage, but I would say about twenty percent. It also optimizes operations.

It has increased staff productivity because we can work on other stuff. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that it is all-in-one, and it is easy to get support on it.

What needs improvement?

There are times where we have had issues with technical support.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, it is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is pretty good. I would rate it seven out of ten.

Sometimes we still have issues with support. We have had instances where we’ve called in and not gotten the right people on the phone.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We began to look for a new solution when the stuff we had was at end-of-life.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward. You simply follow the documentation.

What about the implementation team?

We performed the implementation in-house.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at Cisco and HP when we were researching this solution.

What other advice do I have?

This is a very stable product and we have had really good luck with it, so I would recommend it to a colleague at another company.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Director of Datacenter at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Saves us time in setup and maintenance, but we need an option to skip Tier-I technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "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."
  • "As we do much of the Tier-I support ourselves, and thus don't normally need it, there is time wasted in moving up to the next level."

What is our primary use case?

We provide this solution to customers for their data centers, and we also use it internally, for our data center, to host customer data.

This solution is right there in terms of leading-edge digital equipment.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

We have seen approximately a twenty-five percent increase in application performance.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ease of setup. When we're bringing out the new solution, it's easy to get everything in the rack. When we need to add to it, later on, it's easier to have all of that stuff there and add as we need it. It's easier to bolt-on, and the integration between the pieces is a lot easier on the setup side, too.

The management is easy. Some of the stuff we have is an older generation that can’t do connectivity into the inner site. But, for everything that we can put in there, we can see all of the customers from that one pane of glass. It makes it simple.

It enables us to run mission-critical workloads. We are running one hundred to one hundred and fifty SQL and high-demand database servers.

I’ve gotten a lot of use out of the validated designs because that is what I go by, whenever we’re building out systems for the customers. It seems like they stay pretty up to date on the newly released products.

What needs improvement?

As we do much of the Tier-I support ourselves, and thus don't normally need it, there is time wasted in moving up to the next level.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a solid solution, and I don't have any issues with stability.

This is a resilient solution. We have a lot of clusters set up, and we haven’t had to worry about server failures because when we do have a server fail, the other ones pick up the workload pretty seamlessly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is easy, and we can pretty much have anybody do it.

We can scale that really easily, and we’ve been doing that. We were probably one of the first Cisco customers that came on when the UCS line came out, so we have a lot invested in the architecture.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have used technical support from time to time.

Most of the time, we end up having to get a tier above. We're able to do a lot of the Tier-I troubleshooting on our own. We have a lot of engineers that can handle that, so we do spend some time trying to get past Tier-I in order to get the support we really need.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were already a big Cisco partner when they came out with this line, and it was something that we just moved right into. Once we saw that it worked, and saw how easy it was to scale it out, we just decided to go that way to save a little extra money.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of this solution is straightforward and very easy.

There is a thirty-five to forty percent reduction in the time required for deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation in-house.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody considering this solution is to get in touch with an account manager at Cisco, then visit and see a demo. I know that when we were first looking at it, an account manager came out and brought a senior engineer with him. They saw the solution and went over it in great detail. It was easy for us to see the gain that we were getting from the product.

I think that people still need to do their own due diligence and look at other solutions. Once you get those two or three solution sets and compare them, I think you'll see that this one is probably the best one out there. This solution is right there with leading-edge digital equipment.

Overall, this is a good solution. It has saved us time on the setup, as well as maintaining the system, and we haven't had to do a whole lot of troubleshooting with it.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
SystemEn8432 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Very stable and has increased delivery and integration speeds
Pros and Cons
  • "FlexPod is easy to setup, maintain and has great stability."
  • "One touch upgrades would be nice."

What is our primary use case?

We use FlexPod primarily for automation and growing capacity.

How has it helped my organization?

Delivery speed and integration speeds have increased. The solution has enabled us to run mission-critical workloads. Our SQL cluster is on there, which is high IOPS.

All-in-one solution is great for when you don't have a lot of staff, with multiple disciplines. It has increased productivity because we only have a staff of four people, so we are able to focus on other items like innovation. It also has simplified our support experience.

FlexPod has also improved applications for us. It handles IOS better.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to set up, maintain and has great stability.

What needs improvement?

One touch upgrades would be nice.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

FlexPod is very stable and resilient. You just stand it up, and you don't ever have issues with it, so it's been the best storage array in platform we've seen. We've never had a problem.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've been told from our sales team that it's going to scale really well, but we've never actually tested this. We only have one.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have a very high opinion of the technical support team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We've always been roll your own, setting up the UCS, and the external storage arrays, and then plugging them in and zoning it in, so the fact that it's an all-in-one solution is great.

We use Infinidat and EMC. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

It would be nice to have had this years ago when we first started out, instead of a hodgepodge of different storage and compute technologies within our data center. It'd be nice to just have the one and scale it out.

I like the validated designs because they're fully baked, but they do take a while when there are upgrades that need to happen, for all the vendors to come together and certify their solutions in a matrix.

I would rate FlexPod as a ten out of ten. It's innovative, easy, and reliable.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user