We were using VMWare and Dell products from long time. We wanted reliable technology partner who can provide technology, solution and support during migration. We use Microsoft technology.
Senior Manager Information System Administration at Agro Tech Foods Limited
Don’t just buy a server, transform your infrastructure with more power with easy maintenance and less cost.
Pros and Cons
- "VxRail is an agile solution with easily scalable, simplify operations with software driven automation and lower operational cost."
- "The search feature isn't good."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
We are not just purchased the server, we transformed our infrastructure into Powerful and Efficient, agile, flexible and scalable, polished and proven technology solution build with VMWare. New HCI - VxRail replaced with our existing 42U rack devices consists of BladeCenter, storage and other rack mountable servers into simple, more powerful 4 node VxRail device
which saves power and maintenance cost very drastically.
What needs improvement?
We are in the process of exploring more options which is bundle with this solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using VxRail for two years.
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VxRail
May 2023

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product, deploy appliance with ease, update all software in single click, monitor using dashboards for health, events and physical views. And maintain with direct access to support, articles and community.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Whenever there are any technical or hardware issues, we contact Dell. They will attend to us immediately. On a scale of one to five, I would give them a five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We switched to VxRail because our previous solution was at the end of service life. We had used it for more than six years. We wanted new technology with new scalability. power, technology and easy maintenance.
How was the initial setup?
We migrated from our older hardware consists of multiple servers, storage and switches to simple and more powerful HCI - 4 node VxRail device.
Studying current and future Business requirement, validating multiple solution which suits our requirement, which is agile, easily scalable and more power to suite our future plans. It took almost six plus months to freeze the VxRail solution. Post finalization, releasing the order and receiving to hardware it took almost 6 months to complete the migration to new setup. Delay was due to lockdown, travel restrictions otherwise it would have been completed within three months. Complete migration was very smooth and very minimal downtime without any Business impact.
What about the implementation team?
In-house team with OEM Support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Identifying and freezing the solution by multiple tech discussions and negations. Finalizing solution with hardware is bundled with license. Closing the order with Five-year Support and migration support from OEM.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated couple of other solutions, also gone through Nutanix demo. Nutanix is a very good solution, but they don't have their own hardware, we have to depend on third party people like Dell, HP or IBM. We were long time Dell product user and preferred the Dell.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution 10 out of 10.
Just buying the product is not important, along with solution on-time support is very crucial for Business-critical applications. We are using Dell products, solutions and services from more than 10years. From my experience with Dell, their technology, support and services which plays a critical role to select Dell as our products and solution vendor.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Scalable with great performance-inspired management tools and good stability
Pros and Cons
- "VxRail has given us a lot of tools in a one-stop-shop environment."
- "In the next release, maybe they could add in integration with the hyper-cloud so it will be easier to do the movement up and back to the cloud in order to scale in and scale out."
What is our primary use case?
For small companies that want to have several nodes and a lot of computing with a small amount of storage for databases and SQLs, this solution works well. They can use it to replicate the data.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable aspect is a combination of a few things. It's fairly scalable, for example. It has a lot of performance-inspired management tools. They are very important to us to be able to manage and monitor the entire solution. VxRail has given us a lot of tools in a one-stop-shop environment.
The solution has been very stable so far.
The initial setup is very easy.
Technical support is great.
What needs improvement?
In the next release, maybe they could add in integration with the hyper-cloud so it will be easier to do the movement up and back to the cloud in order to scale in and scale out.
If I could have some kind of a container-based solution, I'd be happier. That way I would be able to run my containers, my Kubernetes, in that environment.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for about two years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It's reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product can scale very well. It's a notable aspect of the solution itself. If the company needs to expand, it can do so.
More than 200 customers are running on that solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've dealt with technical support. I'd give them a ten out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also have experience with Nutanix. I know all of these kinds of hyper-converged systems.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not overly complex. It was very easy. I used a certified partner to do the installation.
It took less than a week and the system was up and running.
How much of a technical team is needed for deployment depends on the customer. That said if the team is about seven people they can run everything including security and the regulation and whatever we need to run the solution. In our case, there were seven engineers. One of them is the manager, and they all handled everything including networking, the system, and the protection.
What about the implementation team?
We ended up using a certified partner that helped us with the installation. While we used an integrator the first time, we can do it by ourselves now.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We need to buy our license to renew it after a five-year period. The license is for five years.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did a POC with Nutanix and with SimpliVity. We wanted to see how well they would suit our organizational requirements and only did small tests.
What other advice do I have?
We're customers and end-users.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We've been happy with its capabilities.
I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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VxRail
May 2023

Learn what your peers think about VxRail. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2023.
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Principal Consultant at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Scalable, high availability, and good support
Pros and Cons
- "The technical support from Dell was very good."
- "The implementation of a VxRail, it's straightforward, but the ongoing utilization, and integration, are where it can start to become difficult if you're not used to doing it."
What is our primary use case?
In the last deployment, I had VxRail connected to Dell EMC Isilon storage and it increases the complexity of what you're doing and you need to have a team that can manage it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used VxRail within the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I did not have any issues with the stability of VxRail.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VxRail ability to expand was good, I don't remember what it maxes out at but the one deployment that I was working on and assisting with is one where they were running out of storage too quickly. However, this does not matter if it's HCI or if it's a traditional storage array that you're connecting via iSCSI or Fiber Channel or ports. Running out of storage is a lack of knowledge of utilizing the tools, such as vRealize or Turbonomic, and it is important to do capacity planning. When comparing VxRail to Nutanix, Nutanix had similar scalability capabilities.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from Dell was very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions, such as Nutanix.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation of a VxRail, it's straightforward, but the ongoing utilization, and integration, are where it can start to become difficult if you're not used to doing it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the Dell price a four out of five.
The price of VxRail highly depends on your design and your configuration. For example, if I connect Pure Storage directly to ESXi hosts and bypass Fiber Channel switches and I will save on money. However, it reduces my redundancy and makes it not as robust of deployment and easy to manage. An HCI environment, it's more cost-effective than utilizing a traditional SAN. With storage and computing altogether, you don't necessarily have to involve the networking team as much. I don't necessarily need somebody that understands Brocade's or Cisco Fiber Channel Switches, because I have it all right there.
What other advice do I have?
One of the most important aspects of implementing VxRail is the capacity planning and understanding of what kind of expansion is going to be needed over a period of 12, 24, and 36 months. No matter what the solution is, you'll start off with a minimum of three nodes, and growing from there, it's very difficult to go back and get more capital.
Make sure that you understand using an RV tools exporter or something similar to understand when you are designing the solution. This will help make sure that I've allowed for 20, 30, or 40 percent growth over a period of 12 months, or 24 months, depending on the use case.
It is important to manage budgets, such as OpEx and CapEx. You will always have a certain amount of money that you can spend and not need to go back and attempt to gather more capital, capacity planning is critical.
All right. Overall for the VxRail, how would you scale it from one to ten? If ten was the best and one was the worst.
I rate VxRail an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Head of Cloud and Servers Technologies at JSC "Lithuanian railways"
Simplified management, fast performance, and reasonable price
Pros and Cons
- "We are very happy with the purchase, and it works well. It is fast. We went with the full-flash version, meaning that we have SSDs. So, we can build a Windows virtual machine in two minutes. We were surprised when we first tried to do that."
- "We have some issues, but they are possibly out-of-the-box issues. There was a host that was dead on arrival, and there were some file issues on other hosts. We're currently working actively with Dell to resolve all these issues. Once they are resolved, the product should be stable."
What is our primary use case?
I'm not a direct user. I'm a team manager, and we are using it in our company. We are using it as our new-generation virtualization platform. Currently, we are just building the environment, and we still have things to do directly with Dell.
How has it helped my organization?
We are very happy with the purchase, and it works well. It is fast. We went with the full-flash version, meaning that we have SSDs. So, we can build a Windows virtual machine in two minutes. We were surprised when we first tried to do that. So, currently, we are very happy with it.
What is most valuable?
The best features of HCI are the reliability and no need to have additional storage models and storage administrators. All the things—such as virtualization models, storage models, and networking—are in one environment. So, a single hardware administrator can access and support everything. I like HCI because of being able to have all components of virtualization in one cluster and in one place. There is no SAN and storage. It brings simplicity to hardware maintenance.
What needs improvement?
We have some issues, but they are possibly out-of-the-box issues. There was a host that was dead on arrival, and there were some file issues on other hosts. We're currently working actively with Dell to resolve all these issues. Once they are resolved, the product should be stable.
In terms of the additional features, we still need to adopt what we have. It has lots of features, and we need to start using it heavily. I might have something to add in a year or so, but currently, I don't have anything.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since December. It has been two full months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We are having some out-of-the-box issues, and we're actively working with Dell to resolve those issues. Once those issues are resolved, it should be stable, but as a virtual environment, it has never failed. These are only single-node or single-component issues that don't affect the whole virtual environment, which is great and which is why I love HCI.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. Currently, we have 12 people who are working with this solution, but there will be more.
What about the implementation team?
A vendor did the whole implementation. We have purchased it as a service. So, we had a third-party vendor who installed and configured everything. My technicians were watching and learning. So, we were not the ones who were primarily responsible for configuring things. The process took some time, but the result is very satisfying.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is reasonable. Compared to the legacy hardware that we had so far, we are not paying way more, but we have very good performance. Its price is good.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate it a nine out of 10 because of those out-of-the-box issues. They are a bit annoying, but I believe we will be able to resolve them quickly, and then it would be a 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
ICT Business Solution Architect at Cloud Technology
A hyper-converged infrastructure that is easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "Cost-effective and easy to install."
- "Lacks integration of licenses so that it's an expensive solution."
What is our primary use case?
We are system integrators and IT providers.
What is most valuable?
The solution is cost-effective and easy to instal, it's just a plug and play. It also contains a ready VMware solution that I use to manage virtual machines. Finally, it is a hyper-converged infrastructure, so it's not a regular server.
What needs improvement?
A beneficial improvement they could make would be the integration of all the dealings with VMware to provide a license with VxRail so the customer can purchase it without the need to pay for an additional license for the VMware. If the license for VMware were to come together with the hardware at no additional cost, that would be great. Nutanix offers this package.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is flexible, scalable and easily integrated. We can add to it at any time and it'll give extra performance and extra CPU.
How are customer service and support?
Our engineers deal with any support issues we may have.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and can take up to four days. Deployment requires a technician and an assistant engineer to plan everything and get it ready to host the services. Maintenance is required but we receive documentation regarding updates and framework feature updates. We have five system administrators working on this product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Dell VxRail is flexible and reliable and scalable. It's easy to restore without the higher cost. We're not comfortable with the cost of VxRail and neither are our clients. As a result, we sometimes have to go to other brands because the price of VxRail is not competitive. Not that comfortable with some projects so the recommendation is Dell can do the same price as the normal server. I know it's marketing plan, especially for Middle East. It'll be much better and we will buy all the required servers from VxRail not, as you know, you'll go to all hyper-converged infrastructure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also offer Nutanix to our clients. What Nutanix offers is not available in Dell or HPE. Nutanix has its own management system similar to VMware and is also easy to configure. Through the system, the system administrator can manage and ensure all the virtual machines or virtual appliances that will host the services. If they could change the licensing structure so there is no additional license required, it would be a great feature that would strengthen Dell against their competitors.
What other advice do I have?
I always recommend VxRail because of their scalability and flexibility, but sometimes the cost creates a barrier with the client. All of our clients who have chosen VxRail are happy with it, it's just the cost that's an issue.
I rate the solution nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Enterprise Solutions Architect at a logistics company with 10,001+ employees
Highly stable, efficient, and great performance
Pros and Cons
- "VxRail has high performance and has great efficiency. There is a single place for us to manage all of our virtual machines. The ability to right-size instead of overcommit VMs is a large benefit."
- "We do not use the storage part of VxRail, we use Pure Storage to map out the VxRail because the disk performance from Pure Storage was far better than the performance of the disk on the inside of VxRail."
What is our primary use case?
We have VxRail for Hyperconverged infrastructure for our Windows and Linux VMs. We have the vRealize Suite which helps us with lifecycle management and forecasting our environments.
What is most valuable?
VxRail has high performance and has great efficiency. There is a single place for us to manage all of our virtual machines. The ability to right-size instead of overcommit VMs is a large benefit.
What needs improvement?
We do not use the storage part of VxRail, we use Pure Storage to map out the VxRail because the disk performance from Pure Storage was far better than the performance of the disk on the inside of VxRail.
I have found that Dell sales are the worst part of the organization or the blemish of their solutions. When they tell you, you are receiving something, and then down the road, you find out you actually have to buy something else in order to have the intended functionality it can be frustrating. We should have been told when purchasing this solution that we needed to purchase VMware Tanzu for private clouds.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used VxRail within the past 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
VxRail is highly stable. I would rate VxRail a ten out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable, it has the ability to scale up but if you go and you add clusters it can get a bit difficult. If you are adding everything new, you only add it, and then it becomes a part of a cluster, but if you started off with a small four-cluster and then you have a 12-node cluster then you want to move those machines, it can take some work.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward we have never had a problem. They could improve on the process of adding clusters. For example, when you want to add a four-node cluster to a 12-node cluster, there is a whole lot of resetting we have to do on that cluster and put it back on. We do not understand why you can not add a cluster into the same management interface. This is something they should look into.
What other advice do I have?
The only advice that I would give to those wanting to implement VxRail is to make sure that they look at what comes with the VxRail package. For example, Dell offers vRealize, which is not private cloud. They mistakenly will say that it is for private cloud but all vRealize offers are lifecycle management, the ability to do costing, and everything between public cloud and a private cloud. They will tell you that you have to buy VMware Tanzu in order to get the private cloud features. When they initially sell VxRail as hyper-converged infrastructure, they also sell it as your private cloud but there is no private cloud functionality. You have to build that on.
I rate VxRail a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Sr Solution Architect - Enterprise Storage and Virtualization at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Simplifies operations and provides the ability to manage everything from a single console
Pros and Cons
- "Our clients value being able to upgrade with one click or a few clicks."
- "They're getting better with their one-click upgrade. The success factor is now between 85% to 87% with the latest release. They should just continuously improve on that one-click factor and make it more seamless."
What is our primary use case?
It is used for consolidation, modernization of infrastructure, and simplification. That's what most customers are looking for with this solution.
I am using its latest release.
What is most valuable?
Our clients value being able to upgrade with one click or a few clicks.
The ability to manage everything from a single console is one of the key advantages that our clients see. They don't have to worry about how to manage the storage, how to manage the servers, and how to manage the virtualization layer. Everything comes in a single platform. As a result, IT teams are shrinking, and very often, the budgets are no longer for people. They're more for automation.
What needs improvement?
They're getting better with their one-click upgrade. The success factor is now between 85% to 87% with the latest release. They should just continuously improve on that one-click factor and make it more seamless.
For how long have I used the solution?
It has been about a year, but previously, I have worked on the Fujitsu equivalent for many years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is a misunderstood notion in the hyper-converged environment. Very often, people misunderstand what and how things are being scaled within a hyper-converged environment, and this is applicable to every solution out there. So, from a scalability point of view, in terms of the technology itself, it is fairly easy, but in terms of dollars and what it means, very often, people are a little bit surprised about it. If you want to upgrade your storage, you don't necessarily upgrade just one hard drive. If you're in all-flash storage, every node has to be upgraded. There are rules around disk groups and things of that nature, so it becomes a bit of a challenge, and sometimes, it is at a price that customers do not expect. The pricing and how things are evolving over a period of time are very often misunderstood by customers.
How are customer service and support?
I don't deal with them. I am more on the presales and delivery side. I'm sure there are challenges around that, but I'm not aware of any concerns at this point.
How was the initial setup?
It is very straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It varies. It could be $100,000 at the smaller end and millions and millions of dollars at the higher end.
What other advice do I have?
It is a very reliable and simplified solution. If you're looking for simplification of operations, this is a great solution to implement.
I would rate it an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Co-Founder and CEO at PT Eugenea Kreasi Utama
Powerful, user-friendly, and easy to manage
Pros and Cons
- "Updating the product has been very easy."
- "The cost is quite high. It's a very expensive solution to run."
What is our primary use case?
We're using three nodes appliance.
What is most valuable?
VxRail is a hyper-converged infrastructure that delivers a solution with full performance. It's scalable and easy to maintain.
The replication capabilities have been great.
We find the solution easy to manage.
The product is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
We have had zero problems so far with this product. It's quite reliable.
There is good support on offer.
It's a very quick product.
Updating the product has been very easy. Often, they let us know that there is an update pending so we can expect it.
The features are very powerful.
There are a lot of great features on offer.
We've found the scalability to be very good.
The solution is stable.
What needs improvement?
The cost is quite high. It's a very expensive solution to run.
For how long have I used the solution?
We purchased the solution originally in 2017. We've been using it for about four years or so at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the product is great. We have not had any issues whatsoever and find it to be very reliable. The performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
VxRail is easy to scale out. That said, from 2017 until now we're using just three nodes. We haven't upgraded our VxRail to scale. Therefore, we haven't personally scaled.
How are customer service and technical support?
Dell EMC support is very, very good. They offer lots of useful information and are very friendly. We find them to be helpful and supportive. We're quite satisfied with the level of service they provide. They offer very good after-sales support. YOu can even invest in premium support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is very, very expensive, even when you are renewing. It's a problem for us as management is complaining about the price.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer and an end-user.
I'd recommend this solution to others. It has a lot going for it in that the performance is good and it's reliable. They have great after-sales support and is generally easy to maintain. However, it is a very expensive option and a company needs to be prepared for the price tag.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten, however, if the pricing was a bit more reasonable, I would rate it higher.
Overall, I'm very impressed with the product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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