VxRail Reviews

The big portion of it is the VDIs, XenDesktop VDIs. I would say that our biggest deployment for VDI is approximately 15,000 users.

Our team actually maintains the solution and deploys the updates, etc. We have two people that handle all maintenance-related issues. Mostly me but I have support from another person.

VxRail does not require fiber switches or external storage. It's easy to replace and manage. It's centralized management through VxRail Manager.

The upgrade process is still not finished up. Sometimes during the upgrade process of VxRail, we experience errors that have nothing to do with reality and I cannot troubleshoot them without calling Dell and bringing in an engineer to figure it out.

If the VxRail upgrade fails on one of the particular nodes in the cluster, it doesn't stop, It pauses. When a problem's fixed and you retry it, it starts from the beginning.

For example, If I have 32 nodes in a cluster and I have a problem with the 31st node, I have to start from node 1 to check everything. To get to node 31, it takes up to three hours.

I have been using VxRail for three and a half years.

Stability is not related to VxRail. It's related to vSAN. Because VxRail has nothing to do with vSAN. VxRail's just aiding automation and the orchestration processes to vSAN, the VMware vSAN. Overall, the stability is pretty good if the hardware is stable.

The scalability is 10 out of 10. I can add or remove hosts at any time. I have no problem with that.

I'm really pleased with the technical support because it's centralized. It's not just VxRail support, it's hardware support and vSAN support, VMware support. If I call Dell for any problems relating to VxRail, I don't have to call anybody else.

In any case, if we need VMware engineers, it's just a matter of internally bringing somebody on the call, and then we figure it out together.

The initial setup is straightforward. As soon as I prepare a JSON file I have no problem.

Usually deployment depends on the number of nodes — it's taken up to two hours.

I was not involved in the licensing of this solution.

If you're interested in using VxRail, use your judgment. There are multiple solutions and all of them are geared toward different use cases. Some people will prefer HyperFlex, others will prefer to go with Nutanix, VxRail, or, for god's sake, vSAN ReadyNodes.

VxRail has some limitations. For me, it's limited from doing what it's supposed to do because it's provided by VxRail — it's automated and orchestrated by VxRail. For example, I cannot use VMware Update Manager. I have to use a bundle, which is produced by Dell, and usually, they are at least a month to a month and a half behind VMware.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give VxRail a rating of eight.

At our company, we work as consultants and offer the VxRail environment to our customers. Sometimes, we work on small remote sites where we propose and escalate a few hosts, like two or three-node blasters. Otherwise, our company uses the solution for handling native HCI capability without VCF. 

One of the solution's most valuable features is its zero-day deployment. The deployment is extremely fast, which our company's customers find very interesting. The lifecycle management feature makes the VxRail environment function quicker than other traditional, discreet environments.

For daily operations, VxRail has a great direct monitoring feature. The solution also offers seamless support to track issues through ESRS premises. 

At our company, when we manage the lifecycle for upgrading from one version to another, sometimes the upgrade gets stuck or the solution doesn't support online upgrades and compatibility.  

The solution's lifecycle management (LCM) should be enhanced. Multiple issues arise when dealing with the LCM feature on hand. The VMware feature can be included in the solution's software layer. Like Nutanix, VxRail should bring some competitive features like inbuilt DR capabilities and cloud hosting. 

VxRail provides an easy-to-scale environment. However, there are some limitations when the product is considered from the VMware perspective. The feature of HCI mesh functioning with Dell EMC VxRail further helps manage the compute-only nodes when needed. At our company, we never faced any challenges while scaling the VxRail environment. 

At our company, whenever we face a challenge or issue with VxRail, we easily resolve it by contacting customer support. Immediate support is available from Dell for any hardware issues. But in some instances, for virtualization issues, there is some dependency on VMware, which leads to a delay in support. 

At our company, we believe VxRail support is proactive and their response metrics are smoother than Nutanix's. I would rate VxRail's customer support an eight out of ten. 

Positive

The product offers easy and fast deployment. 

The hardware cost associated with the tool usage is a bit high. But when a user has been using VxRail for three to five years, the overall hardware cost reduces due to a reduction in orchestration cost. When we compare the CapEx and OpEx costs of VxRail together, they are always lower than those of another type of rack server adoption. 

At our company, we also work with Nutanix. Some of our customers prefer to adopt Nutanix for a few special use cases. Nutanix's performance and underlying operations are sometimes better than VxRail's. But personally, as a tech architect, I would say VxRail is better than Nutanix in terms of daily operations. 

For some technical issues, reaching out to Nutanix support is difficult, whereas similar issues can be easily resolved by reaching out to VxRail support. Troubleshooting articles are not easily available with Nutanix. From the disaster recovery perspective, when a user adopts the Dell EMC VxRail, some dependency on third-party tools like SRM and Hyper-V is required. For Nutanix, a user does not need to bear the cost of external tools as Nutanix holds internal DR capabilities.

Nutanix also offers its own public cloud, where the tool can be used with AWS or Azure to develop a hybrid cloud environment. But VxRail has only an on-prem offering that can be used for discrete HTC and VCF environment operations. 

Users are usually very comfortable executing the workload of data center operations on VxRail. But when a user has to manage heavy workloads for storage, such as HeavyDB and database servers, they prefer to use external storage facilities to gain the maximum benefits of the computed nodes. 

At our company, one of the customers is leveraging around 8,000 servers of VxRail, out of which 50% is native VxRail without VCF, and the rest of ESXi is utilized with VCF. The solution has also helped our company's customers grow their businesses. 

The monitoring tool of VxRail helps improve efficiency. The tool easily integrates with VMware, vSphere and other logging tools. VxRail also allows hardware monitoring and tools within the Dell EMC VxRail are presented as a plugin within the vCenter. Any monitoring executed for hardware failure environment can be easily managed through the operations tool. VxRail also effortlessly integrates with ITSM tools. 

Due to the automation features, cluster scalability, and number of operational days of the tool, VxRail is able to reduce 30-40% of our company's operational costs. Our company's customers' preferences vary depending on factors like quality, cost, and features, choosing VxRail or another competitive solution. Overall, I would rate VxRail an eight out of ten. 

We use it in a infrastructure in a box-style setup for onsite deployments. We take certain assets to remote locations and record data for whatever sorties that they are doing.

The flexibility has improved our organization. If we went the traditional method, we would have to carry a lot more equipment. VxRail allows us to take all the systems that we would use in a full rack in a quarter rack.

It gives us tons of flexibility. We can create new machines, then destroy them if they don't work out. We test a lot of use cases that may or may not play out. We can build all types of scenarios into virtual machines that we may or may not use. If we don't use them, we just turn them off, no using up resources.

I would like them to include an easier solution to host its own DNS. When they changed to version 6.5, they took out the easy features of letting the rail be its own DNS. You can still trick the system and make the VxRail Manager another one of the rail-required VMs become the DNS, but it's a lot of extra work. I'd like to see it put back into the UI.

The stability of version 6.5 and above has been pretty good. 

Version 6.0 and below has always been kind of a pain to work with, but there have been huge improvements. I like the inclusion of the HTML5 vCenter.

The scalability is great. Thankfully, our data needs are in the 200 gigabyte range when we go out onsite, so we're not overloading it. We just have the single rail that has four hosts on it.

The technical support is not so great. They had the VMware personnel trying to help us out. We had some issues on one of the rails, and it never got resolved. It is just one of those things on the to-do list. 

They were walking me through some of the diagnostic stuff, and it was clear that they had no idea. I ended up sending five different sets of logs to their FTP site, and there was no resolution. After I sent the last set of logs, which was right over Christmas break, they were like, "We can't keep this ticket open for two weeks while Dell EMC goes offline at the end of the year." 

This just something I haven't picked back up yet. Thankfully, it's not a production critical piece of equipment right now. However, I would love to figure out how to do a factory reset and start from scratch. This was from version 6.0, and I've got reservations with anything lower than version 6.5.

The initial setup is straightforward for versions 6.5 and 6.7.

There is the logistical cost savings of the produced footprint of the equipment. 

There is an administrative cost savings. Instead of having seven to 15 separate boxes that someone has to administer on 15 different terminals, you can do the majority of it from one interface. Therefore, it saves on manpower costs.

I don't think I would have picked a different product.

VxRail is a suitable solution where more transactions are required and the TPMs exceed the standard requirements. For example, we have sold VxRail to a government weather company. This company runs extensive simulations to predict upcoming weather, analyzes images, and employs AI for analytics. These tasks demand significant computing power. Considering the budget, they need solutions that offer this level of performance. Typically, banking, education, and manufacturing customers opt for VxRail servers. 

VxRail integration with multiple products is among the best key points for selling to any end customer.

The main feature of VxRail is its integration. VxRail integrates with almost all major products. Another key feature is its monitoring capabilities. VxRail provides detailed monitoring from the application level, making it easy to troubleshoot issues. Additionally, their CloudIQ software suggests best practices automatically. For instance, if you are taking snapshot backups on VxRail, CloudIQ will inform you in advance if there are any issues. For example, if you planned to take ten snapshots in one day but only eight were successful due to a receiver issue, CloudIQ will help you identify the problem and suggest best practices to resolve it. It provides comprehensive data and information without consulting different websites or people.

The solution is expensive.

I have been using VxRail for ten years.

The stability is excellent.

I rate the solution’s stability a nine out of ten.

You can have over 64 nodes in one cluster. It's plug-and-play. You just need to add the load to the cluster.

It is suitable for telcos and enterprises. If you have a university with two hundred campuses, then it is not recommended for them.It is the best solution for one of the departments, such as the electronics or business departments, that are running simulations. 

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

Support is wonderful. You email them, and they come to Webex and take the session.

The price of VxRail is a bit higher. However, they focus on general specifications when selecting products in the environment sector.

When we compare VxRail with Cisco HyperFlex, Lenovo, Nutanix, and HP, we find it to be more cost-effective. Additionally, VxRail offers integrated backup and application support. In contrast, HP often lacks application support and relies on third-party solutions like Veeam or NetBackup. This can sometimes cause issues with smaller or in-house applications that may not be compatible with these backup solutions, leading to problems. On the other hand, if we decide to go with VxRail, they provide Avamar and NetWorker. Additionally, we can integrate it with a dedicated domain if we want to use separate storage.

When providing VxRail solutions to customers, they bring their own system engineers or system administrators with one or two years of experience in servers and VMware. We do not just hand over the hardware as a simple plug-and-play solution. Instead, we provide a comprehensive solution that requires some level of expertise. Ideally, the person should have two to three years of experience in VMware and server administration.

For instance, a six-node installation can be completed in two hours, given the proper preparation. The system doesn't work automatically for the engineer; they need to be proactive. It is crucial to prepare around four or five key points before deployment. This proactive preparation ensures a smoother installation and deployment process. This is one of the strong points of VxRail solutions.

VxRail competes with Cisco HyperFlex, HPE SimpliVity, and other major players in the HCI market. Locally, there is limited market penetration, which keeps them relatively safe. Apart from Dell EMC's VxRail, other significant providers include HPE with SimpliVity, Lenovo with Nutanix, and Cisco with HyperFlex.

We have repeatedly asked the R&D team about external storage and how we can improve it for CI. Previously, there was an issue with FCI traffic, which was not supported. However, it is now supported on FCI with external storage.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We have a good mix of everything. There are terminal servers, routers, firewalls, and customer servers, and all are on VMs. We are replacing our old hardware servers. We have virtualized those as well.

By implementing VxRail, we wanted scalability. We wanted to be able to easily add a server and configure it. We wanted the simplicity of configurations for the team so that I do not need to extensively train the team. They know immediately what to do.

VxRail has improved our availability. This means we no longer stress when a server fails. It immediately switches VMs to another machine. I can update without having to set a maintenance window. I have become more independent.

Because everything happens in one window, it is absolutely easy to handle.

VxRail has the ability to consolidate infrastructure from multiple locations, but we are only at one location.

VxRail has had quite a positive effect in terms of energy consumption. I can compare what individual hardware is needed. I can also see which hardware and what capacities are being used. When the VMs move themselves to work evenly on all computers or servers, it is an advantage.

VxRail has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime because we now have a cluster, and the VMs move themselves. We have had two outages in a year. One was a hardware failure, and the other was an update problem. Only two or three VMs were turned off because a component was defective. Otherwise, there was no major outage. They moved everything to other machines as planned, and we could work with it.

With VxRail, the flexibility is very high because we can scale it without any problems for new projects. For example, we have a larger project coming up where many associations will be involved. I can simply plug in additional devices, set up the initial configuration, and let the service configure itself immediately. I am very flexible.

For sustainability, we can recycle them. We have not done it, but we had the option to do it as a lease purchase. That is also advantageous for the future.

The assurance that my systems would not suffer a performance drop no matter where they are is valuable. I do not need any extra hardware.

They should have better compatibility with other processors, such as AMD processors.

I have been using VxRail since the beginning of 2023.

It has broken twice now, but everything still ran, so I would rate it a nine out of ten for stability. It is great that things can fail without a major impact. 

It is scalable. Scalability is given by the fact that we can simply add more servers.

Their support is superb. Because of CloudIQ and the proactive approach of Dell, the support for customers is top-notch. We had new hardware or replacement parts on-site within three hours. 

I would rate their support a nine out of ten. I do not have a problem with English, but if you want to get support in German, it is a bit more difficult. It used to be easier. It is not a dealbreaker, but it would be nice to have. We are doing great with what we have, but it would be an advantage if from 9 to 10, there was a German-speaking support person. For example, when we were upgrading from version 7 to 8, it would have been nicer to be able to converse more fluently with someone, but that is more of a problem on my end and not with the support.

Positive

We have not used any other similar solution.

If I had done it without the help of the person from Dell for the first time, it would have been more complex. Because he showed me once, it was very easy. If I want to change something now, it is just easy. There is all the automation behind it. When I have a new server, I slide it into the rack, connect all the wiring, give it an IP address, and click a button to bring up the server.

We had someone from Dell who helped us with the installation and configuration.

There is an advantage for those who have a good deal with Dell. Its price is good. From a company's perspective, it is always too expensive, but it is about value for money.

We did not evaluate other options. We had other Dell servers, but we did not have VxRail. We did not need any alternatives. We like working with Dell. The colleagues offered it to us and sold it to us.

We did not consider a public cloud infrastructure before choosing VxRail.

Overall, I would rate VxRail a ten out of ten. I am satisfied with it. Once you get the hang of it, you can just work on it. If you need support, they can help you configure something.

Foreign Language:(German)

Gute Leistung, viel Flexibilität und erstklassiger Support

Was ist unser Hauptanwendungsfall?

Wir haben eine gute Mischung aus allem. Es gibt Terminalserver, Router, Firewalls und Kundenserver, die alle auf VMs laufen. Wir sind dabei, unsere alten Hardwareserver zu ersetzen. Auch diese haben wir virtualisiert.

Wie hat es meiner Organisation geholfen?

Mit der Implementierung von VxRail wollten wir Skalierbarkeit erreichen. Wir wollten in der Lage sein, einfach einen Server hinzuzufügen und ihn zu konfigurieren. Wir wollten, dass die Konfigurationen für das Team so einfach sind, dass ich das Team nicht ausgiebig schulen muss. Sie wissen sofort, was zu tun ist.

VxRail hat unsere Verfügbarkeit verbessert. Das bedeutet, dass wir keinen Stress mehr haben, wenn ein Server ausfällt. Es schaltet die VMs sofort auf einen anderen Rechner um. Ich kann Updates durchführen, ohne ein Wartungsfenster festlegen zu müssen. Ich bin unabhängiger geworden.

Da alles in der gleichen Ansicht geschieht, ist es absolut einfach zu handhaben.

VxRail hat die Möglichkeit, die Infrastruktur von mehreren Standorten aus zu konsolidieren, aber wir sind nur an einem Standort.

VxRail hat sich in Bezug auf den Energieverbrauch sehr positiv ausgewirkt. Ich kann vergleichen, welche Hardware im Einzelnen benötigt wird. Ich kann auch sehen, welche Hardware und welche Kapazitäten genutzt werden. Es ist von Vorteil, wenn sich die VMs so verschieben, dass sie gleichmäßig auf allen Rechnern oder Servern arbeiten.

VxRail hat dazu geführt, dass wir weniger ungeplante Produktionsausfälle haben, weil wir jetzt einen Cluster haben und die VMs sich selbst verschieben. Wir hatten in einem Jahr zwei Ausfälle. Bei einem handelte es sich um einen Hardwareausfall, bei dem anderen um ein Update-Problem. Nur zwei oder drei VMs wurden abgeschaltet, weil eine Komponente defekt war. Ansonsten gab es keine größeren Ausfälle. Sie haben alles wie geplant auf andere Maschinen verschoben, und wir konnten damit arbeiten.

Mit VxRail ist die Flexibilität sehr hoch, weil wir es ohne Probleme für neue Projekte skalieren können. Wir haben zum Beispiel ein größeres Projekt vor uns, an dem viele Verbände beteiligt sein werden. Ich kann einfach zusätzliche Geräte anschließen, die Erstkonfiguration einrichten und den Dienst sofort selbst konfigurieren lassen. Ich bin sehr flexibel.

Im Sinne der Nachhaltigkeit können wir die Geräte recyceln. Das haben wir nicht getan, aber wir hatten die Möglichkeit, sie als Mietkauf zu erwerben. Das ist auch für die Zukunft von Vorteil.

Was ist am wertvollsten?

Die Gewissheit, dass meine Systeme keine Leistungseinbußen erleiden, egal wo sie sich befinden, ist wertvoll. Ich benötige keine zusätzliche Hardware.

Was muss verbessert werden?

Sie sollten eine bessere Kompatibilität mit anderen Prozessoren, z. B. AMD-Prozessoren, aufweisen.

Wie lange nutze ich die Lösung schon?

Ich verwende VxRail seit Anfang 2023.

Was halte ich von der Stabilität der Lösung?

Es ist jetzt zweimal kaputt gegangen, aber alles lief noch, also würde ich es mit neun von zehn Punkten für die Stabilität bewerten. Es ist toll, dass Dinge ohne größere Auswirkungen ausfallen können.

Was denke ich über die Skalierbarkeit der Lösung?

Es ist skalierbar. Die Skalierbarkeit ist dadurch gegeben, dass wir einfach weitere Server hinzufügen können.

Wie sind Kundenservice und Support?

Der Support ist hervorragend. Aufgrund von CloudIQ und dem proaktiven Ansatz von Dell ist der Support für Kunden erstklassig. Wir hatten innerhalb von drei Stunden neue Hardware oder Ersatzteile vor Ort.

Ich würde den Support mit neun von zehn Punkten bewerten. Mit Englisch habe ich kein Problem, aber wenn man Support auf Deutsch haben möchte, ist es etwas schwieriger. Früher war das einfacher. Das ist kein Hindernis, aber es wäre schön, wenn man es hätte. Wir kommen mit dem, was wir haben, gut zurecht, aber es wäre von Vorteil, wenn es von 9 bis 10 einen deutschsprachigen Supportmitarbeiter gäbe. Als wir zum Beispiel von Version 7 auf 8 umgestiegen sind, wäre es schöner gewesen, sich mit jemandem fließend unterhalten zu können, aber das ist eher ein Problem meinerseits und nicht des Supports.

Wie bewerten Sie den Kundenservice und -support?

Positiv

Welche Lösung habe ich vorher verwendet und warum habe ich gewechselt?

Wir haben keine andere ähnliche Lösung verwendet.

Wie war die Ersteinrichtung?

Wenn ich es ohne die Hilfe des Dell-Mitarbeiters zum ersten Mal gemacht hätte, wäre es komplizierter gewesen. Weil er es mir einmal gezeigt hat, war es sehr einfach. Wenn ich jetzt etwas ändern will, ist das ganz einfach. Dahinter verbirgt sich die ganze Automatisierung. Wenn ich einen neuen Server habe, schiebe ich ihn in das Rack, schließe alle Kabel an, gebe ihm eine IP-Adresse und klicke auf eine Schaltfläche, um den Server hochzufahren.

Was ist mit dem Implementierungsteam?

Wir hatten jemanden von Dell, der uns bei der Installation und Konfiguration geholfen hat.

Welche Erfahrungen habe ich mit den Preisen, den Implementierungskosten und der Lizenzierung gemacht?

Es gibt einen Vorteil für diejenigen, die ein gutes Geschäft mit Dell haben. Sein Preis ist gut. Aus der Sicht eines Unternehmens ist es immer zu teuer, aber es geht um ein gutes Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis.

Welche anderen Lösungen habe ich bewertet?

Wir haben keine anderen Optionen evaluiert. Wir hatten andere Dell-Server, aber wir hatten kein VxRail. Wir brauchten keine Alternativen. Wir arbeiten gerne mit Dell. Die Kollegen haben es uns angeboten und verkauft.

Bevor wir uns für VxRail entschieden haben, haben wir keine öffentliche Cloud-Infrastruktur in Betracht gezogen.

Welche anderen Ratschläge kann ich geben?

Insgesamt würde ich VxRail mit zehn von zehn Punkten bewerten. Ich bin sehr zufrieden damit. Wenn man einmal den Umgang damit gefunden hat, kann man einfach damit arbeiten. Falls man Unterstützung braucht, kann man sich bei der Konfiguration helfen lassen.

The environment is easy to manage.

The compute is good and we have not had any issues with the vSAN.

VxRail requires VMware support. When an issue occurs in VMware vSphere, for example, you would have to log a complaint with VMware support, and sometimes Dell Support can resolve the problem, but you will also have to log a complaint with VMware support internally, and the support agent will work with us to resolve the problem. Hardware support is adequate. They are capable of resolving the issues. We believe Dell's vShpere support falls short of the mark.

In the next release, I would like to see our graphical user interface allow us to manage VxRail clusters and everything on a single pane of glass where I can monitor and shut down the server, similar to a VxRail manager.

I have been working with VxRail for one year.

VxRail is very stable. It is working very well.

VxRail is very scalable. It can scale out to 64 hosts.

In our company, we have eight to ten people who are using this solution.

The automatic creation of support tickets Whenever an issue arises, ESRS and VxRail are present and automatically forward the complaints to Dell. These are fantastic features.

Technical support is not very good, but it's not bad.

We were not working with pre-configured appliances. We were using servers that we configured. We used VMware and vSAN. 

VxRail is easy to set up. It was very easy.

The complete configuration and powering of VxRail took a couple of days to set up the servers and infrastructure, as well as the cabling. When we power up the servers, VMware and vSAN were already applied to it. We will only need to buy the license to configure the appliances.

VxRail has a great return on investment.

When compared with others, the price is very reasonable.

It's a very good product. I would recommend this solution to others who are considering it.

I haven't used any other product that I can compare it with, but so far it has been good.

I would rate VxRail an eight out of ten.

We simplified our environment and made it easier to expand. We use the solution in four different locations and have about 25 people directly administering the product. The product is used by 4,000 people.

The fact that we can expand our nodes horizontally and the integration with VMware, which is what we use for all of our server virtualizations, has been most valuable.

Supply chain capabilities are certainly hurting us. We're in the process of placing a large order for more VxRail nodes right now.

I have been using this solution for three years. 

This is a stable solution. 

The technical support for this solution is very good. I would rate them an eight and a half. 

We previously used Cisco UCS and made the switch to Dell after an extensive proof of concept. We felt like it was going to be the best comprehensive solution for us.

The initial setup was straightforward. 

In some cases, we used a reseller. We have negotiated an agreement with Dell where we now buy directly from them.

We have seen ROI using this solution. It has simplified the work of the staff that we have which allows us to do more work with the same number of people, without having to incrementally grow the staff. The reliability of the product has been exceptional.

Licensing and price for this solution is reasonable.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

The solution is primarily used as a general data center and VDI. 

I consult multiple organizations across many industries.  VxRAIL is a platform  I lead with. It reduces IT admin time and complexity around managing a hyper-converged environment. 

The solution is perfect for the lifecycle management of hardware.

The solution allows automated updates to hosts os and hardware, and in some cases switch hardware patches as well.

The licensing costs are too expensive for smaller deployments. They should work on their pricing model at the low end. many of the customer's at the smaller end of the scale would benefit the most from the automation but it often times becomes cost prohibitive.

The solution needs a little more flexibility in the hardware that is supported by VxRAIL. Right now, they're very restrictive of the hardware supported. 

I've been dealing with the solution for two or three years.

The stability of the solution is rock solid. Organizations consider it completely reliable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash. It's great.

The scalability of the solution is very impressive, actually. You can scale a very large environment with ease. It's not trouble at all.

On the converse of that, it doesn't work so well for very small environments. This is mostly for if you've got, for example, four hosts already. It's not for small environments. You need to really have 100 to 200 VMs to really take advantage of it.

As a reseller, I'll typically check in with clients after a few months to see how things are going and to see if they need a new node or anything of that nature.  Typically, they are looking to scale a bit more.

The technical support is phenomenal. I'd give it five stars. They are very responsive and knowledgeable. We're satisfied with the level of service they provide.

I have been selling virtualization platforms for around 10 years.  Hyper Converged Infrastructure is perfect for general data center work loads and for VDI.  

For myself, it's fairly straightforward and no longer very complex. However, I've done more than a dozen of them so far. If you don't know what you're doing, it can be pretty complex. You really do need some expertise with the solution to manage everything.

In terms of deployment, it chiefly takes about two days of planning and about two days of implementation.

In terms of maintenance, what makes it so nice is that it automates management and patching of all of an organization's virtual hosts and even their switches if the switches are supported. Therefore, it reduces admin.

We handle the implementation for our clients.

Users do find that licensing is quite pricey.

The costs vary from customer to customer.

A typical node that I would sell to a customer has a list price be between $50,000 and $80,000 per node. Organizations typically start with four nodes. That's the hardware, software, VMware licensing, everything. 

Customers typically pay about half of that for VSAN REady nodes - approximately $25,000 to $50,000 a node. On average, it costs about $200,000 to get your foot in the door. That can be quite expensive for any organization that isn't a large enterprise.

I have trained and worked with all of the major HCI options out there.

VSAN (VxRail is built on top of this)

Nutanix ( a very solid alternative)

Simplivity ( not to the level of VSAN or Nutanix)

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct ( good idea, not quite ready for production)

We're a partner with Dell VMware. VxRail is a part of Dell.

I largely just sell and set up the solutions; I don't use the solution regularly myself.

It's an amazing product overall.

This solution definitely requires an organization to plan everything out correctly. You need to map out your networking, understand what your resource utilization is going to be, make sure you get the right amount of RAM and storage on the host, and then also understand the impact to your licensing costs for Microsoft.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I would give it perfect marks if it wasn't so expensive.