VxRail Reviews

The computing achieved by the solution for more than 100 VMs with less storage is very good. The software integration is easy, like plug-and-play. Compared with other products, the IT administrator or IT integrator doesn't take much time to get the tool up and running.

The solution should facilitate the separate expansion of computing and storage.

I have been using VxRail for ten years.

The solution's stability is very good. The failure ratio and errors are very low. The solution gives us fast pre-alerts for main upgrades.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for stability.

As per the current scenario, we can scale up to 64 nodes, which is enough for normal workloads.

The solution's technical support is very good. We get very good support from Dell in the Middle East, but L3 access is a bit tough.

Positive

The solution’s initial setup is very easy.

Since VMware is detached from Dell, the solution's pricing is a bit higher than before. After the detaching of Dell and VMware, VMware's licensing pattern has changed and has become a bit expensive compared to other hypervisors in the market.

We do not pay for each Dell product but for the whole Dell bundle. We purchase a license for three to five years, which includes maintenance and support.

VxRail is utilized in our data center operations depending on multiple types of workloads. VxRail can be used by any company, including small and medium-sized or enterprise businesses. Once implemented properly, the solution works smoothly, and we don't need to maintain it. VxRail is easy to scale, use, and manage.

I would not recommend the solution to small companies. Small companies with less than 15 VMs won't be able to afford the price, and traditional tools will be better for them. I recommend VxRail to small and medium-sized businesses with more than 15 to 20 VMs.

Overall, I rate the solution seven and a half out of ten.

The solution is used for companies using hyperconversion. If companies are moving towards hyper-converged infrastructure and want to consolidate everything to one single point of management or vendor, they can use this solution. 

VxRail is a unique product due to its adoption with VMware. It does work with PowerEdge servers from Dell. The hyper-converged software-defined storage is very good. The vSAN acts as software-defined storage. It offers very innovative features. It offers a very solid service alongside its innovative features and capabilities. 

There's an acquisition unfolding with Broadcom and VMware. We're waiting to hear what this will mean for VxRail. Until that happens, it's hard to say what the roadmap will look like. There are a lot of changes happening due to the acquisition, even from a licensing perspective, and we're waiting to see. Therefore, it's tricky to evaluate anything.

The Dell PowerEdge Servers are very good servers. VMware is also a very good product. However, we don't get a full picture of VMware cloud formation as an orchestrated data center. Maybe, Broadcom and VMware could bundle their products together. It's possible they could offer the same experience as a public cloud over the data center. VxEail should offer its own cloud platform. 

There can be a lack of functionality. There are limitations and restrictions of choice. There are only three modes of architecture. The hardware configuration is limited. Other vendors are more flexible.

I have about four years of experience using the solution. I still use it on occasion, although I do also use its main competitor, Nutanix.

The stability of VxRail is very good. However, for scaling, it's ideal to split the cluster into four domains if you have many nodes. This ensures stability. It will protect against data loss. 

The solution scales well. A single cluster can have 64 nodes. My largest project only uses 24 nodes. 

Technical support from Dell is very good. They've always offered very good. So far, we've been very satisfied. 

I also use Nutanix, which is VxRail's main competitor.

Review platforms such as Gartner and Forrester, et cetera, always have VxRail and number two next to Nutanix, which is number one. 

VxRail is adopting some of Nutanix's ideology in order to become even more competitive. 

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. We can handle it. All hyper-converged structures come pre-implemented. You simply open it, and you just have to do a few extra tasks, like attaching the management center and configuring it. It can be handled in a single day.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. 

We use it for our database, all in Flash. So we have excellent performance, and it has resolved all our issues. No issues at all. And the support is very fast.

This solution is very good. It's a product from the other line, and it's very efficient for us. It has worked very well for us, and we haven't encountered any critical issues with it.

The solution is very expensive. And it's not scalable for small businesses, just medium to large enterprises. The pricing could be cheaper. 

Another area of improvement is support. It could be faster. 

We have been using this solution for about four years.

The solution is really stable.

It is a scalable solution. It handles big data of our database, about three or four million customer services.

Overall, the support is good. But sometimes, it takes a long time for the support to respond. 

The initial setup is very complex. 

Our partner also provides us with implementation and deployment support. We're not capable of troubleshooting it ourselves. We need technical support to handle it, and sometimes, it takes a long time to get the support.

Deployment takes a long time, but three people are enough. One admin, one manager.

The license is very expensive. 

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's a very good and effective product, though somewhat expensive. But in terms of performance and stability, it's worth it.

For our stores, we primarily use the solution for what's called edge computing to provide all the data processing needs in our stores.

The product allows us to have the capacity for the future to be able to add applications to help us better serve our customers.

We've seen reductions in cost by being able to reduce the amount of staff who needs to support the application. We've reduced staff by about 20%. It's enabled us to roll out applications that help us provide better customer service to our customers.

The ease of deployment and management of the solution are the most valuable aspects of the product. It's important due to the fact that, with 1800 stores, we can't afford to have an extensive staff to manage it.

We'd like to see improvements in the supply chain. We're evaluating that for the future.

I would like to see more solutions for satellite capabilities where we can put it into smaller locations and still have the redundancy that we have with a larger cluster.

We implemented the first solution in February 2019. 

It's stable. I would rate it ten out of ten for stability.

We've now implemented it across our store network. We'll have 1800 stores on the VxRail by the end of October.

We have more capacity than we need. The reason we selected the product is that it is scalable. We can add additional components when needed. We haven't had to, however, it's available if we need to.

At this point, we've adopted the solution 100% across our organization.

Technical support overall is excellent. It was a seamless process. We were very successful in the implementation. 

Positive

We used a three-tier architecture that we replaced with this product. It was the end of life and didn't have the capacity we needed to provide to our source.

I was involved in the deployment of VxRail. The whole process was straightforward. 

In terms of deployment, we did the first 600 stores in three months, and we now are doing 1200 stores and we'll be done by October. We worked together with Dell. We had a cross-functional team and we started slow and then built up to peak volume. Our strategy was to make sure we didn't disrupt any location.

About four or five people on our side were involved in the implementation. Dell assisted us and I don't know how many Dell had. Obviously, they needed people to go to every store to implement.

Our job was to act in coordination and communication with the locations where it was being deployed.

The solution does require maintenance, however, it's very easy since there are tools that are provided with the technology. About five people are involved with administration and maintenance. They address any predictive alerts that come out on failures and care and feed any additional firmware or other types of updates that are required.

We used the Dell Technologies services to help us with the deployment and that went very well.

The pricing is fair. It's combined with the hardware and the VMware technology to run it as well. It's bundled.

We evaluated Nutanix and HPE. Dell has the largest market share, however, and it's the most mature of the other providers.

This solution is on-premises in our data centers and also in our stores.

My advice to others would be to look strongly at the hyper-converged infrastructure technologies that come with it. It virtualizes a lot of the functions that were previously separate. It brings it together in one easy-to-manage solution.

I'd rate the product ten out of ten.

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.

VXRail enhances data center scalability through its CI-based architecture. It allows for node-based scalability, meaning up to sixty-four nodes can be added to a single cluster. This scalability feature enables customers to scale up as needed without downtime.

Apart from the single management console, one of the most valuable features I've found in VxRail is its continuously validated architecture backed by Dell. This means that all firmware and updates undergo testing in Dell labs. Unlike with standard Dell servers, where we update firmware independently, with VxRail, Dell provides compatibility information for each update, ensuring we never encounter compatibility issues.

Integrating the tool with other products is quite straightforward. It's open in terms of storage, allowing for easy integration of third-party external storage solutions at both the network and storage levels. Additionally, all third-party backup software is integratable with it. 

The product's automation lifecycle management is a good feature.

One challenge customers face with VxRail is the high cost of scalability. The price is higher if they want to add memory or capacity after purchasing the tool for three or five years. Each drive and RAM module is licensed separately, making the architecture costly. It would benefit Dell to review this licensing model and make it more cost-effective and flexible for customers.

I have been working with the product for four years. 

I rater the tool's stability a ten out of ten. 

I rate the tool's scalability a ten out of ten. 

The solution's technical support is good.

Positive

The tool's setup process for VxRail is easy. If you follow the deployment guidelines and best practices, it typically takes no more than an hour to complete.

We've evaluated products from various vendors, but none currently match VxRail's capabilities in the market. While HP offers a similar product, it doesn't measure up to it. Some unique features make the product stand out, and we haven't found any direct competitors that can be comparedIt's primarily designed for enterprise-level use and may not be suitable for smaller or medium-sized businesses due to its higher cost. Enterprises are the main purchasers of VxRail. However, if Dell aims to make it more cost-effective, it could expand its market to include small and medium-sized businesses.

I rate the overall solution 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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

We have been using this solution since December. It has been two full months.

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.

It is scalable. Currently, we have 12 people who are working with this solution, but there will be more.

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.

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.

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.

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.