The initial setup of HPE Hyper Converged requires study and a comprehensive understanding of virtualization. The second step is to follow instructions step by step, as it can be complex to understand the approach and technology. We needed to have a clear vision of virtualization before switching to hyper-converged skills.
Head of IT Department at Water Authority Of Jordan-waj
Real User
Top 20
Jun 27, 2025
It is very complicated to migrate to another domain. When we have one domain and want to move to another domain, we need to destroy the cluster on the HPE Hyper Converged system, and we need to change the IP sub-network and IP service. This process requires destroying the cluster and rebuilding it from scratch, which is very complicated and difficult.
Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and most clients are skipping VMware because VMware has changed its licensing method. If HPE starts to use its own hypervisor for its HCI solutions, it will be the best solution. We push a different vendor for the backup and replication, so we only use the HCI, then we use Veeam for the backup and replication section.
One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good to have an open kind of platform for other hypervisors, maybe. Like Nutanix is doing, it's very open. Another area of improvement is the expansion node. Because today, we can add a few disks, which is limited. Or scale out. But in the capacity upgrades, there is a kind of limitation somewhere. In future releases, I would like to see more advanced features in terms of replication on the DR side. Because today, the product is doing what should be done. But it's not at the same level with the other third-party vendors like Veeam, applications like Commvault, and other production.
Scalability is an issue because it becomes very expensive. When you need to upgrade memory, you have to upgrade memory across the nodes. Suppose a customer has gone with a three-node HCI solution, then to increase the memory, you have to do it across the three nodes.
We have faced some challenges when upgrading. With Hyper Converged, you have to fully upgrade because there are no incremental upgrades available in this solution. For example, let's say we have two nodes. If we want to upgrade storage, we also need to upgrade computing. That means a full upgrade EME.
In the Hyper Converged environment, some of the brands only support the OS VMware and not Hyper-V from Microsoft or even Red Hat or KVM. I'm specifically talking about certain propositions in the dHCI that only support VMware as the Hypervisor. They could have all different layers of Hypervisors, like the KVM or X, Y, Z. Currently dHci Nimble offers only VMware as native hypervisor and will be great if it can support others like Red Hat, KVM etc too. Although this is not a limitation as one can install Red Hat & other operating systems as a Virtual machine on top of VMware hypervisor.
The downside of the solution is the scalability because they grow using nodes, but it's not desegregate. If you want to add more computers or more space, you need to add another node. It's the only negative in the solution.
Information Security Officer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Real User
Sep 15, 2019
Providing local technical support and improving the price are areas this service needs to consider improving. In the next release, I would like to see more protection and more options. In our organization, we can't buy expensive solutions, so if HPE could come out with a cheaper version, it would be great!
The solution can be improved on the management side. More management features should be added to future releases. The solution should have more in-depth manuals or user information. This would not only help us but also assist our customers.
Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Sep 5, 2019
I would really like to see an improvement in the stability. We've experienced a few issues with the stability, because HP brings out a new version every month, and that's very complicated. For instance, we see firmware from the host, vSphere itself, and then there are many steps you have to do in a very short time. I would prefer fewer updates because we as customers, who don't have IT experience, aren't familiar with these steps and it is really difficult for us. In the next version, I would like to see an easier upgrade procedure that doesn't take much time and that is easier to understand.
Some improvement is required in the availability of the data and performance. The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower. HPE Hyper Converged is more expensive than traditional solutions without HCI, but our customers are impressed with the overall features of this product.
One problem I've had is that I was trying to do a move and it was not working. I was given an error and a message asking me to shut down the machine first and then move it to another host. While in the normal VM, we just used the existing viable machine and moved it to another host without an issue. As this product is new to me, I need to do a bit more training to see what it offers. It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful.
I would like to see more flexibility in the offered configurations. For instance a software-only version of the solution, without the hardware, would be nice. This would give me the opportunity to use existing hardware in my datacenter and run the Simplivity software on top of that giving me access to all nice features of the Data Virtualization Platform of Simplivity.
Development and IT Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Dec 19, 2018
The storage efficiency is weak and needs to be improved. However, I do not think HPE is planning to improve it at this time. They will probably look to EOL it, because HPE SimpliVity has resolved this issue, but at a higher price tag. To resolve this issue with HPE Hyper Converged, I will buy a backup appliance, then I will shift my data which I am not using often to a backup appliance. This will be offline data and solve my issues.
HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.
Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a...
The initial setup of HPE Hyper Converged requires study and a comprehensive understanding of virtualization. The second step is to follow instructions step by step, as it can be complex to understand the approach and technology. We needed to have a clear vision of virtualization before switching to hyper-converged skills.
It is very complicated to migrate to another domain. When we have one domain and want to move to another domain, we need to destroy the cluster on the HPE Hyper Converged system, and we need to change the IP sub-network and IP service. This process requires destroying the cluster and rebuilding it from scratch, which is very complicated and difficult.
Currently, the HPE HCI is based on the VMware solution, and most clients are skipping VMware because VMware has changed its licensing method. If HPE starts to use its own hypervisor for its HCI solutions, it will be the best solution. We push a different vendor for the backup and replication, so we only use the HCI, then we use Veeam for the backup and replication section.
I haven't had issues personally. I've heard from other people that maybe there could be some improvements around technical support.
The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced.
In my country, the biggest issue is probably pricing.
One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good to have an open kind of platform for other hypervisors, maybe. Like Nutanix is doing, it's very open. Another area of improvement is the expansion node. Because today, we can add a few disks, which is limited. Or scale out. But in the capacity upgrades, there is a kind of limitation somewhere. In future releases, I would like to see more advanced features in terms of replication on the DR side. Because today, the product is doing what should be done. But it's not at the same level with the other third-party vendors like Veeam, applications like Commvault, and other production.
The solution needs to add a module or plugin of vCenter for clear monitoring and insights.
The improvements could be customization and backup efficiency.
The solution's technical support services could be better.
Scalability is an issue because it becomes very expensive. When you need to upgrade memory, you have to upgrade memory across the nodes. Suppose a customer has gone with a three-node HCI solution, then to increase the memory, you have to do it across the three nodes.
We have faced some challenges when upgrading. With Hyper Converged, you have to fully upgrade because there are no incremental upgrades available in this solution. For example, let's say we have two nodes. If we want to upgrade storage, we also need to upgrade computing. That means a full upgrade EME.
This solution is very costly.
I think the solution could be more secure and more economical.
An area for improvement would be the ease of installation and setup.
In the Hyper Converged environment, some of the brands only support the OS VMware and not Hyper-V from Microsoft or even Red Hat or KVM. I'm specifically talking about certain propositions in the dHCI that only support VMware as the Hypervisor. They could have all different layers of Hypervisors, like the KVM or X, Y, Z. Currently dHci Nimble offers only VMware as native hypervisor and will be great if it can support others like Red Hat, KVM etc too. Although this is not a limitation as one can install Red Hat & other operating systems as a Virtual machine on top of VMware hypervisor.
The downside of the solution is the scalability because they grow using nodes, but it's not desegregate. If you want to add more computers or more space, you need to add another node. It's the only negative in the solution.
I think that OneView should be replaced by something else for the management.
The pricing could be improved. It's quite an expensive solution. The solution would be better served if it integrated with other solutions better.
Providing local technical support and improving the price are areas this service needs to consider improving. In the next release, I would like to see more protection and more options. In our organization, we can't buy expensive solutions, so if HPE could come out with a cheaper version, it would be great!
The solution can be improved on the management side. More management features should be added to future releases. The solution should have more in-depth manuals or user information. This would not only help us but also assist our customers.
I would really like to see an improvement in the stability. We've experienced a few issues with the stability, because HP brings out a new version every month, and that's very complicated. For instance, we see firmware from the host, vSphere itself, and then there are many steps you have to do in a very short time. I would prefer fewer updates because we as customers, who don't have IT experience, aren't familiar with these steps and it is really difficult for us. In the next version, I would like to see an easier upgrade procedure that doesn't take much time and that is easier to understand.
Some improvement is required in the availability of the data and performance. The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower. HPE Hyper Converged is more expensive than traditional solutions without HCI, but our customers are impressed with the overall features of this product.
The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM.
One problem I've had is that I was trying to do a move and it was not working. I was given an error and a message asking me to shut down the machine first and then move it to another host. While in the normal VM, we just used the existing viable machine and moved it to another host without an issue. As this product is new to me, I need to do a bit more training to see what it offers. It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful.
I would like to see more flexibility in the offered configurations. For instance a software-only version of the solution, without the hardware, would be nice. This would give me the opportunity to use existing hardware in my datacenter and run the Simplivity software on top of that giving me access to all nice features of the Data Virtualization Platform of Simplivity.
The storage efficiency is weak and needs to be improved. However, I do not think HPE is planning to improve it at this time. They will probably look to EOL it, because HPE SimpliVity has resolved this issue, but at a higher price tag. To resolve this issue with HPE Hyper Converged, I will buy a backup appliance, then I will shift my data which I am not using often to a backup appliance. This will be offline data and solve my issues.