We performed a comparison between HPE Hyper Converged and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"The support has been amazing and quick to reply."
"The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V."
"Virtual SAN runs on iSCSI, which is free and easy to configure. It's easy to manage from StarWind's GUI console, and it only required a few extra switch ports."
"It has been extremely stable for the three years we've been running it."
"It integrates (fully) with VMware and Veeam, my hypervisor, and backup vendors, so for me, all the puzzle pieces simply fit and work smoothly."
"The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem."
"We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."
"The most valuable feature was its time to delivery."
"Hyper-convergence is the most valuable aspect of the solution. We can avoid downtime when there's maintenance or updates needed. Also, we have homogenous hardware, so we have a lot of trust in the solution's reliability."
"No concerns or issues with stability."
"Our storage and IT are now at an enterprise level with all the necessary controls and restrictions being enacted."
"If you were comparing this solution to VMware, it has more features, and it's very fast on the recovery."
"It is a stable solution...Those who want flexibility, ease of use, and a simple support system can opt for HPE."
"The most valuable features are resiliency and data protection."
"What I really like about this program, is that it needs little space and it works really fast, so it saves us time."
"We find the setup quite straightforward and very easy."
"The VX machines are scalable."
"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series' deployment is easy. We are a tier-one platinum partner who is into multiple implementations."
"Installation is straightforward because it's a vSAN. It only took one or two days."
"If there was one feature I would like to see it would be a built-in subsystem for managing UPS backups shutdown procedures providing a way to initiate VM shutdown on all host servers, shut down the host servers, then put the fault-tolerant mirroring in standby, and finally shut down the StarWind SANs."
"StarWind relies on the underlying OS to manage the "SAN files" whether that would be a RAID volume, software RAID (such as LVM), etc. It would be useful if StarWind could incorporate the actual physical drive management inside of the solution, similar to Storage Spaces Direct."
"The system failovers properly on its own without too much worry."
"I would like to see more user-friendly dashboards in future versions."
"Being able to run StarWind vSAN on top of any free UNIX operating system to build a resilient iSCSI/FTP/SMB storage system would be useful."
"The documentation can be better for the free tier."
"Regular updates to the software are required, and subtle design changes would be welcome."
"Android app for monitoring and receiving push notifications as alarms or monitoring I/O from any mobile device could be a good feature and nice to have as we are not always on our desk."
"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."
"I think that OneView should be replaced by something else for the management."
"The solution would be better served if it integrated with other solutions better."
"The solution is not very stable."
"The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced."
"Though with HPE Hyper Converged, you get everything, the documentation part is very much required, especially if you opt for the solution's subscription-based licensing model."
"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."
"Scalability requires using additional nodes."
"The user management could be a bit better. It's something they could improve upon in future releases."
"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series needs to improve its stability. Its resolution should be faster."
"With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers."
"Support could be better."
HPE Hyper Converged is ranked 10th in HCI with 34 reviews while Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is ranked 19th in HCI with 4 reviews. HPE Hyper Converged is rated 8.2, while Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of HPE Hyper Converged writes " Ensures end-to-end data security with redundancy measures and provides visibility into the system but node expansion challenges". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series writes "simplifies management for clients familiar with VMware, and offers a user-friendly management and configuration experience". HPE Hyper Converged is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, HPE SimpliVity and FlexPod XCS, whereas Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is most compared with VxRail, Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series, HPE Alletra dHCI and HPE SimpliVity. See our HPE Hyper Converged vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series report.
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