Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Reviews

Name: Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure
Brand: Sangfor
Rating: 4.0 (32 reviews)

4.0 out of 5

32 reviews
88% willing to recommend

135 followers

What is Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure?

Sangfor HCI is an IT infrastructure platform built on converged architecture. It integrates server virtualization, distributed storage, and networking. Sangfor HCI provides a unified management platform that converges compute, storage, networking, and security on a single software stack. This approach delivers a simplified architecture, ease of use, and reliability for business-critical applications.

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Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is the #8 ranked solution in HCI Software and #14 ranked solution in top Cloud Management solutions. PeerSpot users give Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure an average rating of 8.0 out of 10. Based on the analysis of the 32 most recent Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure reviews, the overall sentiment is positive, with a sentiment score of 8.4. (The highest in the category). Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is most commonly compared to VMware Aria Automation: Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs VMware Aria Automation. Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is popular among the large enterprise segment, accounting for 51% of users researching this solution on PeerSpot. The top industry researching this solution are professionals from a computer software company, accounting for 17% of all views.

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

October 2024

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Featured reviews

KashifAli

Project Head, Director of Sales and Operations at Core ISP Router

Sangfor HCI's license mechanism is too complicated. The license agreement is a distributed license. Within the HCI platform, Sangfor HCI has multiple licenses in terms of services. Sangfor HCI has a separate license for the security services, a separate license for the Doctor services, and application services. They have multiple SKUs in separate forms. As per local market requirements, I think they need to couple up these or bundle up the license model.

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Zaid Farooqui

CIO at Indus Motor Company

Sangfor HCI provides the flexibility of building our own private cloud. It has also enhanced our infrastructure management by enabling single-window operations for managing all the HCI clusters, including applications, and offers excellent reporting and visualization capabilities. Furthermore, it supports our AI-driven projects, which involve machine learning and computer vision analytics.

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Adnan Ahmed

Deputy Manager at Askari Life

My company faced some issues with the product, as our virtual machines crashed, and we had to face some security issues. Thanks to the remote help provided by the technical engineers from Sangfor, who helped our company deal with the issues in the product, after which, for a year and a half to two, the product has been running fine without a single issue. With Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure, issues stemmed from the crash of virtual machines in our company, which is an area of concern where improvements are required. In my company, we use some sort of a more advanced backup mechanism right now. If a few advanced features for backup mechanisms or application features, like DR or CDP, are available, which are parts that are mostly included in the license-based modules in Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure currently, it would be great. Native backup mechanisms are available in Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure, and we use them in our company, but a little bit more advanced features must be incorporated for basic users.

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Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure mindshare

Product category:

As of November 2024, the mindshare of Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure in the Cloud Management category stands at 1.9%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year, according to calculations based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Management

Key learnings from peers

Last updated Nov 21, 2024

Valuable Features

Sangfor HCI's strengths include its user-friendly interface, single management console, and robust data protection. Users appreciate its auto-scaling, built-in backup, and recovery features, as well as ease of migration and cost-effectiveness. The platform's flexibility, scalability, and simple GUI enhance usability. Its security features, integration, and drag-and-drop layout are also highlighted. The bundled offerings and transparency in feature availability build trust among users.

"The most valuable feature of Sangfor HCI is the native backup of their own VMs, which sets them apart from Nutanix and Dell's VxRail."
"The extraordinary product quality, unmatched support services, and the third-generation HCI offering are some of the most valuable features of Sangfor HCI."
"Scalability is very good."

Room for Improvement

Sangfor HCI needs better SAS support, Kubernetes and Docker integration, error reporting, and performance. Users seek object storage, built-in security features, and integration with cloud services. Improvements in VM tools, GUI, and native backup capabilities are desired. Price and licensing simplicity require attention. Sangfor HCI also needs enhanced support, a more extensive partner network, faster updates, greater compatibility with third-party solutions, and a more simplified migration process.

"I would like Sangfor to have a presence on some public cloud offerings, such as Azure or AWS, to build disaster recovery sites."
"Initially, there were issues with wrong sizing and certain features being locked, although these have been fixed."
"We have faced multiple types of challenges with the integration."

ROI

Sangfor HCI offers a mixed return on investment experience for organizations. Users highlighted challenges in calculating returns due to infrastructure growth and noted less favorable results from long-term use. Others praised its user-friendly management, optimized cost model, and reduced licensing expenses, resulting in significant savings in power, cooling, and space. Some found it economically beneficial compared to VMware due to simplified licensing and usage benefits, particularly for public cloud applications where the return was considered substantial.

Pricing

Sangfor HCI offers competitive pricing compared to other hyper-converged infrastructure solutions like VMware and Nutanix. It is often considered cheaper and includes features like Continuous Data Protection and built-in firewalls, which competitors charge separately for. Licensing is typically annual and includes a warranty. While initial setup costs are low, ongoing support is necessary and incurs additional fees. Pricing perceptions vary, with some rating it affordable and others feeling it has become more expensive recently.

"The solution is affordable."
"Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure is a reasonably priced product."
"Considering the capabilities provided, the product is expensive."

Popular Use Cases

Sangfor HCI is used for hosting applications, performing analytics, clustering SaaS, building high availability systems with virtual machines, and virtualization of infrastructure. Organizations use it for SAP, MES, ERP systems, and cloud services. It helps in reducing hardware by maximizing resource utilization and offering competitive pricing. It supports healthcare, manufacturing, and financial industries. Users leverage it for network, computer, and storage virtualization, offering features similar to VMware, enabling private cloud infrastructure and virtual machine management.

Service and Support

Sangfor HCI customer service and support are highly rated, with 24/7 availability and responsiveness being emphasized. Users commend technical support for its effectiveness. Language barriers are occasionally noted, particularly when communicating with Chinese engineers. Support teams in Pakistan are highlighted for their strong capabilities. Direct support is reportedly limited due to local resources, but a chat option exists for efficient communication. Some users mention response time issues, yet many regard the support as excellent overall.

Deployment

Sangfor HCI's initial setup is often described as straightforward and user-friendly. Many users report successful deployment within a few hours, especially with some IT experience or support assistance. However, a few found setup complex due to specific requirements or larger organizational scales. Deployment time varies, ranging from under an hour to a few weeks for extensive setups. Users appreciate the ease of initial configuration and describe maintenance as manageable.

Scalability

Sangfor HCI shows mixed feedback on scalability. Many users find it scalable, especially when adding nodes and managing more users. Some rate it 7 to 10 out of 10. However, a few users encounter issues with power consumption and memory sizing, noting it can be complex. They mention both horizontal and vertical expansion capabilities. Overall, Sangfor HCI supports various enterprise levels but may require adjustments for certain configurations.

Stability

Sangfor HCI is widely considered stable, with minimal downtime and reliable performance. Some users rate its stability highly, while others note issues such as incompatibility with older systems or challenges in larger setups. It is stable if implemented properly, but some faced limitations with specific components like ADC licenses. Users have experienced good performance without major issues, although there are occasional crashes, especially during virtual machine upgrades. Ratings vary from five to ten out of ten.

These insights are based on the in-depth reviews provided by peers to help you make a better buying decision.

Download our Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Buyer's Guide for additional reliable information.

Review data by company size

By reviewers

By visitors reading reviews

Top industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Government

University

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Construction Company

Media Company

Non Profit

Real Estate/Law Firm

Insurance Company

Performing Arts

Transportation Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Legal Firm

Outsourcing Company

Wholesaler/Distributor

Pharma/Biotech Company

Hospitality Company

Logistics Company

Compare Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure with alternative products

Learn more about Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Hyperconverged infrastructure is a unified system of data storage. HCI combines storage, computing, networking, and management, unlike traditional storage solutions. HCI systems enable you to build your private cloud, expand to a public cloud, or have your own true hybrid cloud. Sangfor HCI presents two product models: The Sangfor HCI server appliance is a hardware version that enables easy deployment. Sangfor HCI software is the digital version combined with a third-party server that enables flexible deployment.

Sangfor HCI supports Windows systems on desktop and is web-based. Its range of use cases cover a wide spectrum of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing. It is applicable for mid- and large-sized businesses. The software is customizable. Users can customize the logo and contact information in the user interface.

Benefits and Features

Stability: Sangfor HCI delivers high reliability and availability with 0 RPO and 99.99% availability. The infrastructure is fully redundant to ensure business continuity. This means no data is lost in the event of hardware failure.
Simplified infrastructure: The solution supports visual management, making it easier to use. The single platform provides a central control with access to resources.
High performance: One unit of HCI can support up to 100,000 IOPS. The solution supports data striping, data locality, SSD caching and AI-based DB optimization. It also supports linear expansion without bottlenecks.
Hyper-converged infrastructure that enables working with different scenarios. For instance, cloud transformation and data center consolidation. It is fully converged, which means it provides unified management, full resource visualization, and orchestration with SCP. The standardized HCI unit consolidates hardware appliances, a storage network, IP network, and server into a single unit.
Integration: Sangfor HCI offers deep integration with NFV components. Users can deploy complex SDN networks.
Pay-as-you-grow model: The pay-per-use model reduces operational expenses and total cost of ownership.

Use Cases

Sangfor HCI can be applied tin various scenarios:

Enterprise applications: Users can benefit from the reliability and performance of Sangfor HCI for business-critical processes. The system is optimized for enterprise applications to enhance their performance and stability.
Datacenter consolidation: The unified and software-defined technology simplifies the operational management and the architecture of data centers.
Cloud transformation: You can add a cloud management platform, transforming Sangfor HCI into a complete cloud computing solution. You can then run your cloud workloads and benefit from the automation features of Sangfor HCI.
Data protection and recovery: Sangfor HCI offers multiple data protection features, such as continuous data protection (CDP), which ensure the integrity of sensitive and user data. You can protect backup snapshots and take backups. It records virtual machine IO logs at frequent intervals. It offers disaster recovery capabilities that ensure business continuity.

Reviews from Real Users

Gabriele P., Senior Software and Systems Engineer at SAMU.IT, says "It is flexible like a hyper-convergence system. You can add nodes, and you can scale to have better performance and stability. I also like the backup feature, the recovery system, and the web interface GUI to handle everything."

A Junior Solutions Engineer at a tech services company adds that "Sangfor has many solutions, and you can easily manage their machine servers with just one management. They're always striving for greatness, and they continuously update their products. For example, they have now built endpoint security within the firewall. They are continuously improving not only the security but also all other products."