VxRail Reviews

I primarily use VxRail for managing centralized resources. All the resources are handled through VxRail Manager, which facilitates unified access to storage with vSAN.

The most valuable feature of VxRail is the VxRail Manager, which centralizes resources like storage built with vSAN. It provides a unified way to access these resources, making management straightforward. 

Another benefit is the fully automated upgrade process, which is completed with just one click through the VxRail Manager. This centralization and automation enhance efficiency significantly.

More than anything, we are using VxRail for network outages.

By implementing VxRail, we were looking to reduce the physical footprint in our stores. We wanted to have a platform with which we could virtualize our data.

VxRail has allowed us to reduce the physical footprint in the stores and optimize the maintenance that we had previously with so much physical equipment. It has allowed us to reduce the space of the environments and gain store space or storage space.

Its ability to simplify the management is excellent. VxRail gives me unique access to the environments. I have real-time graphics and information about the state of the virtualization platform that I have.

VxRail has the ability to consolidate infrastructure from multiple locations, but we do not use this capability. We have VxRail in each store. We have 36 stores in Spain and 16 in Portugal, and at the moment, we have an environment in each store.

The consumption levels and the benefits or best practices that it offers you to optimize those consumptions are quite optimal. For example, you can reduce the number of machines or lower the level of the fans to consume less.

In the past, we were late in terms of sales. The sales process was quite slow. VxRail has allowed us to overcome delays and reduce the sales time or the time for the end-customer, for example, when a person is buying a TV or a personal product.

VxRail has had an impact on our business in terms of immediacy. The impact we have had is in terms of microseconds. We have a checkout system on the VxRail platform that allows us to make a sales operation in a matter of a microsecond and reduce sales time.

The sustainability or the path we are taking is a more cloud-oriented hyperconvergence and reducing the physical footprint of VxRail environments. It has allowed us to take virtualized systems to the cloud in an easy way.

Initially, I worked as an implementer with VxRail, handling support and implementation. Later, I transitioned to managing a team responsible for professional services and support for Dell storage and backup solutions. I work with PowerMax, PowerStore, VxRail, and Data Domain.

The primary reasons customers choose VxRail include ease of management, ease of upgrades, and integration with VMware. The hyper-converged infrastructure simplifies software and hardware upgrades. 

Customers prefer the single pane of glass management and integration with VMware, which makes it easier for them to proceed with decisions involving VMware products.

It is for virtualization. It is where all our servers run. It is for server storage.

By implementing VxRail, we wanted hyperconvergence. We wanted to have the entire infrastructure unified in a single system. We were also looking for power, speed, and computation.

VxRail has improved our organization a lot. It has greatly simplified the infrastructure. Previously, we had many more nodes. We had the network on the one hand, the storage on the other, and the computing on the other. VxRail has unified them and created a much more agile and easier management.

It has unified the cluster. We have managed to move all of them to a single one, so we have all the data in a microcluster. It works well.

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

In terms of energy consumption, I am not an expert in energy consumption, but it must be one of the least consuming ones. It seems good.

VxRail has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. We never had a crash, and we never had a service stoppage. It has been 100% successful.

VxRail has had a lot of impact on the flexibility of our operations or business because it is very scalable. We have already grown twice in nodes. Instead of expanding a different infrastructure, what we do is add new nodes, and we manage to have a much more flexible cluster.

We mainly use it for virtualization across all our applications. We also have a DC/DR setup based on the VxRail infrastructure.

It's a trouble-free architecture. We don't have to juggle multiple components like in a traditional three-tier architecture. With VxRail, it's a pre-built solution offering high performance, availability, and more.

It is essentially for a standard use case. It is for server virtualization. I wanted to replace my infrastructure which was getting old, and I was looking for something that was scalable.

By implementing VxRail, I wanted to achieve rapid migration from my old environment to my new environment. Above all, I wanted to have scalability because I am not in control of the evolution. It provides us with scalability to avoid big gaps every time we are buying. I now buy a new node every year, and I increase my farm that way.

When I went from a so-called 'traditional infrastructure' to the VxRail infrastructure, I gained in performance. Thanks to its hybrid technology with Flash and traditional disks, I could achieve performance without having to blow my budget. That is important.

VxRail simplifies the management of VMware. There is a unified interface to manage the VMware environment and other components depending on the licenses that we have subscribed to. This unified interface saves us time as well as skills. In terms of training, we do not have to know storage or networking. Knowing the interface is enough, and we are capable of managing it.

In terms of energy consumption, because I have few servers, and everything has been made virtual in the VxRail infrastructure, I don't have the metrics for the consumption. I have not looked into it.

VxRail has helped to reduce unplanned production downtime. I must have gained more than 20%. The fact is that it is very stable in comparison to my old infrastructure. Because I do not have multiple manufacturers or components, everything is in the same block, and I have far fewer cables. That is a source of problems, and that is where we save that 20%.

In terms of durability, I still have my very first servers from 2017. I do have a few servers that are reaching the end of support, but I will keep them and integrate them into my testing infrastructure. I am already in the habit of keeping the old servers for a long time, and I will carry on with that habit.

Our primary use case for VxRail is traditional server storage for a Windows environment currently hosting approximately 35 virtual machines.

Our small IT team, with only one colleague managing the infrastructure, led us to choose VxRail. We primarily sought a solution that would simplify and expedite infrastructure management, ensuring our sole infrastructure manager wouldn't be burdened by juggling various systems, individual storage systems, and separate server environments. Therefore, an all-in-one package offering fast deployment, easy updates, and single-person manageability was key for us.

While any other server deployment system could have achieved similar results, VxRail's key benefit has been simplifying the process for our team, reducing their management and update workload. It offers a hassle-free, complete package, comparable to what a traditional storage-plus-server solution of similar size would provide.

Considering our organization's size and comparing VxRail's manageability for VMware to traditional approaches, I'd rate it a nine out of ten. It eliminates concerns about update dependencies, offering a significant improvement over conventional solutions for us.

While I'm aware of VxRail's energy consumption, I lack a direct comparison to other systems. That said, I'd characterize its power usage as surprisingly low. This became evident during our move to a new building with a dedicated server room last year. Planning for air conditioning and power supply, considering VxRail's needs, turned out to be much simpler than anticipated. However, I wouldn't be able to quantify this observation without comparing it to other systems' power consumption.

Our production environment differs from traditional setups, and we fortunately have ample time windows for maintenance. This makes it difficult for me to definitively say whether VxRail has reduced unplanned outages. However, the update process itself is a significant improvement. Compared to the traditional infrastructure I'm used to, which often involved extended periods of downtime, VxRail has streamlined the process, allowing us to schedule maintenance within manageable timeframes.

Compared to the traditional approach, I'd rate the impact VxRail has had on our business flexibility as a nine out of ten. This translates to no longer worrying about dependencies. Updates no longer require fretting about order or compatibility; instead, I receive a comprehensive package ready for application. The improvement over conventional solutions has been significant.

While VxRail's impact on our core business is minimal due to our size, it has significantly improved the IT team's flexibility and efficiency, indirectly benefiting the overall organization. Our current needs don't necessitate rapid scaling or high flexibility.

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.