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Azure Local vs HPE Alletra dHCI comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 21, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
3.8
Azure Local boosts ROI by reducing costs and support reliance, integrating well with Microsoft, enhancing business efficiency and engagement.
Sentiment score
1.0
HPE Alletra dHCI offers long-term ROI with innovative architecture, data reduction, and secure, scalable, efficiently managed infrastructure.
There has been some return on investment in terms of just time usability and reduction of footprint.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
4.8
Azure Local's customer service is praised for effectiveness, but delays occur with resellers; Premier Support recommended for best outcomes.
Sentiment score
9.0
HPE Alletra dHCI support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though variability in response time and local language challenges exist.
They have more advantages than VMware, especially for containerization, and they provide good support as well.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
Not every support team member is very knowledgeable about Azure Stack HCI, creating delays in resolution.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
A response typically comes within half an hour to one hour.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
They were always helpful and professional during the resolution of implementing and installation issues.
IT Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
5.3
Azure Local provides scalable, reliable performance with effective cloud integration and seamless transitions, supporting numerous VMs and user demands effortlessly.
Sentiment score
8.0
HPE Alletra dHCI offers flexible scalability for varied business sizes, despite some server limitations, maintaining performance efficiently.
Scalability is limited, particularly when adding new servers as the one-click installation procedure is not available for this.
IT Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's important because it keeps the costs low for the customer and allows for quick implementations and easy extensions.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.9
Azure Local, stable and scalable with Hyper-V, has improved installation speed and matches VMware's performance despite minor issues.
Sentiment score
8.6
HPE Alletra dHCI excels in stability, maintaining 99.9999% reliability with user satisfaction due to minimal issues and high uptime.
It does not feel like a well-oiled machine yet, with too many idiosyncrasies and insufficient documentation and integration, feeling more like software that is still in beta.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
After achieving good maturity, it became easier.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
We might have encountered only two minor errors, such as a corrupt disk, but the system always runs and we have never had any downtime.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
For stability, I would rate HPE Alletra dHCI a nine.
CTO & Presales Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Azure Local needs improvements in setup, management, integration, architecture, performance, disaster recovery, and competitive pricing.
HPE Alletra dHCI should improve compatibility, integration, performance, and usability, while reducing complexity, costs, and vendor lock-in risks.
Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing.
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
I would like to add servers to the existing stack more easily, and there should be a function to reinstall servers with a one-click installation process.
IT Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
dHCI projects often require new servers, but flexibility in deployment options would be beneficial.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
A potential area of improvement for HPE Alletra dHCI could be including integration with applications because it is currently just for virtualization.
CTO & Presales Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Azure Local users find costs high but competitive, with potential savings on total stack via Windows Server Datacenter rental.
HPE Alletra dHCI is initially costly but offers good value and ROI, ideal for medium to large enterprises.
The licensing is quite expensive because it's per call.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
The price of HPE Alletra dHCI is considered expensive for small businesses.
IT Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The price is appropriate for the capabilities and features that the customers receive.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
 

Valuable Features

Azure Local offers robust features for efficient networking, container management, cost-effectiveness, and seamless integration with Azure services.
HPE Alletra dHCI offers efficient performance, scalability, and data protection with advanced AI features and seamless cloud integration.
Azure Stack HCI has been very beneficial for disaster recovery operations.
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent.
Solution Architect DC at Natilik
Data protection is very good, offering features such as virtual lock for snapshots, multi-factor authentication, and encryption for volumes.
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
The most valuable feature of HPE Alletra dHCI is the one-click upgrade function, which allows all drivers and services to be downloaded to all servers easily.
IT Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is easy to work with a management environment thanks to the machine learning-driven management features in HPE Alletra dHCI.
CTO & Presales Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Local
Ranking in HCI
13th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Azure Local is 3.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 4.0%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
HPE Alletra dHCI4.0%
Azure Stack HCI3.2%
Other92.8%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

MC
IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Experience with seamless cost-saving capacity, though integration and support need refinement
An area that could be possibly improved with Azure Stack HCI is the stretched cluster functionality, which was included in version 23H2 for disaster recovery purposes. However, this functionality has been put on hold for the next release, and Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing. They promise to bring back a significant or similar solution in a future release, but currently, there is no such functionality for stretched clusters between two sites in the latest versions of Azure Stack HCI, which poses a problem as we were looking forward to utilizing it. The integration with Azure Arc provides a unified management experience, but I find it to be fairly clunky. The integration exists, but it is not smooth or very easy to use. While they've started to integrate the two, the integration lacks maturity and makes it difficult to manage effectively. There are discrepancies between managing VMs through Azure Arc versus managing them directly, as changes made not using the Azure Arc integration are not easily reflected in Azure Arc. For instance, if I have an Arc-enabled VM and make changes to it outside the Arc interface, those changes may not be registered directly in Azure Arc, leading to issues in fully viewing the status and configuration of VMs depending on the management tool used. You either manage VMs fully through Arc or not at all because mixing the two methods results in incomplete visibility and inconsistencies.
TW
IT Consultant at Autonubil System GmbH
Synchronous replication and strong support enhance storage and data protection
The most valuable features of HPE Alletra dHCI are the synchronous replication, the easy extension for more storage, and its strong support. Data protection is very good, offering features such as virtual lock for snapshots, multi-factor authentication, and encryption for volumes. The solution handles workload variability very well without any performance issues even for demanding applications like SAP, SQL, and Citrix.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack HCI?
This solution costs €10 per core per month. The whole stack is free if you are renting Windows Server Datacenter.
What needs improvement with Azure Stack HCI?
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors. The end-to-end encryption provided by Azure...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
Pricing is rated at six, which is normal. The price is appropriate for the capabilities and features that the customers receive.
What needs improvement with HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
I would like the HPE Alletra dHCI to provide options to install products separately. When extending or when servers are already present, normal Alletra systems are more suitable. dHCI projects ofte...
What is your primary use case for HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
Our customers' usual use cases for HPE Alletra dHCI ( /products/hpe-alletra-dhci-reviews ) are the same as with the Nimble ( /products/nimble-32125-reviews ) systems: virtualization, storage for bu...
 

Also Known As

No data available
HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Local vs. HPE Alletra dHCI and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.