Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Cisco and StarWind are both solutions in the HCI category. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.
StarWind Virtual SAN
Read 189 StarWind Virtual SAN reviews
  • 4,209 Views
  • 1,486 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and StarWind Virtual SAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, VMware, Nutanix and others in HCI.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed HCI Report (Updated: December 2024).
Buyer's Guide
HCI
December 2024
Download the complete report
Helped 824,052 peers since 2012
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
StarWind Virtual SAN
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st), HCI (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Nuno Mendes - PeerSpot reviewer
High performance solution that makes it easy to efficiently manage VM resources
In our case as a credit recovery company working with the state, our infrastructure is fixed and stable as we don't have the same need for growth as other types of companies. That said, one of the biggest problems with HyperFlex HX is that if you want to adjust your solution in terms of processing power, memory, or disk capacity, you have to buy completely new hosts. From a financial perspective, it can be very expensive to do so, and from a legal perspective, there are all kinds of compliance issues we would have to sort out before buying any new solution or application. Since we as a company will only be operating for perhaps the next ten years, when our HyperFlex solution comes to its end-of-life in 2024 our next step will likely not be with HyperFlex or any other solution from Cisco. Instead, from a financial point of view, we will likely turn toward a cloud solution because, that way, we won't have to spend so much money on physical infrastructure. We are, after all, only a small company and HyperFlex can be very expensive for other companies of our size, whether in Portugal or elsewhere like the United States. One other area for improvement is in regard to HyperFlex's integration with VMware. HyperFlex integrates with a specific version of VMware in such a way that HyperFlex doesn't always resolve security issues with VMware at the same pace as what you see in native implementations of VMware. This has happened in one or two situations in the past. On the other hand, the integration is otherwise adequate, especially in terms of availability and virtualization features (such as being able to split up each of our four hosts within VMware).
Read full review
Ahmed Hosni - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor
You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has reduced the time it takes to put the servers in production by half the time."
"Cisco HyperFlex HX has improved the way our organization functions in the way that the time to deliver a VM takes me five minutes. In comparison, my cloud team's response is a couple of days based on all their overhead policies, procedures, and ticket requests. This is substantial."
"The solution is easy to use and to learn. It is well integrated with VMware."
"Scalability is easy and simple."
"The most valuable features are scalability and the easy operation - if it works. You can configure everything from just one window."
"Most of our users are Cisco customers, so it fits in within the suites we use. Primarily for me, as a solution architect, it's the technology and architecture that is the most valuable. I know from my technical colleagues that it's easy to use and for the customer, the up-time is the most valuable asset. It's running, has low failure, and so on which is why we use it."
"It is very scalable. It is also very secure. Cisco's security portfolio is integrated with it, which makes it secure. It is a platform-based device. Its performance is also fairly good in comparison to any other solution."
"Its most valuable feature is its flexibility."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros
"It's quite easy to manage."
"It also provides a seamless and efficient solution for personal storage requirements, showcasing the versatility and scalability of my Virtual SAN configuration."
"The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."
"The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection."
"The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices."
"The price was right."
"The failover redundancy is why we bought this product and it has never let us down."
"It has reduced our overall maintenance and overhead by having to only maintain physical boxes for one cluster instead of having to manage physical boxes for two clusters."
More StarWind Virtual SAN pros
 

Cons

"The initial setup is very complex because there were some issues. It is not clear to how set up this solution."
"I would like a lighter product; something which can be carried by a mere human. The typical size still looks like a stack of data center-sized servers, which is typically fine, but not so good if you want to carry it around."
"The primary improvements should be made in the cluster storage controller VMs so that they don't break the upgrade process."
"Cisco's technical support originally was outstanding, but it has declined over the last 12 months. I've heard they're trying to do better, but I haven't been overly impressed with their support recently for HyperFlex."
"The solution could improve by having more customization."
"Their technical support is very bad. We had an issue where instead of an engineer we got a PDF "doctor" that didn't know anything about our problem which was very frustrating."
"Deployment on-prem was quite difficult."
"Some of our customers do not want to adopt the Cisco ACI solution. They want to manage Cisco HyperFlex by integrating it with their own management solution."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons
"Performance when in storage-separate configuration needs to be improved."
"I would like to see different levels of support offered."
"For the StarWind VSA vSphere solution, I would like to see a simpler and automated virtual machine installation process in terms of network settings."
"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."
"A central management console may be nice to see all nodes."
"Updates seem to be non-existent."
"It could have a dashboard so that you can check all servers' SAN health and performance."
"Perhaps the developer should refine the product management through PowerShell."
More StarWind Virtual SAN cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a 30 percent additional premium that all the companies are charging for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series because of the lack of chips and bottlenecks in the market. The cost of the solution is high right now."
"We would not have invested if we didn't feel the return was there for our customers."
"Pricing is better if you buy more Cisco products."
"We are on an annual subscription and the price is fair."
"I would like a clearer licensing model. It should explain a bit more what you receive if you buy the more expensive license rather than the standard one."
"The pricing is a bit expensive."
"We negotiated with Cisco and we got some price benefit from that."
"It is relatively expensive, but it can easily return value by freeing up other resources."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pricing and cost advice
"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
"We are happy with the price."
"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."
"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."
"The licensing is straightforward, with free and trial versions available."
"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
"Their pricing seems pretty good, and their licensing structure is pretty straightforward."
"The Price/Performance ratio for this solution is outstanding!"
More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which HCI solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
27%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
See all answers
How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?
VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if you are working with a limited budget, this platform offer...
See all answers
What do you like most about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series?
It's easy to get the tool started.
See all answers
What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?
It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
Choose StarWind Virtual SAN, it is the most flexible, reliable and cheap solution.
See all answers
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
While using StarWind Virtual SAN so far, I have not found anything missing. It is true that we are using it in a very strict project in which we were looking for a solution that would satisfy a str...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
VMware vSAN vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 33% of the time
VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 26% of the time
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 15% of the time
Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 13% of the time
HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
Compared 6% of the time
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors
VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN Logo
VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN
Compared 27% of the time
StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN Logo
StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN
Compared 19% of the time
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN Logo
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN
Compared 17% of the time
Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN Logo
Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN
Compared 13% of the time
DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN Logo
DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN
Compared 7% of the time
More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
December 2024
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] reportDownload Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report
Buyer's Guide
StarWind Virtual SAN
November 2024
StarWind Virtual SAN reportDownload StarWind Virtual SAN product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
StarWind SAN & NAS
 

Learn More

Cisco
StarWind
 

Overview

The Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform is a purpose-built, high-performance, scale-out file system with a wide array of enterprise-class data management services. The data platform’s innovations redefine distributed storage technology, giving you complete hyper-convergence with enterprise storage features:

  • Enterprise-class data management
  • Continuous data optimization
  • Securely encrypted storage
  • Dynamic data placement
  • Clusterwide parallel data distribution
  • Linear and incremental scaling
  • API-based data platform architecture
  • A simplified approach

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

 

Sample Customers

BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Ready Pac Foods, Bryant University, Bellevue Group, KPIT Technologies, City Harvest
Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Buyer's Guide
HCI
December 2024
Download Free Report
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, VMware, Nutanix and others in HCI. Updated: December 2024.
DOWNLOAD NOW
824,052 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our list of best HCI vendors.

We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.