Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs NetApp HCI [EOL] comparison

"The most valuable feature of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is its performance."

"The management feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"Cisco HyperFlex HX has improved the way our organization functions on the storage side by having one big storage space for hosting VMs. We do not have to provision other ones. That's a positive aspect of it."

"When we use it for VDI solutions, it is very easy to deploy and support."

"The initial setup is easy."

"The initial setup was straightforward. With our partners and the consultancy that we had, we knew what we wanted to do. Therefore, we didn't have any problems with the installation and parametrization."

"It consumes a smaller footprint when I compare it with other competitors."

"The technical support has been helpful. We are always able to get through to the right person."

"The solution integrates well with all the other applications that we use on our environment."

"It allows me to move a VM set and require extra performance. I can easily move them onto it and have it just run."

"The solution is very scalable."

"The multi-vertical aspect is what is most valuable for us. The main reason we wanted a multi protocol was because Amazon was not able to provide us with access to the same data as we could get from Linux and Windows lengths. That was our value proposition for this solution."

"The scalability is great, because it can scale independently."

"The ability to size the available space in a way that matches our company's needs is most valuable. For instance, you can decide if you want 80/20, 70/30, or 60/40 space. Redundancy depends on your needs without changing the appliance. You just add space and decide the percentage of space that you need free and the percentage of space that you need for backup. It is all automatic, and you don't have to do anything. You just add space, and the system automatically configures itself with the chosen option."

"It is highly scalable. Their support is also extremely good."

"Stability is one of the things we absolutely have to have, because if the HCI is down, our assembly lines are down, and that could potentially lead to our customer being down. If our customer is down, that's $10,000 a minute; and any time the assembly line is down, that could potentially lead to overtime. We don't get to charge one and a half times for something we billed just because you happened to build it on overtime. Any technology we bring in, has to be built for what I call "three in the morning." It can't be built for whenever everybody's in the plant, everybody can watch it, and everybody can babysit. It has to be built for three a.m. when you've got a skeletal staff there, and you just have to know that it's just running. As I stand here, right now, I don't have to check my phone, I don't have to check my email. I know it's running. Period"

"The setup was complex, especially since we usually do all the planning, sizing, and workflows before integration."

"The architecture separates data, computing, memory, and storage into different parts."

"It is quite new solution, so it is not very stable."

"Maybe a better version is required to gather all of the information to allow HyperFlex to bring everything online more rapidly."

"One aspect that really needs to be looked at, is to fix the bugs issue."

"The solution could improve by having more customization."

"When it comes to customer needs, the licensing price could be better."

"In the next release, Cisco should add more integration and management capabilities as well as some tweaks to the dashboard that make it more user-friendly. They could also add support for multiple hypervisors."

"It is easy to install now, but could potentially be even simpler."

"There are some legacy applications which still cannot be migrated. That is why we have to keep two environments: legacy and the new one. We would like to see more compatibility to move stuff."

"There's a limitation with a block in the file. That's where I see that it's not very efficient for upgrades and for management."

"If you want to have a really dense data center then it's hard to have a big chunk of cabling going through everything."

"My biggest pain point is the installation part. I would like to see the appliance itself remove the entire switch that goes behind it and figure out how to do all the cluster interconnects within the box itself."

"Its stability is very bad. It has been crashing continuously. In one year, we got three crashes, which is unbelievable for an appliance that is guaranteed for 10 years without any crash."

"I would like for them to fall a little closer to like the VMware release model. The new features and new solutions tend to come from the VMware side. I would like for NetApp to follow along closely with VMware's release schedule."

"I would like to have the ability to replicate to multiple sites."

"The pricing is a bit expensive."

"When we negotiated with Cisco for the HyperFlex solution, they gave us a good price because they wanted to break into the market in Portugal for the first time. However, in general, I think it's a very expensive solution. It's a huge amount of money to acquire this kind of infrastructure."

"It is highly priced compared to other vendors."

"It's roughly $30,000 per Hyperflex license, so that would be about $60,000 a year."

"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 are on an annual subscription and the price is fair."

"We negotiated with Cisco and we got some price benefit from that."

"HyperFlex is a little pricey."

"All the licenses are included when you buy the program."

"Its price is comparable to the competitors in the market."

"You still have to pay for the licensing for VMware and Red Hat licenses separately. It's not all inclusive at this point."

"Its price is aligned with the market. In addition to the standard licensing fees, there is an integrator cost."

"Its pricing is lower than our previous solution."

"Licenses run on a yearly basis, and there aren't any additional fees other than the standard licensing fee."

"Where we lost nearly 75 percent of our infrastructure due to a malicious attack and were able to recover two and a half hours into it due to the integration, it saved us and all of our customers. Because we were able to recover so fast from the attack, the solution paid for itself right there."

"The licensing fees are renewed annually."