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Dell PowerEdge VRTX [EOL] vs FlexPod XCS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 26, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Dell PowerEdge VRTX [EOL]
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
FlexPod XCS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (2nd)
 

Featured Reviews

KA
Systems Engineer at Thakral One (Pvt) Ltd
Enables continued support and efficient data management in IT infrastructure
Dell PowerEdge VRTX is mainly used for virtual environments and is beneficial for IT infrastructure. It offers scalability, allowing customers to scale up as needed, which is crucial for maintaining hardware without purchasing new products. Its integrated storage solutions improve data management by providing the flexibility and ease of scaling up.
John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy IT Manager at MBBank
Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems
The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the combined management in one box."
"We were satisfied after we upgraded to a professional next-day on-site support."
"Dell PowerEdge VRTX supports a lot of memory which has allowed us to keep our system size smaller."
"It is simple to use and it's user-friendly."
"We now find that the solution is quite stable."
"With Dell PowerEdge VRTX, there are fewer points, and it is easier to troubleshoot and find your way around it."
"The online UA is very good in comparison to others."
"While I cannot say Dell is better than HP or IBM, Dell has a strong presence here in Qatar. We can recommend Dell because of that strategic factor."
"The best thing about this solution is the tight integration with VMware, Cisco, and NetApp from both a hardware and software perspective."
"The most valuable feature for me is that you can swap out pieces when you have to lifecycle your equipment."
"We got the product and we have a small environment, but it was able to be scalable to when we started to grow."
"It has been a great product, primarily because of a lot of its deduplication features, and the out-of-the-box thinking on block level storage from NetApp."
"It is the overall collaboration between NetApp and Cisco to come up with a product that is best in class and best in breed. You are bringing together the best things about UCS and NetApp, as well as you are tying it together with the Nexus fabric."
"The most valuable features are the Fabric Interconnect Manager and the UCS Manager."
"It's all converged into one consolidated platform, which works well together."
"The solution can be innovative when it comes to compute storage and networking. FlexPod is very flexible and innovative. We can design it as we like."
 

Cons

"The nodes should be synced with the server so that the solution can be used from the cloud when any or all nodes are down."
"Management of storage and networking is web-based, slow, and difficult."
"There are some noises, and this module is quite annoying, with significant heat issues."
"The storage can be improved."
"When we first started with this product, we had some difficulty with it."
"VRTX is a bit simplified to the extent that it is a mainstream type of solution for small businesses. If a company needs a more complex solution or something that is a time saver or has more power or scalability, it is probably not the best solution. However, when a company grows and its needs grow, this type of environment can be definitely migrated towards a lab environment or pre-prod testing, not necessarily production. It can still have a second life for the other types of use."
"A disadvantage could be the price."
"Dell PowerEdge VRTX can improve by providing support for M2 drives."
"Setting up a Cisco USC environment can be complex."
"FlexPod will do very well on the average app, but there's room for improvement in performance and the data center side."
"Our environment does not always require this solution, so we are not reaping the optimal ROI."
"There are times where we have had issues with technical support."
"NetApp has some tools that you can purchase to do performance management, or you can go with another vendor and buy a product which does the same thing. It would be nice if there was more of these features with the product, not add-ons."
"According to the product managers, there are some new products coming which will address some of our concerns around portability and compliance."
"We would like FlexPod to have more power, though it is not lacking in power now."
"I'd like to see some more Ansible integration for automation purposes. We automate everything else with Ansible, so it would be great if we could automate our FlexPod with Ansible as well."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool's pricing is fine."
"Fully configured, it costs about $50,000 or $55,000. I did purchase a used one or refurbished one. I have been very happy with it so far. Even if it is an older unit, it doesn't look like its age, and I would say it has been a great choice so far for me. Obviously, I would have thought twice if I had to pay for a brand new one because it is still an older technology with the risk of being discontinued. I talked to Dell, and they're still selling it, but they're not promoting it. They're promoting another line of products right now for hyper-converged, which are much more expensive."
"On the scale of pricing, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I would rate it as a three. I am familiar with the overall cost, which involves licenses from Dell and VMware, among others, making it a combination of various license types."
"The solution is less expensive than competitors."
"This product is more reasonably-priced than similar solutions by HPE."
"We bought a license for seven years."
"We are renewing the support and we are purchasing the license for the software."
"The solution price of Dell PowerEdge VRTX could be reduced. However, when comparing the price of Dell PowerEdge VRTX to other solutions, such as HP and Lenovo, it was the best price for what they offer."
"We have seen a five to ten percent savings on new service deployments."
"FlexPod has saved data center costs, due to the fact that we reduced our footprint for storage in a big way. We went from three complete racks down to a 2U storage array for more than 300 terabytes of storage."
"We fear high availability so we can't buy from different providers."
"We have saved time and money for new service deployments. Without FlexPod, it probably takes about ten hours. With FlexPod, within two hours, we are up and running. So, we have seen about an 80 percent time decrease."
"We have seen an 80 percent improvement in application performance."
"It seems very cost effective once it's in place, and it's easy to expand and easy to add capacity without a lot of extra money."
"Storage is very expensive. To buy MIC cards and additional storage either on-prem or in the cloud, the IT department does not have money for it, so you need a more niche product or a more flexible way to store your data. That is the benefit that you get from this product."
"We have saved 50 percent on new service deployments."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Marketing Services Firm
31%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Performing Arts
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge VRTX?
The cost of Dell PowerEdge VRTX is high, making it difficult for small and medium businesses to bear. I would rate the pricing as seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge VRTX?
It would be much better for customers if Dell could provide firmware updates even after the end of the product's life, enabling them to manage and keep their hardware for a longer time.
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Dundee, GE Healthcare Japan
University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: January 2026.
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