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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 (1st)
 

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

"We started off with a base because we started our infrastructure with Dell and we always propose or prefer Dell which is easier to manage the warranty than with different vendors."
"With Dell PowerEdge VRTX, there are fewer points, and it is easier to troubleshoot and find your way around it."
"This process is very good, with a processor that has 32 cores, which is sufficient to meet my qualifications and needs."
"The most valuable feature is the combined management in one box."
"Dell PowerEdge VRTX is almost perfect in terms of stability, and I would rate it ten out of ten."
"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."
"Dell PowerEdge VRTX's most valuable feature is its reliability. It offers a good experience for my IT teams."
"We were satisfied after we upgraded to a professional next-day on-site support."
"CVDs reduce risks for implementations. We always make sure that all installations are based on best practices."
"The agility is probably the most valuable feature for us. It's very easy to send out resources."
"From the integration standpoint, it is a lot easier to integrate than a lot of people initially felt. Being able to leverage either block or file capabilities of the storage is something that has been beneficial."
"We enjoy the standardization and having things consistent across the whole data center sphere."
"Because we use it everywhere, it is standard to set up. Therefore, if you can manage the set up in one place, then you can manage the whole infrastructure."
"DR has been tremendously easier."
"It takes all of the homework out of building the solution. The prearchitected design simplifies your deployment, gets you a quicker time to market, and a single point of support."
"We save days of work when doing new service deployments. With LUN clones we have a template provisioned for the image of our hypervisor on our NetApps, and we can deploy a brand new hypervisor in under an hour. Everything is scripted. We just clone a template LUN and boot from SAN, so there are no single points of failure."
 

Cons

"The storage can be improved."
"The problem is with our configuration. We know we can use PowerEdge for hyper-convergence if we have PowerEdge and configure vSAN. We will be able to achieve what VxRail is being able to provide, but we need to migrate it to a new infrastructure instead of changing our existing. It will be much more difficult for us."
"The cost of Dell PowerEdge VRTX is high, making it difficult for small and medium businesses to bear."
"The support must be improved."
"Dell PowerEdge VRTX can improve by providing support for M2 drives."
"It would be better to have a compact version of this solution for customers that have a small office and don't require a proper data center with power or an industrial type HP."
"I'd like to be able to increase capacity."
"The licensing can be difficult to understand."
"One of the things that I've wanted would be availability of a health status, similar to Active IQ from my converged platform, on an app. I have dashboards so I can see the health of the system when I'm in the office, but when I'm not in the office I can't."
"The upgrades should be improved. We would like to have the ability to do unified upgrades of the whole infrastructure from beginning to end."
"For the next release, because I know that we are using Pure Storage, what I want to see is the GUI interfaces on this UCS monitor."
"The cost may be high compared to other solutions."
"We want always more speed, capacity, fluidity, and growth that we can easily integrate."
"The initial setup was complex. UCS is not the easiest thing to configure from the ground up. The networking pieces can get confusing, especially when you are talking about virtual segmentation. It is not as easy as other things now on the market, such as hyperconverged."
"It would be great to see some form of interoperability between the FAS units and the E-Series, specifically for replication, even if it is just one more replication from a FAS to an E-Series. That would be amazing."
"Since 2018 or 2019, maybe due to COVID and the chipsets, my DIMMs are dying left and right."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"This product is more reasonably-priced than similar solutions by HPE."
"We bought a license for seven years."
"The solution is less expensive than competitors."
"We are renewing the support and we are purchasing the license for the software."
"The tool's pricing is fine."
"The solution has saved our customers' organization in terms of CapEx. E.g., with the cloud availability, it's turned into sort of a hybrid CapEx/OpEx model."
"Buy storage based on the solutions you need, the technologies you need, and what will make your life a lot easier down the road."
"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."
"We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable."
"We purchased from CDW•G. They are great partners on the government side."
"If your company really needs to be up 100% of the time, and you need to do a private data center, I don't know if I could realistically actually recommend another blueprint."
"The pricing and licensing are quite expensive. However, compared to other solutions, it is okay."
"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."
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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%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Performing Arts
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Transportation Company
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.
Ask a question
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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 NetApp, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: January 2026.
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