Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Dell Technologies is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.0, while NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Dell Technologies holds a 21.9% mindshare in CI, compared to NetApp’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell PowerEdge VRTX

Read 19 Dell PowerEdge VRTX reviews

1,803 Views
577 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

516 Views
261 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell PowerEdge VRTX

FlexPod XCS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Dell PowerEdge VRTX compete in the integrated IT solutions category. FlexPod appears to have the upper hand due to its robust scalability and integrated management across multiple vendors.

Features: FlexPod XCS focuses on integration, flexibility, and unified management, excelling in scalability for large-scale deployments. Dell PowerEdge VRTX is designed for affordability with a compact design, offering easy setup and efficient resource usage, ideal for small to mid-sized organizations.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod users seek more streamlined support processes, unified management interfaces, and enhanced cloud integration. Dell PowerEdge VRTX could improve by adding advanced networking features, scalability options, and support for emerging storage technologies.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS provides a consistent deployment experience across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, supported by vendor collaborations, though multiple vendor support can be challenging. Dell PowerEdge VRTX is praised for simple setup and management with generally positive customer service, although response times may vary.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS is costlier but perceived as a worthwhile investment for its comprehensive features and favorable long-term ROI, especially in large deployments. Dell PowerEdge VRTX offers an affordable, practical solution for midsized enterprises, considered cost-effective compared to competitors.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. FlexPod XCS Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. FlexPod XCS

January 2025

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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

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

5th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of Dell PowerEdge VRTX is 21.9%, up from 21.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 8.5%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

Lakshmanan A

IT Manager at Heat and Control

A very good online UI and fit for lower budgets but nodes don't sync with the server

Our company uses the solution for 15 mediums with virtual machines. The online UI is very good in comparison to others. 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. I have been using the solution for five years.…

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Chris Haight

Sr. Solutions Architect at CDW Canada Inc.

Integrates everything so you are using fewer tools

The traditional UCS Blades do not take much storage internally. You would be challenged to create an HCI (Hype converged Infrastructure) solution on FlexPod / UCS or any other solution that pools internal storage. Now, with UCS X-Series, you can carve off an HCI solution, software defined pooled solution if you want. This was one area of improvement that I wanted to see and can now realize with the refresh of the Cisco UCS infrastructure. With modern modular infrastructure, RESTful API has been added, there are more integrations, ServiceNow and vCenter along with tighter plug-ins. There is cross-user interface launching, for example with Windows Admin Center. The solutions are using Ansible and Terraform for deploying infrastructure as code. All the improvements that I wanted from the last gen are here or coming. With modern workloads and GPU use on the rise, adding GPUs to modern modular infrastructure will have some pros and cons. Typically, you can add one or two GPU's to a blade with no or little trade off. With the UCS X-Series, if you are doing a GPU farm, then you may have to sacrifice compute blades in the front slots to put in a GPU tray / module. A chassis holds eight compute blades, but if you are adding a ton of GPUs, a single GPU tray or more will reduce your blade count by as many GPU trays you add. This is not just a Cisco UCS X-Series problem. It is an industry problem with modular infrastructure and one that I would like to see get solved! I am looking into one such solution, VMware BITFUSION where you can send CUDA requests over the network to a BITFUSION server with the results sent back to the requestor, early stages here and only scratched the surface thus far. With Cisco UCS X-Series, I would like to see the fabric interconnects built into the chassis instead of being external. With the fabric interconnects, the real footprint of UCS X-Series is 9U, where some of the competing solutions are 7U and have collapsed the network fabric into the chassis. This is another thing that I would like to see from Cisco, though, not really on the NetApp side of the fence, NetApp is solid storage.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"It is simple to use and it's user-friendly."

"The security is very good on the solution."

"Dell PowerEdge VRTX supports a lot of memory which has allowed us to keep our system size smaller."

"Dell PowerEdge VRTX's most valuable feature is its reliability. It offers a good experience for my IT teams."

"The main advantage, as I observed, was Dell VMware, which was pre-installed on the device."

"We were satisfied after we upgraded to a professional next-day on-site support."

"The most valuable feature is the combined management in one box."

More Dell PowerEdge VRTX pros

"The guides that we use to install FlexPods are always up-to-date. This is really helpful, especially if there is a new product with NetApp moving so far forward and Cisco as well. For them to join together and update a centralized document for the install process, it is really good. It helps us understand if there are features from the first version that we installed while upgrading that we need to implement. Those are in the document. So, we find that document useful and helpful when moving forward."

"UCS Profiles enable recovering a physical server in less than 15 minutes."

"Gives us a single point of contact for support."

"SolidFire all-flash block storage system in an existing FlexPod data center environment. This improves the agility and performance, including the additional load of cabling."

"It definitely streamlined operations. TCO-wise, it reduced cabling in the architecture. So, there has definitely been some savings. There have been a lot of reductions in the IT admin's time: reduced time to troubleshoot, reduced time to inventory the infrastructure, and reduced time to set up a host with templates and storage. The solution is saving easily 10 hours a week in time."

"The product is robust, stable, and has flexibility."

"I am happy with the stability. I haven't had any major issues with it in four years. This includes upgrades."

"The initial setup was very straightforward. They provided a lot of documentation."

More FlexPod XCS pros

Cons

"The licensing can be difficult to understand."

"The scalability is limited with one chassis and the amount of storage it will give you, but it is mainly used for small offices."

"The storage can be improved."

"The scalability could be better."

"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."

"We've had general issues related to the solution being difficult."

"I'd like to be able to increase capacity."

"Management of storage and networking is web-based, slow, and difficult."

More Dell PowerEdge VRTX cons

"I would like them to simplify the UCS configuration. I appreciate that they have about a billion options and a million switches that you can mess with, but this creates a lot of confusion sometimes. I feel like you almost need a Master's course to figure out what you're doing with UCS."

"I would like to see the following: Support for multiple vendors' hardware; support for SAN with Cisco 9000 switches; automated deployment and configuration with respect to CVD."

"The last two calls that I have made to NetApp support have been handled too casually. People are too lax, not quite as professional as I would have liked."

"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."

"Not a perfect ten because it could use better integration on the network side between UCS and the switching layer. The fact that LACP is not supported on UCS blades isn't so great. It would be nice if it was."

"FlexPod XCS' pricing could be cheaper. You need to find the right person for support."

"The FlexPod service and support could be improved."

"We haven't seen ROI yet."

More FlexPod XCS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The tool's pricing is fine."

"The solution is less expensive than competitors."

"This product is more reasonably-priced than similar solutions by HPE."

"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."

"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 bought a license for seven years."

"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."

"Licensing can be interesting with the new version because of the Intersight integration. I don't know what that looks like yet. I have seen some of the different licensing models, but with the new purchasing, all customers are going to have to buy some sort of Intersight licensing with the Blades or FlexPod. I am curious to see how that option shakes out. Previous to the UCS X-Series, the licensing was the same."

"We have saved time and money for new service deployments."

"I find the licensing and pricing structure to be favorable."

"It created lower total cost of ownership. Previously, we had disparate storage and servers, and there were bits of kits everywhere. Now, we have two data centers with almost identical setups in both."

"We have saved time, money, space, and power consumption on new service deployments. We have a data center in Toronto which had ten racks on one of the new servers. This was all reduced to two racks with six chassis, which is amazing."

"The footprint in the data center is quite large, especially when you scale out. Maybe find some hardware in the future, where if a new blade comes out, then Cisco can say, "Look, we'll buy those blades back off you, and we'll give you this blade for X amount of money." A buyback scheme would be good for hardware, and even NetApp as well. Something like a buyback scheme for blades and stuff moving forward would be good, because I know that they're going to put more power into them. E.g., replacing four blades might equal one blade, which would be awesome, but we are still going to have those four blades around. Maybe having something where it will give you this much money for these blades so we can upgrade. That would be perfect."

"It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

19%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell PowerEdge VRTX?

The system is very intuitive.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell PowerEdge VRTX?

The only concern is the price, which I also mentioned earlier. The cost needs to be reduced.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell PowerEdge VRTX?

A disadvantage could be the price.

See all answers

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

See all answers

What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 66% of the time

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Compared 14% of the time

IBM PureSystems vs Dell PowerEdge VRTX

Compared 9% of the time

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Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 27% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

VMware vSAN vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 9% of the time

VxRail vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge VRTX

February 2025

Download Dell PowerEdge VRTX product report

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

February 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Overview

PowerEdge VRTX modular infrastructure platform integrates servers, storage, networking and management together in a single compact chassis.

Dell Technologies

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

Sample Customers

University of Dundee, GE Healthcare Japan

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. FlexPod XCS

January 2025

Free Report: Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs. FlexPod XCS

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