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Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 PowerFlex
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
HCI (7th)
FlexPod XCS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Storage Solutions solutions, they serve different purposes. Dell PowerFlex is designed for HCI and holds a mindshare of 5.8%, down 10.0% compared to last year.
FlexPod XCS, on the other hand, focuses on Converged Infrastructure, holds 12.7% mindshare, up 10.0% since last year.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell PowerFlex5.8%
VxRail9.6%
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)8.9%
Other75.7%
HCI
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
FlexPod XCS12.7%
HPE ConvergedSystem11.1%
Dell VxBlock System9.8%
Other66.4%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

Serdar De - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at ÜÇGE Shopfitting & Design
Initial setup has been straightforward and it has reasonable pricing
We are new to this, so we are still learning about the valuable features The solution is okay overall. It could be easier to learn. We haven't had any issues. They could have more AI functionality in the future.  I have been using the solution for six months. I have not encountered any problems…
John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Director at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
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 solution is scalable."
"The solution was connected to alternate storage, and it provides great scalability and reliability."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is integration."
"Dell PowerFlex is a highly scalable solution."
"It is more stable, more powerful, and has more integration features."
"We've had no issues with scaling the solution."
"The most valuable feature is high availability."
"The solution has the benefits of any hyper-converged infrastructure but also has good hardware integration."
"Because of FlexPod's performance and flexibility, our company is doing much better than what we previously used."
"Traditionally, when you have multiple vendors, before FlexPod, everyone does a lot of finger pointing, and the fact that all these companies work together is invaluable."
"Our footprint is lower than it used to be."
"It has been very scalable – our guys scale it across six sites right now."
"Prior to FlexPod, we only had a physical environment; from a physical environment, we were able to work into the FlexPod where we leverage all the virtualizations, and it provides us with a lot of agility, on-demand or through orchestrations, as we deliver hundreds of servers."
"FlexPod is very stable, it has redundant components and the uptime is 100 percent."
"Go for it. Just buy it. It's simple and out-of-the-box."
"Performance-wise, it is actually doing quite well. The end users are very happy with it."
 

Cons

"The initial deployment was complicated and required a lot of data nodes, IPs, internal vLANs, data vLANs, and many other things."
"The installation is complex."
"The solution needs to offer more documentation and educational materials."
"Compared to similar solutions, Dell PowerFlex is not cost-effective and has room for improvement."
"The level of support needs improvement as the front-line support staff lack knowledge when we raise cases."
"We're also running Hyper-V virtual machines. But we recently discovered that migration of the Hyper-V virtual machines is a bit challenging. Maybe if Dell EMC can come out with a tool that will make it very easy for us to migrate the Microsoft Hyper-V machine, that may be an improvement."
"We've had some issues around the licensing. There were some issues in terms of using the VMware license."
"The solution must be more flexible."
"With us being Oracle service providers for Oracle databases and applications, it's a niche area, and FlexPod still isn't there."
"I would like to see more storage-related features."
"I would like to see drag and drop connectivity to Azure and Amazon."
"We would like better management of cases. For example, if you open a FlexPod case, it's not always straightforward. It would be nice to have centralized resource to open FlexPod cases and ease up management of our cases."
"Historically it’s been bad, but recently it got better."
"When we are positioning against a cheaper solution it's really difficult to sell NetApp to our small customers, so it's really difficult to position."
"NetApp needs to improve the user interface to make it easier to work in this environment; the older version is poor."
"I guess the training availability and infinite scalability could be better, and it’s getting there."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive and I give the cost a two out of ten."
"We have a good contact in Dell and he prepared all the information and provided everything to us."
"The cost of this solution is fair."
"The price of the solution is fair, it is priced in the average range amongst competitors."
"The solution's price is medium."
"The pricing for this solution is good."
"The price could be improved."
"The solution's pricing could be much cheaper and affordable."
"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."
"The scalability is very expensive."
"We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable."
"The NetApp portion was a $5 million investment five years ago. That has served the customer well over five and a half years."
"It is cheaper than other products. For example, Dell EMC VxBlock is more expensive."
"It's expensive, but when you pay for enterprise support and enterprise products, you have to pay the big bucks."
"The product is kind of expensive even from an entry-level standpoint. I would say FlexPod would be the way to go if you are a larger business or one with large data volume."
"Make sure that you engage as much with whom you are buying from as a partnership, not just as a purchase."
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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
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Construction Company
13%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
 

Questions from the Community

What are the major differences between VxRail and Dell EMC PowerFlex?
VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if the user is working with a l...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerFlex?
Dell PowerFlex is a premium software-defined infrastructure solution and while the initial investment may seem higher than traditional SAN or mid-tier HCI solutions, the long-term TCO is competitive.
What needs improvement with Dell EMC PowerFlex?
Area of Improvement: While PowerFlex Manager is powerful, the UI could be more intuitive, especially for first-time users or non-technical admins. Streamlined navigation, contextual help and guided...
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Also Known As

VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox
University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
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911,994 professionals have used our research since 2012.