Dell PowerFlex vs Scale Computing Platform comparison

Dell Technologies and Scale Computing are both solutions in the HCI category. Dell Technologies is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.5, while Scale Computing is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.5. Dell Technologies holds a 12.1% mindshare in HCI, compared to Scale Computing’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Scale Computing users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and Scale Computing Platform based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing Platform Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing Platform

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.2%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell PowerFlex is 12.1%, up from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Scale Computing Platform is 1.2%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni

Senior System Engineer at Giza Systems

Feb 24, 2024

Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor

You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.

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Ayodeji Oyewole

Managing Director at Atlantic factorial

Aug 12, 2024

A hyper-converged infrastructure that is like a mini data center of its own

Dell PowerFlex is used for on-prem cloud solutions. It's a hyper-converged infrastructure, which means you can integrate it directly into your core network. You get all the computing and storage you need without bothering much about the network connection between the servers because all that comes…

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Benjamin Bodenehim

Chief Technology Officer at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 19, 2023

The solution is user-friendly, stable, and easy to deploy

The primary use case is to create our own cloud and virtualization out of the cloud The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI. The solution has a lot of user-friendly features. The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions. The snapshots are…

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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

"Ten gigabit Ethernet compatibility, support, ease of use, and management are some positive features."

"The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection."

"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."

"It has been extremely stable for the three years we've been running it."

"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run."

"The support team is available to solve any problem efficiently."

"I like StarWind's high availability. The failover is almost immediate, so the end users have no idea the guest VM moved at all. We can failover all guest VMs onto a single hypervisor, place it into maintenance mode, install updates, and reboot a hypervisor all during the daytime and remotely, with confidence the process will be successful."

"The primary purpose of this software is to create a virtual SAN between local storage on Hyper-V hosts. I find this feature most valuable since it accomplishes this quite well."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"The program is stable."

"The most valuable feature is high availability."

"The solution is quite stable."

"It is easy to use for management and operations teams because the tools are in one place."

"It has reduced downtime. Before, on our previous solution, we used to have downtime on some of the servers because of the sort of convention. But currently I've not experienced any downtime on any of the servers, and there is no more resource congestion."

"Saves us a lot of space in the data center."

"Dell PowerFlex is a one-stop-shop solution. Storage, compute, network, application monitoring, and support cases are all combined into one solution. It's very easy to administer compared to when you have a reference architecture where you need to design and build everything yourself. You would also then have to work with multiple vendors."

"The solution's most valuable feature is the storage space it offers."

More Dell PowerFlex pros

"I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive."

"The most valuable feature of Scale Computing HC3 is if one of the devices fails, you won't even notice, the service maintains operation. The customers don't have to waste two, or three days on delays. Additionally, you do not have to waste time with recovery software, it is a lot easier."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI."

"It gives the ease of management for a small IT department."

"The product's initial setup phase is too easy."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The most valuable features are the appliance-type feel and that you don't need additional licenses as everything is built-in."

More Scale Computing Platform pros

Cons

"Sometimes documentation on their site can be out of date."

"Initially, when we first started, the sync was horrible."

"One point for improvement is to increase the performance capabilities of the Windows-based executable as compared to its Linux Controller Virtual Machine (CVM) equivalent."

"The dashboard is functional, but it could benefit from a more modern and visually appealing design."

"I'd love to see native export of metrics (via Prometheus or something of that nature) to allow us to get more metrics available on our existing dashboard software."

"Other vendors such as VMware vSAN have a bigger community of users, so it is easier to find more pre-sale or post-sale information from users."

"Perhaps more reporting features on the utilization, usage, and performance of the configured high-availability images and underlying physical disks would be helpful."

"Diagnostics information or alerts on the state of systems could also be implemented to give more visibility."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"The tool is a bit difficult to configure, making it an area where improvements are required."

"They should provide continuous support for data migration."

"Exporting data from the dashboard is not very user-friendly. It's just designed in a way that it's going to cover let's say 90%, 80%, of the end-users needs. If you need more sophisticated reporting it's not easy to have."

"I would like to see a more user-friendly interface."

"There should be more functionality available for routing."

"The support of containers needs to be improved. At present, it is limited to VMware. There needs to be direct communication with the hardware rather than through a hypervisor."

"Needs some more monitoring tools."

"The solution must be more flexible."

More Dell PowerFlex cons

"There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node"

"The product could use a better control center."

"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added."

"The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions."

"Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication."

"Scale Computing HC3 said in an announcement they were going to integrate with a backup service which would be good. If they could do this it would be beneficial."

"I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."

"On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area."

More Scale Computing Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."

"For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."

"Their pricing seems pretty good, and their licensing structure is pretty straightforward."

"It's priced fairly. It was definitely cheaper than the competition. The licensing terms are straightforward and reasonable."

"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."

"The cost was ultimately low to implement, which allowed us to be 3-2-1 complaint."

"The cost, including OPEX, is lower compared to other solutions."

"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive and I give the cost a two out of ten."

"The product is expensive."

"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 pricing for this solution is good."

"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the price as eight and a half. The tool is expensive."

"The price could be improved."

"I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

More Dell PowerFlex pricing and cost advice

"I pay for Scale Computing HC3 and it includes customer service for one year. We paid for an additional year for customer service but that includes the updates and everything for the software. Additionally, the licensing is for Windows, which is the same for everybody."

"The product is worth the money, but I would not say it's very cheap or very expensive."

"rate HC3's pricing a five out of ten since it is affordable."

"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Educational Organization

40%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?

It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combin...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

If you are comfortable with the solution and you feel that you don't need support, you can begin with the free licenc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limite...

See all answers

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 bein...

See all answers

What do you like most about Dell EMC PowerFlex?

The support is highly responsive.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell EMC PowerFlex?

If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the price as eight and a half. The tool is expensive.

See all answers

What do you like most about Scale Computing HC3?

The product's initial setup phase is too easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Scale Computing HC3?

It fit our budget, so it was great.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Scale Computing HC3?

There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node. It shows you a small graphical interface, but you...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 28% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 12% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 6% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

VxRail vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 50% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 16% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 10% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Stack HCI vs Dell PowerFlex

Compared 1% of the time

More Dell PowerFlex Competitors

VMware vSAN vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 21% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 17% of the time

Proxmox VE vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 13% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 10% of the time

Hyper-V vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More Scale Computing Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

September 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex

October 2024

Download Dell PowerFlex product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

September 2024

Download Scale Computing Platform product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex

Scale Computing HC3

Learn More

StarWind

Dell Technologies

Scale Computing

Overview

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

VxRack System consists of hyper-converged rack-scale engineered systems, with integrated networking, to achieve the scalability and management requirements of traditional and cloud native workloads. The VxRack series is purposely designed to enable customers to quickly deploy Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and/or Private Cloud architectures. VxRack Systems tightly integrate hardware with software and management layers.

The result is a fully tested, pre-configured, hyper-converged system with simplified operations at data center and Service Provider scale. VxRack Systems support the deployment of a variety of application workloads, allowing IT to rapidly deliver new services while improving overall agility and efficiency.

Scale Computing Platform brings together simplicity and scalability, replacing existing infrastructure to empower enterprises to run applications and process data outside centralized data centers, at the edge of their networks, closest to where data is created and utilized. With Scale Computing Fleet Manager, the industry’s first cloud-hosted monitoring and management tool built for hyperconverged edge computing infrastructure at scale, customers can quickly identify areas of concern using a single pane of glass, scaling from 1 to over 50,000 clusters. Zero-touch provisioning enables administrators to centrally monitor and manage hundreds or thousands of distributed edge infrastructure deployments with minimal or no on-site IT personnel.

Scale Computing Platform helps create affordable infrastructure that's scalable and highly available by combining servers, storage, hypervisor, and backup/DR into a single appliance. This innovation lowers costs of primary and edge infrastructure across the organization, so you can put money back into your business.

What are the key features of Scale Computing Platform?

Straightforward Setup: Simple installation process
Stability: Reliable performance
Fast Performance: High-speed VM operations
Built-in Licensing: Included licensing features
User-Friendly GUI: Intuitive graphical interface
Slimmed-Down Functionality: Core functions refined
Scalability: Expandable infrastructure

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Efficient Deployment: Quick and hassle-free setup
Superior Technical Support: High-quality assistance
Seamless Operation: Consistent performance, even during failures
Ease of Management: Simplified administrative tasks
Network Configuration Visibility: Clear network management insights

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox

Resorts World Las Vegas, Stena, Telford Offshore, Goodwill, Sandals, Jerry's Enterprises, Mendard's Royal Farms, Delhaize, Benchmark Electronics, Classic Hotels, Genting Casino, Lindt, Sainsbury's, Landmark Cinemas, Golden Queen Mining, Coca Cola. Holiday Inn, Iron County School District, Sevier County Bank, City of St. Cloud Minnesota, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, KIB Electronics, Brake Masters, Lincoln County Hospital, Ohio Summit County Board of Elections

Buyer's Guide

Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing Platform

October 2024

Free Report: Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing Platform and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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