Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS comparison

Dell Technologies and NetApp are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Dell Technologies is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.7, while NetApp is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4. Dell Technologies holds a 13.1% mindshare in CI, compared to NetApp’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Dell VxBlock System

Read 14 Dell VxBlock System reviews

957 Views
451 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

516 Views
261 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Dell VxBlock System

FlexPod XCS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Dell VxBlock System are leading solutions in the integrated IT infrastructure market, known for simplifying IT management. FlexPod XCS is favored for its holistic support model that unifies NetApp, Cisco, and VMware, reducing troubleshooting complexity. Dell VxBlock's edge is its performance capabilities and scalability, suitable for substantial enterprise requirements.

Features: FlexPod XCS offers seamless integration with a pre-tested, certified design that ensures compatibility and reduces integration challenges. Its unified support model across major vendors minimizes troubleshooting downtime. Dell VxBlock System is recognized for its high performance, consolidated architecture, and ability to scale easily, supporting enterprises with varied compute, storage, and networking demands.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS could improve by developing a unified management interface and streamlining vendor certifications for enhanced reporting features and customer clarity. Dell VxBlock System could be more flexible with third-party applications and simplify management interfaces while improving its cross-vendor support coordination.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FlexPod XCS supports both on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments, aided by its collaboration with Cisco and NetApp, offering superior customer service through a unified support model. Dell VxBlock focuses on strong on-premises deployment with a single-console management approach, though it could be more intuitive for some users.

Pricing and ROI: Both FlexPod XCS and Dell VxBlock are considered significant financial investments. FlexPod's high upfront costs are offset by long-term savings due to improved efficiency and scalability, while Dell VxBlock's competitive pricing is balanced by its advanced functionalities, offering substantial ROI depending on enterprise-scale deployments.

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

Buyer's Guide

Dell VxBlock System 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 VxBlock System

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

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 VxBlock System is 13.1%, down from 19.0% 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

AKINJIDE OKE

Senior Sales Engineer / Team Lead Datacentre Solutions & Applications at ARIT OF AFRICA

Useful for virtualized environment, node management, configuration deployment, and system management with artificial intelligence

I've worked with Dell and had the privilege of working with many OEMs. I started my career as a system engineer, working with HPE as a partner, and then moved to other OEMs like IBM and Lenovo. Currently, I work with a small team. I don't believe any solution is bad. It's just that you might not have identified what the solution is addressing. It's about choosing the right solution for your needs. In terms of hardware or infrastructure, it's an Intel platform. What differentiates everyone is the additional value they can provide. Dell has many values that meet customer needs. I look at the customer's objectives and requirements as an IT professional to find the best solution. I haven't seen any drawbacks regarding the infrastructure deliverables or the value built into the tool. However, Dell as an organization could improve its channel management. For example, we've been trying to resolve an issue with our portal for two weeks. I'd like to see more simplification regarding integration, deployment, and connectivity for future releases. In deployment, I'd like to see simplification in creating VNets and positioning VMware across nodes. I want a template that simplifies the creation of VNets and VMware positioning. I'd push for more simplification and an intuitive graphical GUI that simplifies things with just a click.

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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

"VxBlock has good performance, so that is an advantage."

"In comparison to traditional file load systems, Dell VxBlock System can be deployed quickly and results in monthly cost savings."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed."

"Its performance is very good."

"Customers use the Dell VxBlock System for new applications or solutions. For example, I'm working on a new mixing solution for a whole country in Africa. When we talk about it, there are many locations, and we're looking for efficiency, utilization, and solutions that can expand the application database we're deploying. It's used a lot for server consolidation and to consolidate environments into new ones for easy management. It's also used in health environments where they need to create infrastructure for products or solutions they want to launch to the market quickly."

"Good default features."

"Integration with VMware and VMotion definitely brings a lot of value."

"It's at least 99 percent problem-free because it's factory-built. So from an informational point of view, everyone trusts that VxBlock has been tested well at the factory and has been configured to their requirements."

More Dell VxBlock System pros

"It simplifies infrastructure from edge to port to cloud. It proves that deployment is easy and straightforward. There isn't any need to do extra work."

"The flexibility, operational efficiency, and scalability of FlexPod has been a huge factor for us because our customers have workloads that need to run on classical HTTPs, flash storage, or possibly in the cloud. This flexibility and enhanced ability of the solution is very important for this. We trust in it."

"We have significantly less latency now with our imagery."

"The most valuable features are the CVDs and the support behind it from both companies."

"For the management side of our UCS, it is a single pane of glass for multiple people, whether it is data center, sysadmin, or server deployment."

"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."

"The overall versatility and validate designs are great. We previously used a different platform, but we gained a lot of utilization with FlexPod."

"Integrated support: It is all under one support contract."

More FlexPod XCS pros

Cons

"The consistency of disc quality could be improved."

"There are components of VxBlock that are not managed or supported by Dell because some of the components are from Cisco. Thus, when there are problems with compute nodes, though Dell was managing the interaction, we had to rely on Cisco to solve the issue. When Cisco was not responding as quickly as Dell would for their components, it made it difficult for us because we needed to have the failed nodes back up and running. As such, the disparate ownership of components in the equipment is an issue."

"The solution could use a clearer description of working methods to tell people more about its use cases."

"The hardware lifecycle is not documented very well. For example, now you can buy a piece of equipment, but you don't know if the hardware is going to be a team production next month or next year."

"Scalability is an area that needs to be improved."

"It is a good product, but for us, it is like a black box. We are not really sure about its internal components, and how to do the terminal upgrade, and how to make sure about the security of the device. We understand how it works, but in order to do the upgrades, we have to get help from the company. We cannot do it ourselves. In another model that we had, the internal team could do the upgrade but not in this one. There is no clear process for a new upgrade or update. They should provide a software intelligence tool that has a dashboard where you can see the current firmware, the latest firmware, and the documentation and the process for the upgrade. For VxBlock, we have different management consoles. There is no single management console that you can use to manage all components inside VxBlock. Their scale up and scale out process is also not clear. Their support is also a little bit slow in responding to the cases."

"This solution does not support Hyper-V, and we would like the new version to be supported and certified to work with Hyper-V."

"Lacks flexibility with third-party applications."

More Dell VxBlock System cons

"The upgrade process needs to be improved and it would be nice to manage everything from a single pane of glass."

"I would like them to integrate the NVIDIA GRID into the system, so we could easily deploy certain solutions with the FlexPod."

"I would like to see more orchestration tools in FlexPod because we virtually end up with integrating the v-orchestration tool within FlexPod. I would like to see something like that included within FlexPod."

"The majority of the time, if we need more storage, then we need to work with customizing the NetApp deployment. Right now, we just do a generic deployment, then wherever we have a need for storage, we have to move some application out of the next FlexPod deployment. One thing is to customize based on the requirements, but the requirements change so frequently, they are absolutely obsolete in six months."

"If they could reduce some of the complexity at the system manager level for ONTAP. I find it gives a lot of flexibility. You can do as much or as little as you want. But to be able to do as little as you want, you do have to do a lot. So, if they could bring that down to a more manageable effort level, that would be nice and simplify it a bit."

"They need to improve the user interface to make it easier to work in this environment. The older version is poor."

"Newer platform reference architectures take a long time to harden and be publicly available."

"I would like to see programmability into a SaaS-based offering, as I know Cisco's going in a lot of directions with their Intersight application."

More FlexPod XCS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is high. That's why people are now moving to hyper-converge."

"We purchased this solution with a ten-year manufacturer warranty, and we have a three-year warranty with our local partner."

"Compared to other solutions, Dell VxBlock System is more expensive."

"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."

"It is cost-effective."

"Buy storage based on the solutions you need, the technologies you need, and what will make your life a lot easier down the road."

"Make sure you are buying for performance, not just capacity."

"The scalability is very good. I wish it was a more cost-effective, but you get what you pay for."

"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."

"The main return on investment would be that instead of having to refresh all of our desktop hardware we have been able to go reimage existing machines and use those as thin clients, then also purchase new thin clients rather than buying actual hardware. It also reduces the overhead of having our technicians deploy those systems and maintain them."

"Overall, the solution works pretty well. The biggest complaint I have from customers is the cost."

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

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

20%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

11%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell EMC VxBlock System?

With a converged infrastructure, it's easy to troubleshoot from network to server issues from a single point of reference.

See all answers

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

The cost is not overly expensive but not cheap either. Considering the features and everything, it is very good. Price-wise, it is reasonable but not the least expensive option.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell EMC VxBlock System?

There is a need for single console management. Everything should be accessible through a single console to ensure ease of management. So far, there are no issues since the storage and other systems...

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.

See all answers

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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HPE ConvergedSystem vs Dell VxBlock System

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Compared 27% of the time

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX 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 VxBlock System

February 2025

Download Dell VxBlock System product report

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

February 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Also Known As

VxBlock, VCE VxBlock System, Dell EMC VxBlock, VxBlock 1000

No data available

Overview

VxBlock and Vblock Systems simplify all aspects of IT and enable organizations to achieve better business outcomes faster. Seamlessly integrating enterprise-class compute, network, storage and virtualization technologies from industry leaders Cisco, Dell EMC, and VMware, VxBlock and Vblock Systems, powered by Intel Xeon processors, deliver the world's most advanced converged infrastructure: engineered, manufactured, managed, supported and sustained as one, allowing you to focus on your business.

The Dell EMC Converged Systems portfolio offers choice, flexibility, and reliability for accelerating IT transformation - VxBlock System offers additional levels of flexibility with a choice of network virtualization from VMware NSX or Cisco ACI.

Dell EMC VxBlock System Will Help You:

Protect and consolidate your high-value workloads
Deliver cloud operations faster
Simplify life cycle management
Simplify operations
Modernize IT
Protect critical business data

With Dell EMC VxBlock System You Can:

Automate key processes
Move to a VMware-based private or hybrid cloud model
Gain ongoing validation for technologies across the stack
Mix and match SAN/LAN switches, different storage arrays, blade and rack servers, and more
Reduce patching and upgrade efforts using a turnkey system

Dell EMC VxBlock System Features:

Native data protection: Dell EMC’s data protection suite includes backup and recovery, centralized management, and replication.
Cisco C-Series servers: Dell EMC VxBlock System is now integrated with Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers, including the C220 and C240 in the M4 and M5 server lines.
Server scalability boost: You can increase server scalability by approximately 56%.
Storage mix: Dell EMC’s VxBlock System gives you the ability to mix four different types of storage arrays (Unity, VMAX, XtremIO, Isilon). It also includes multiple all-flash storage options (Unity 350F, 350F, 550F, 650F), and more.
Data center efficiency: The solution simplifies lifecycle assurance - which reduces time spent managing upgrades - and it can also reduce rack space and lower power costs.
Simpler RCM compliance: You will have simpler RCM compliance and your upgrades will feature an RCM dashboard showing the release level status of all components; You will also have access to RCM compliance score, RCM summary and detail reports, and RCM pre-positioning.
Deep CI context KPI metrics This feature includes capacity reporting and performance analytics with historical perspective.
Advanced, real-time CI-level alerting Dell EMC VxBlock System’s alerting feature includes operational state alerts, performance alerts, call home alerts, custom alerts and alert forwarding.

Dell EMC VxBlock System Benefits:

Manage more efficiently
Reduce operational risk
Simplify upgrades and assure compliance
Focus more on added-value projects
Be more agile
Reduce OPEX
Proactively manage workload health
Improve capacity planning
Resolve incidents and problems faster

Reviews from Real Users:

“It's a highly optimized piece of equipment that doesn't give us any problems." - Architect at a manufacturing company

"The monitoring and management parts are the most valuable. Monitoring is specifically valuable because you have one console to monitor everything. This console is called Vision.” - Data center Manager at a financial services firm

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

Atos, Canadian Pacific, IDS, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Switch, Xerox

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

Buyer's Guide

Dell VxBlock System vs. FlexPod XCS

January 2025

Free Report: Dell VxBlock System vs. FlexPod XCS

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