Dell XC Appliance vs VxRail comparison

Dell XC Appliance and VxRail are both solutions in the HCI category. Dell XC Appliance is ranked #35, while VxRail is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Dell XC Appliance holds a 0.1% mindshare in HCI, compared to VxRail’s 21.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Dell XC Appliance users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of VxRail users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Dell XC Appliance and VxRail compete in the hyper-converged infrastructure market. VxRail has a competitive edge due to its extensive feature set, appealing to those seeking advanced capabilities despite higher costs.

Features: Dell XC Appliance integrates seamlessly into existing IT environments, offers flexibility across various workloads, and does not require separate storage for different protocols. VxRail incorporates simplified system management, robust scalability, and enhanced security and resilience.

Room for Improvement: Dell XC Appliance could improve by offering more sophisticated management tools and better service integration. It may also benefit from enhanced security features and broader scalability options. VxRail could enhance its pricing model, streamline its complex configuration processes, and improve upfront cost insights.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VxRail features a streamlined, automated deployment model, including comprehensive customer service that supports varied integration. Dell XC's deployment is straightforward, offering adaptability but lacks the service engagement level of VxRail.

Pricing and ROI: Dell XC Appliance presents more competitive initial costs, appealing to budget-conscious enterprises, promising efficient ROI. VxRail requires a higher initial investment, justified by its feature-rich performance that offers long-term ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell XC Appliance vs. VxRail Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Dell XC Appliance vs. VxRail

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.3%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XC Appliance is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VxRail is 21.2%, up from 21.3% 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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reviewer1264599

IT Technical Operations Manager at a healthcare company with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 22, 2020

Turnkey solution with low management costs that is easy to use

We did a lot of research ahead of time with this solution to make sure that it was stable, scalable, had a good interface, was easy to use, and that it had good technical support. I don't have enough time with the solution to know what areas need to be improved. When I have run into some difficulties, Dell has let me know that those have been addressed and instruct me or direct me to where I can find and enable certain functions. These functions are there, but with my inexperience, I didn't know they were there. I haven't found things that are missing yet. It's a single driver update that reduces management costs. I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

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Sushil MIshra

AG at SIS.

Apr 17, 2024

Trouble-free architecture, we don't have to juggle multiple components like in a traditional three-tier architecture

We mainly use it for virtualization across all our applications. We also have a DC/DR setup based on the VxRail infrastructure It's a trouble-free architecture. We don't have to juggle multiple components like in a traditional three-tier architecture. With VxRail, it's a pre-built solution…

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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

"It's very easy to resize disks and they show up in VMware almost instantly."

"High Availability is the best feature of product."

"The support has been amazing and quick to reply."

"Quick setup, great support, stability is great"

"The product gave us a cost-effective way to deploy a highly available server environment."

"Updates to server hardware are now painless and done during working hours with zero stress. We had a RAID failure a few months back, and nobody in the building even noticed and there was no after hours time used for repair."

"Integration with Microsoft clustering has been perfect, allowing us to leverage our investment in MS server licensing to the fullest."

"The product has improved the ability to mimic physical SAN environments to demo scenarios and troubleshoot problems."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"The most valuable feature is that you can assign a volume to an off-shore workload on the fly."

"The solution's hardware is great."

"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."

"The solution's best feature is its simplicity. It's so simple to deploy it. You've got the VMware, and it's own appliance. It is really helpful. The system is online within half a day and saves so much time."

"What I like the most is that it is easy to implement, easy deployment and that it's easy to manage."

"When we compare it to normal hardware servers, I'd say it is quite easy to configure and deploy."

"The most valuable feature is the low management overhead, and the lower skill set required to manage it."

"We enjoy the ease of management since all of the resources are located on one box — one single point of support."

"The installation process is very quick. When you purchase it, it's up and running without much delay. Adding any additional components is simple, allowing for easy and fast scaling without adding complexity. The centralized management portal makes it easy to manage the entire system."

"I have found that the admin deployment, monitoring off-premises, and the many services important features. Additionally, the solution has good integration."

"You don't have to worry too much about the hardware and you don't have to work on integrating a storage device. We instead have this as an all-in-one solution and everything is available as a box."

"This solution ensures uptime, providing 100% availability so servers can operate without downtime. It works with VMware on the software side. The solution also has AI capabilities. The solution is stable. The solution is scalable. Customer service and support is more than satisfactory. It is easy to deploy. It can be done within a couple of hours. Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten."

"VxRail is easy to deploy and easy to scale up."

"The cover points feature in VxRail is remarkable. It's unique. It has an intervention failover system as well as an automatic failover system, reaching clusters existing in VxRail. This makes all files act as a single file with a large and huge resource, and, of course, with customized administration, configuration, and resources. It provides automatic failover for redundancy and data recovery."

"What I like the most in terms of features is the fact that the VxRail update can be done in one week. It takes much less time to do a whole server upgrade and an infrastructure update as well."

More VxRail pros

Cons

"Management of VSAN itself could be improved. A Web UI for management would be great rather than an application installation. StarWind is testing a command center virtual appliance that I have installed in my environment."

"Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items."

"The reconnection of the attached drives upon a reboot could be improved."

"StarWind Command Center's single-pane management solution only works with Hyper-V."

"The interface of the management console of the StarWind Virtual SAN is complex, and it's difficult for the novice user to interact with the management having less knowledge or training in the product."

"For improvement, I would like to see how the software determines which networks to use for which purpose. It seems like the naming terminology changes a bit from here to there."

"It would be helpful if StarWind provided more precise and detailed documentation explaining how to configure the solution in various scenarios, including the advantages and disadvantages of each."

"I would like additional documentation regarding possible networking configurations with 10GbE switching."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"The cost of using the public cloud deployment is astronomical."

"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."

"We are not always advised of new features or updates, so we must research to stay up to date."

"Currently, there is no support for the servers that are not in the cluster."

"The solution's storage size could be improved."

"Dell needs to do a lot of work to simplify the maintenance and life-cycle upgrades for the product."

"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."

"The most important thing that I want to be included in this solution is the VMware license. Its deployment time can be quicker so that instead of 40 minutes, it takes 10 minutes."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

"In the version that I was working with, the integrations are in need of improvement."

"It should not be deployed on one hypervisor. There should be multiple hypervisors supported like Hyper-V or KVM."

"Supply chain capabilities are certainly hurting us. We're in the process of placing a large order for more VxRail nodes right now."

"Next release, we would like to see online applications."

"The support protocols have changed after Broadcom acquired VMware."

"Sometimes during implementation, you can some scripting errors. And there are some issues when we update the version. There are some issues like the version will not get updated or stable at some time. Dell needs to resolve these problems, we don't waste time fixing them."

More VxRail cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."

"I would suggest that you download the free version, deploy in your lab, and play with it."

"I think the cost of this solution is quite fair."

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

"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."

"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."

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

"This solution has a great price for the functionality."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"We received a good price from Dell."

"The price point is very fair for a product in this category but can vary depending on the components selected within the family of products."

"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."

"The pricing is dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."

"The pricing is good."

"It varies. It could be $100,000 at the smaller end and millions and millions of dollars at the higher end."

"It is expensive as compared to other products in the same category."

"Most of hyper-converged solutions require additional licenses for the virtualization layer (like VMware)."

"Since VMware is detached from Dell, the solution's pricing is a bit higher than before."

"It's a highly expensive solution"

"Price is a bit of a challenge, particularly if you want extra features or higher performance."

"The pricing is very accurate, and we haven't had any problems with the licensing costs."

"The solution is competitively priced but it is expensive. However, this is expected as we are a corporate enterprise and we need this environment."

More VxRail pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

No data available

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

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 advice do you have for others considering Dell XC Appliance?

My advice for people who are selling this product is to first make sure that you educate the customers. The customer ...

See all answers

How does HPE Nimble Storage compare to VxRail?

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI Vs. VxRail One of the best things about the HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is the three, two, one, z...

See all answers

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an e...

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

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 13% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 3% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

No data available

Dell PowerFlex vs VxRail

Compared 33% of the time

VMware vSAN vs VxRail

Compared 21% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VxRail

Compared 15% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs VxRail

Compared 7% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs VxRail

Compared 6% of the time

More VxRail Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

October 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

November 2024

Download Dell XC Appliance product report

Buyer's Guide

VxRail

October 2024

Download VxRail product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

No data available

VCE VxRail

Learn More

StarWind

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Dell Technologies

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.

XC Series hyper-converged appliances integrate Dell EMC 14th generation PowerEdge servers with Nutanix software to offer one of the industry’s most versatile and scalable hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) platforms. By supporting a choice of hypervisors, XC Series appliances can be deployed quickly for all virtualized workloads to reduce management complexity and total cost of ownership.

VxRail is a hyper-converged appliance based on VMware virtual SAN Software and is jointly engineered and built with VMware, for VMware, to enhance Vmware. VxRail software-defined architecture simplifies compute, storage, virtualization, and management. It will safeguard performance, reliability, and flexibility across your organization with a broad range of workloads and applications from business-critical to next-gen. With VxRail, you are covered.

VxRail is a single turn-key appliance that is a validated, fully integrated, pre-configured, pre-tested solution and offers non-disruptive scaling. Every node includes compute storage and IO. All-flash configurations can contain between 12-28 cores per node. The storage capacity options run from 7.6 TB to 19TB with either 256 GB or 512GB of memory. Hybrid appliances may have 6-20 cores per node, 3.6 TB to 10 TB of storage capacity, and 24GB to 256 GB of memory.

VxRail offers high availability fail-over, an active/active stretch cluster, and VSan Kernal integration. VxRail is a power-edged server with APIs built on automation. There are over 15 million different combinations of hardware available with VxRail. VxRail provides a simple, cost-effective solution that solves a large range of use cases. Additionally, you also get a mixed workloads automated system that is backed with fully automated system updates, and complete end-to-end lifecycle management all in a single two-rack appliance.

VxRail is a value-added suitable solution for distributed small to mid-sized enterprises, remote offices, private clouds, and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). You choose the deployment option that best suits your organizational needs, from appliance to integrated rack offerings, with or without networking, and it will be delivered to you, ready to deploy out-of-box.

If you know VMware, you know VxRail.

VxRail Features and Benefits

Seamlessly accelerate deployment to a hybrid cloud
Fast data center modernization
Create developer-ready Kubernetes platforms

Powerful performance and reliability
Improve and simplify operational efficiency
Excellent integration
Save time
Reduce costs

Reviews from Real Users

VxRail is an all-in-one solution: "You don't have to worry too much about the hardware and you don't have to work on integrating a storage device. We instead have this as an all-in-one solution and everything is available as a box."

VxRail is remarkable: “The cover points feature in VxRail is remarkable. It's unique. It has an intervention failover system as well as an automatic failover system, reaching clusters existing in VxRail…”

VxRail is a powerful performer: “...VxRail delivers a very high number of IOPS for a hybrid configuration or an all-flash configuration. The processors that are available in the Xeon family are very powerful. They are multi-core with typically 2 gigahertz, 2.4 gigahertz, or higher frequency, so the performance is very much appreciated.”

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital

World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox

Buyer's Guide

Dell XC Appliance vs. VxRail

October 2024

Free Report: Dell XC Appliance vs. VxRail

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