Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

FlexPod XCS vs Oracle Exadata comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

FlexPod XCS
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
Converged Infrastructure (5th)
Oracle Exadata
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
126
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

FlexPod XCS and Oracle Exadata aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. FlexPod XCS is designed for Converged Infrastructure and holds a mindshare of 9.7%, down 10.9% compared to last year.
Oracle Exadata, on the other hand, focuses on Data Warehouse, holds 19.3% mindshare, up 18.6% since last year.
Converged Infrastructure
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Bob Greenwald - PeerSpot reviewer
There are no limits in terms of integration.
The most significant benefit is storage flexibility. FlexPod is a reference design to build on and add the appropriate resources you need for your workloads. That's what differentiates it from something like HCI, where you have to buy certain size pieces when you want to expand. I can do just about anything storage-related with it. In a FlexPod environment, we can provide whatever you want from a data storage perspective. Replication, backup, disaster recovery, etc., are all there right out of the box. I can set up fiber channel LAN, channel-over-ethernet LAN, etc. Storage is highly flexible in this environment. I don't have to buy two or three products and don't have to do some sort of software virtualization of the storage, which takes away your performance. For hyperscalers, you have insights on the Cisco side that you can use to look at tons of stuff. From the storage side, you could put a range of NetApp tools in the cloud. You could put VMware in the cloud and talk back to the native on-prem Cisco compute environment. Their network environment extends into the cloud. There are no limits in terms of integration. NetApp is the most integrated hyper-scale for storage and moving data into the cloud for long-term backup storage. VMware is fully available, so you could run VMware or Kubernetes on VMware in the cloud and tie it to your local storage through NetApp integration. It's an excellent match because your compute could easily DR to the cloud and be ready to go with all your storage without any modifications necessary because of the native integrations. It integrates well with the hyperscalers.
Guruprasad Gonjare - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers a variety of valuable features
The deployment depends on the Exadata options. There are primarily three options which include, Exadata, Exadata Cloud@Customer, and Exadata Cloud Service. Out of these, Cloud Service requires the minimum effort. The deployment takes around two to three weeks to complete. For the deployment purpose, we need information on the user base where the access is going to happen. We would also require around four to five engineers and admins for the solution’s deployment and maintenance. This estimation is based on the workflow.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"FlexPod's native integration with hyperscalers is one of the reasons we chose to look at it and NetApp. That is one of the key components of our infrastructure. That native integration is very important."
"Gives us a single point of contact for support."
"FlexPods allow us to go through and roll out compute, having a converged infrastructure with the same level of simplicity that you would expect of a hyper-converged."
"The solution’s unified support for the entire stack is critically important because we cannot afford downtime."
"I see the most value in the UCS portion. I love Cisco UCS."
"The solution is innovative when it comes to compute storage and networking. Each environment has knowledge of another in a FlexPod environment. This would be difficult to operate separately."
"There are very many features, but from experience, the single point of contact for support has been valuable to our customers."
"FlexPod provides very small footprint. We can have it in our offices without bothering with extra cooling, as it is a small unit."
"The most valuable feature is that you have the same familiar environment of an Oracle database but with the additional performance you get from this architecture."
"It is a highly relevant option with extreme performance."
"The most valuable feature of Oracle Exadata is its capabilities for storing and processing data. It is very good for our domain."
"On-premises Exadata is just as stable as the cloud version. It's a very stable platform."
"Oracle Exadata is stable."
"Exadata's best features are its performance during redo logging and the elasticity of the database handling."
"Before using this machine, we took no less than two days to run a report. Now, we can do it within five hours. So, there is a lot of improvement."
"We like the tool’s features like Smart Scan, Hybrid Columnar Compression, and the TFA."
 

Cons

"The upgrades should be improved. We would like to have the ability to do unified upgrades of the whole infrastructure from beginning to end."
"There are too many drivers and software combined all together, and we need to have compatibility between all of them."
"Upgrades are always scary because you just don't know. Nobody has six or seven different systems sitting around that you can test on before you go into production data."
"The initial setup for FlexPod is complex."
"I would like them to scale more to rack unit servers instead of blade servers."
"I'd like to see some more Ansible integration for automation purposes. We automate everything else with Ansible, so it would be great if we could automate our FlexPod with Ansible as well."
"I would like to see more CVDs and more published designs around a multi-hypervisor approach within a single pod."
"Perhaps having a unified interface for managing the entire company could lead to improved efficiency and performance."
"The solution could always be more stable and more reliable."
"It is difficult to evaluate return-on-investment because of the way billing is handled for the product. This should be improved by oracle."
"The solution lacks a visualized console."
"Oracle Exadata could improve by having faster data retrieval. We receive data at four or five seconds and want to reduce that number to one second."
"We had issues with system restoration."
"We have a little trepidation with the system as it does have a learning curve. Also changing to a binary logging format for us feels like retrograde motion, but sadly almost all Linux variants have moved in this direction."
"It's too expensive per terabyte. It's complex."
"One small area for improvement in Oracle Exadata is integration, particularly at the consolidated application level."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We immediately saw a return on investment due to the fact that replacing our legacy storage arrays with the new AFFs reduced the footprint and maintenance costs. Overall, we saw an almost immediate ROI."
"The NetApp portion was a $5 million investment five years ago. That has served the customer well over five and a half years."
"It has saved us hundreds of man-hours by using this converged infrastructure."
"Pricing and licensing is very affordable from a FlexPod perspective."
"We have a lease for approximately $10,000 USD per month."
"As a whole, it is inexpensive, and it uses the least amount of parts."
"We can just swap in new equipment or hardware as we need, which has probably saved us several weeks."
"Buy storage based on the solutions you need, the technologies you need, and what will make your life a lot easier down the road."
"Exadata is an expensive tool, but, considering the ROI, it's worth going for the solution."
"The Initial investment price could use improvement"
"In the sizing phase, you can also decide whether to license all cores, or reduce the number cores using capacity-on-demand features of Exadata, as well. This has a direct impact on licensing."
"The cost of the product could be improved."
"I think it's free."
"The price is very high."
"The price of Oracle Exadata is competitive. There are some features that are outside of the initial purchase license, such as some monitoring packages."
"The licensing can be a bit expensive because you need to have certain tools enabled that require them."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Converged Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
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
Manufacturing Company
18%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
10%
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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...
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...
What do you like most about Oracle Exadata?
It is the best solution for OLTP and data warehousing.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Exadata?
The pricing of Exadata is high. It is more expensive than usual, making it suitable only for big enterprises or businesses that can afford it.
What needs improvement with Oracle Exadata?
I would like to add some features to run applications or microservices-based applications on Exadata.
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
PayPal, EBS, Organic Food Retailer, Garmin, University of Minnesota, Major Semiconductor Company, Deutsche Bank, Starwood, Ziraat Bank, SK Telecom, and P&G.
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: December 2024.
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.