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

FlexPod XCS vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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

FlexPod XCS
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 10.1%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is 15.3%, up from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance15.3%
FlexPod XCS10.1%
Other74.6%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Mir Gulzar Ahmed - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers comprehensive support and performance but initial deployment requires expertise
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It simplifies the management of virtual machines, networking, compute, and storage, allowing me to create multiple virtual machines easily without logging into the storage system. It offers free licensing of Oracle Linux and Solaris, and provides high-performance capabilities through extreme performance storage options. Additionally, the product ensures comprehensive customer support.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Our customers get their applications to market more quickly, and it has taken the risk out of their business, because there is less for them to try to figure out."
"It is extremely stable and well-supported because of the leadership and partnerships put in place."
"The data is available, compressed, and deduped."
"The storage efficiency and performance are valuable."
"It is absolutely resilient. It has built-in redundancy and multipathing. If there is an issue with one part, it doesn't fail automatically."
"UCS Profiles enable recovering a physical server in less than 15 minutes."
"For us as an IT department, it helped us a lot. Before we implemented FlexPod, we were using different solutions all based on a virtual infrastructure. On VMware, before implementing FlexPod, we had a lot of problems doing backups with disaster recovery. After integrating it, it enabled us to have shorter maintenance windows, instant backups, instant recovery, which also minimized the number of alerts that we get from the application team and from the employees who were working on the application that something is not working."
"For anyone who needs the flexibility of moving around profiles from physical device to physical device, it really adds an additional layer of virtualization."
"Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."
"It has helped us to reduce Oracle licensing costs for database and applications."
"Supports connection to most of network topology, such as VLAN and network segmentation."
"It is scalable as the box can be increased by one compute node, if required."
"You will find the high availability and License Team with Oracle very valuable."
"The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful if they sold a pre-boxed option so that you can buy a rack and everything's already there, everything's connected."
"The upgrades should be improved. We would like to have the ability to do unified upgrades of the whole infrastructure from beginning to end."
"One of the things that I've wanted would be availability of a health status, similar to Active IQ from my converged platform, on an app. I have dashboards so I can see the health of the system when I'm in the office, but when I'm not in the office I can't."
"Mainly, the interface needs improvement. I'm not a big fan of UCS Manager, sometimes. I believe they released the new one, and it seems like in every version something changes and something else doesn't work. When they switched to HTML5, I believe we had issues in version 3.2. They fixed it in the next version. The amount of work to upgrade a system for change control is tedious to have issues every time. I would recommend more regression testing, then testing the different browsers in that."
"The graphical interface could be made easier to use and more intuitive."
"We would like more integration with some other HCI solutions so we can take advantage of other opportunities."
"FlexPod was born to be used like building-block elements, to create large EDP premises. If used to create a single FlexPod CED, optional operational collaterals (backup, management, etc.) are missing, both in docs and in design."
"Sometimes, when the newer versions of any of the partners’ firmware or software come out, there's still sometimes a lag of the partners to support all of those new components."
"Patching processing takes a long time. Only one compute node is patched at a time."
"In comparison to competitors like VMware, there's a perceived need for Oracle to enhance OVM, making it more flexible and user-friendly."
"OVM Manager Interface is using HTML5. It should be reconverted to be a Java interface."
"The initial setup was very complex."
"The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have saved 50 percent on new service deployments."
"The product's pricing is high and I would rate it a nine out of ten."
"Cost is the primary factor behind why I would not give this product a perfect rating."
"Because the solution is now stable, we are saving about $100 million USD a year."
"It is cheaper than other products. For example, Dell EMC VxBlock is more expensive."
"The scalability is very expensive."
"The total cost of ownership with this solution is good."
"Coming from a rack and stack server model to FlexPod, it has saved us a lot of time (approximately hundreds to thousands of hours)."
"It is more expensive than the normal solution or the hyper-converged system."
"No licenses for the shipped software or firmware."
"If you have many Oracle products, such as databases, middleware, and apps, it will help you reduce Oracle app licences and support costs."
"It is relatively cost-effective."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Converged Infrastructure solutions are best for your needs.
867,497 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
20%
Educational Organization
15%
Performing Arts
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
25%
Government
17%
Comms Service Provider
10%
University
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
 

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 Private Cloud Appliance?
The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA.
What needs improvement with Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?
The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration. Streamlining and simplifying the deployment process would make ...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?
I use Oracle Private Cloud Appliance ( /products/oracle-private-cloud-appliance-reviews ) as a complete solution for hypervisor management. It includes a built-in hypervisor, Appliance Manager, and...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Agnitum Information Technologies, Mediacloud, Xait AS, Atos Global Managed Services, CaixaBI, ICA AB, BT Spain, Secure-24, Xait
Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,497 professionals have used our research since 2012.