FlexPod XCS vs Vblock [EOL] comparison

NetApp and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

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320 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Vblock [EOL]

Read 24 Vblock [EOL] reviews

84% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Vblock [EOL]

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between FlexPod XCS and Vblock [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp and others in Converged Infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: November 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

November 2024

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Categories and Ranking

FlexPod XCS

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

Converged Infrastructure (5th)

Vblock [EOL]

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Bob Greenwald

Senior Systems Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

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.

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Fred Armantrout

Senior System Specialist at Burns & McDonnell

The VCE VBlocks came along and it was the best combination of an all-in-one virtual data center in a box Converged SAN, Network, and Compute that used VMware to drive the whole package.

The original pair of VBlock’s were purchased to replace a hodgepodge of small VM clusters of 3 to 4 VM hosts and an outdated SAN, in addition to moving from an old data center to a new data center. Moving the VM’s from the old systems to the new VBlock --which had more shared resources and a newer VMware version-- was a big win. Once in place, we virtualized as many servers as could be converted from freestanding servers to a VM. The only exception was when the licensing of an application was cost prohibitive; we keep these on stand-alone hosts. This was mainly due to application licensing bias, rather than limits on virtualization.

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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

"FlexPod's unified support for the entire stack is very important. Before, the customers would log a ticket by Cisco and a ticket by NetApp. It's better when vendors can parter and look for a solution together."

"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."

"FlexPod has improved our company as far as ease of management, stability, and redundancy."

"The most valuable is the one support. I have a 1-800 number. I call one number rather than figuring out whether it's a network, compute, or storage issue. It is beautiful and works out nicely."

"The initial setup is not complex. It is user-friendly since it is a single solution with all the components delivered in one package."

"You can add more boxes and you can have more IOPS available if you want. It's very easy to add new hardware to the cluster."

"Performance-wise, it is actually doing quite well. The end users are very happy with it."

"It took a server room where we had 280 servers and another with 180 and condensed them from 15 racks down to three racks. It's helping us in the data center with all our environmentals... In addition, we're getting the ability of VMware, which is virtualization, so now we have redundancy on all of our boxes, instead of them being physical."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"Finding a fully bundled, deployed, and configured solution with a short delivery time and unique support is really attractive."

"VMware NSX: Provides the ability for our organisation to deliver true DR."

"The component integration means I don't have to worry about technology mismatches."

"Systems run solidly."

"It has improved system performance, batch times for off-hours processing, and reliability with production applications."

"The most valuable features are reliability and high availability."

"The most valuable feature is that it is centrally managed, as it is quite easy for our customers to manage everything, end-to-end."

"It's an integrated box Mac solution, so it's a plug and play. The deployment and build is pre-made and ready to deploy. It makes it easy to apply."

More Vblock [EOL] pros

Cons

"We want always more speed, capacity, fluidity, and growth that we can easily integrate."

"FlexPod has not decreased the unplanned downtime incidents in our company. There was a problem with the back-end configuration and we had a downtime of three hours."

"Because when you try to do automation, there are many bits and pieces tied together. Sometimes, automation gets a little tricky for provisioning."

"We use technical support from time to time. Most of the time if we really need assistance we end up having to get above the tier one support. We're able to do a lot of the tier one troubleshooting on our own."

"There could be room for improvement in terms of offering more flexibility in CBD options."

"Hyper-V is not as well supported by NetApp and Cisco as VMware is, which is something that should be improved."

"We would like to see a new design that comes with more productivity or graphics. Currently, the vendors, like HPE and Dell EMC along with NetApp, all have very similar products. We want more diversification."

"Setting up a Cisco USC environment can be complex."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"In the next release, I would like to see a smaller footprint in the data center and have improvements to disk performance."

"With respect to the technical support, there is room for improvement."

"Improve the patching process and timeliness of updates/releases."

"Troublesome relationships with VCE at the beginning of our use came undone quickly after we went live."

"Tighter alignment could simplify and speed up the configuration and delivery process."

"I would like to see them improve their switching infrastructure and rely on Cisco configurations. They are a bit more complex and technical, but result in a slightly reduced cost in terms of switching on the network side of it."

"The user control could be more advanced. They should work to improve this in future releases."

"RCM upgrades were not scripted, and you needed to roll on your own. We were led to believe this would be otherwise."

More Vblock [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."

"It has saved us hundreds of man-hours by using this converged infrastructure."

"The scalability is very expensive."

"As a whole, it is inexpensive, and it uses the least amount of parts."

"We would like everything in one piece of hardware. This way we can just sell the product like a silo by putting everything in a stack together."

"Licensing can be interesting with the new version because of the Intersight integration. I don't know what that looks like yet. I have seen some of the different licensing models, but with the new purchasing, all customers are going to have to buy some sort of Intersight licensing with the Blades or FlexPod. I am curious to see how that option shakes out. Previous to the UCS X-Series, the licensing was the same."

"It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."

"We definitely saw a lot of operational cost savings using FlexPod. As far as capital outlay goes, that was a little bit too much for us to swallow and we weren't able to recognize enough savings in that area to afford it."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"Vblock is priced at a premium because people don't want the headache of managing and deploying different products."

"It is not cheap."

"Related to tech support: I believe it is too expensive."

"The paid support for Vblock is expensive."

"I would not say the pricing is not good value. It is still on the expensive side, near the top-end of cost compared to what's available now. Also, the licensing has to be improved. There has to be a clear definition of the licensing from the initial set-up so the customer knows what they are paying for, without being hit later on with extra licensing. The licensing definitions should be clearer and, perhaps, have one set of licenses rather than multiple licenses."

"Strive for a consolidated ELA."

"Vblock appears from the first while to be very expensive. There are more items you cannot see in the BOQ: customer service, support, delivery short time, and highly experienced VCE engineers."

"I think the pricing is on the higher end of the spectrum. There could be some adjustments that could be made there. Regarding licensing, watch compatibility with external products that you run on Vblock. It has got to be properly architected, otherwise, you will run into licensing issues."

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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…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

21%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Educational Organization

10%

No data available

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.

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

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Comparisons

Dell PowerFlex vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 24% of the time

VMware vSAN vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 9% of the time

More FlexPod XCS Competitors

Dell VxBlock System vs Vblock [EOL]

Compared 100% of the time

More Vblock [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

November 2024

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

Vblock [EOL]

October 2024

Download Vblock [EOL] product report

Also Known As

No data available

VCE Vblock

Learn More

NetApp

Dell Technologies

Overview

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.

VCE Vblock Systems is an all-in-one virtualization platform that integrates the leading storage, network, and compute technologies from the likes of EMC, VMware and Cisco. VCE Vblock allows organizations to easily and securely deploy cloud computing and virtualization in their environments, supporting these multiple technologies and providing flexibility and agility for changing business needs.

Sample Customers

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

Xerox, ACS, and Columbia Sportswear.

Buyer's Guide

Converged Infrastructure

November 2024

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