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HPE Alletra dHCI vs HPE SimpliVity comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 8, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
HPE SimpliVity
Ranking in HCI
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
153
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 HPE Alletra dHCI is 3.8%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE SimpliVity is 9.7%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 15, 2023
A scalable product that provides zero downtime and enables organizations to manage their infrastructure from a single console
The product is easy to deploy. Everything is through GUI. We don't have to go on the command line prompt. Everything is automated. The HPE engineers take the remote console and do the basic installation. It takes 10 to 15 working days to configure the tool and hand it over to the project team. We need one architect to design the solution and check whether the API plug-ins are certified or integrated with the solution. The existing infrastructure should be compatible with DSCI. We need one project manager to define the timeline and manage the daily activities. We also need two project engineers.
Xavier Perez - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 3, 2024
Has a deployment phase that is straightforward but needs improvement in the area of scalability
The main issue with HPE SimpliVity is that you are very attached to VMware or VMware dependencies because the tool works with VMware technology. HPE SimpliVity is an add-on from VMware. Nowadays, my company has a lot of concerns about VMware's licensing policy. Another big concern of the tool is related to security because one has to continuously update patch vulnerabilities that are appearing continuously in VMware's different versions. Actually, the foundation of all the architecture is VMware and that is one of the main issues with the tool. My company is analyzing our virtual infrastructure strategy to see if we can move to Nutanix because maybe it may work better and might have another approach. Nutanix is absolutely independent of VMware. I could add that since HPE SimpliVity is very precisely dependent on VMware, it is not open to containers unlike Nutanix, for example. The aforementioned area is a concern that needs to be resolved by HPE.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"StarWind vSAN has a lot of great features and is a perfect solution for mirroring internal disks and flash between servers."
"We went from "no way DB applications would have good performance" to "Wow! We can now actually have a DB running and have some VMs running at the same time.""
"The fact that we can expand our storage and add on to our compute nodes easily and how amazing the StarWind technical support team is really adding value to our purchase."
"The management was very easy and I was able to find all that I need in the software dashboard."
"PowerShell library is pretty good feature as I created with APC PowerChute a script to put volumes on maintenance mode then turning off the StarWind nodes together with the VM and Hosts when UPS reaches 15 percent, this way after a blackout or electrical problems when turning servers on again, there is no issues for syncing or data loss due to energy interrupts."
"The customer support provided by StarWind is excellent."
"I have found the graphical user interface to be the most useful thing about Virtual SAN."
"The ease of reaching the support team and their promptness for support is great."
"The solution is useful for taking storage snapshots, has high performance, and the CASL architecture is good for optimizing workloads."
"The product has cut down a lot of service tickets. Earlier, people complained about slowness."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The latency is very low."
"So far, the solution's performance is very good."
"It is easier to manage compared to the other vendors."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI's user interface is very easy to work with."
"Nimble DHCI is really user friendly and not complex"
"We like the backup feature, which is inbuilt."
"It has lessened our burden on multiple different products, so they are under one umbrella. This has been economically good."
"We have not had any problem with customer support at SimpliVity."
"The features I have found most valuable are the convergence of the infrastructure and multi-platform support, for example, VMware and Hyper-V"
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use and the storage virtualization layer, together with the built-in backups."
"The HCI concept by itself is the most valuable feature of the solution. It is a full-fledged HCI. It is the main component. I think this is what makes the project valuable."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The globally federated architecture means that the backup across sites does not consume precious MPLS bandwidth, which is cool."
 

Cons

"They need to improve the speed of the interfaces, thus allowing for better traffic on the network."
"With data verification, I would like to know how does the solution perform validation of data being synced between two VSANs."
"There is one issue as far as licensing goes and that is a lack of documentation online for users when transitioning from the free version to the paid version, or vice versa."
"This is a great product."
"When you will cease your contract with StarWind (for support) your product won't be updated and that is a big selling point, especially for us, as we have loads of products from StarWind."
"I would like to see more user-friendly dashboards in future versions."
"This product could be improved with the inclusion of new health check procedures."
"It is not very clear within the StarWind Management Console or the StarWind support documentation how to perform maintenance on a single node in a two-node HA cluster."
"It can be made cheaper."
"I can tier my data in different storage on the cloud, but I cannot tier the data with HPE Alletra dHCI."
"The product does not support file services."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI currently is promoting only VMware as a hypervisor, whereas if they can look into other OSs, such as KVM or Red Hat, it would be an improvement."
"The product’s performance needs improvement. It could also help with more environment monitoring and AI technologies to improve the performance and thresholds."
"Sometimes the technical support would get back to us in two hours, but other times it would take them two or even three days to respond."
"Nimble Storage's integration with the management software could be better."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI's website does not open properly or work consistently."
"There is a file size limitation when you want to do an individual file restore, but they might have resolved this in newer versions. As I'm taking backups at the VM server level, I can restore a file from any one of those without standing up the VM, and I can restore it to any mounted VM that I want. The problem is that there is a file size limitation. It becomes problematic when I'm trying to restore. When I want to restore a backup of a SQL database, my backups are considerably larger than 10 gigs. So, the only way to restore that backup file is to mount the entire VM somewhere and then copy it, which doesn't take long at all."
"I think the licensing cost could be lower."
"One thing that I would like to see improved is the flexibility of the node expansion."
"The way that it handles the memory could be better."
"I have a free project with SimpliVity deployment in the next three months. What can be improved is that in one or two of these projects, I need a cloud backup for the infrastructure and data. As for the infrastructure of the product as it relates to customer size, it is not very good at this moment in Peru. I need a solution for the cloud. In Peru, it's a three or four solution provider for cloud services."
"I can say that the support was better when it was a separate company, when it was SimpliVity. But, now with HPE it has not been quite as good. B"
"High availability for large production environments needs to be offered."
"The installation is quite easy but it could still be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is more than reasonable."
"The cost seems a bit steep, and I wish it was less expensive."
"This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."
"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."
"The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."
"We are happy with the price."
"The support contract is well worth it. The price for it was very reasonable and their team has been very engaged whenever we reach out."
"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"The cost of the licensing is reasonable."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is much cheaper than the competition and has value proposition. Customers can see an ROI in three months. There are no additional costs, and VMware licenses can be reutilized."
"With the features that HPE Nimble Storage dHCI provides, I cannot say its pricing is more."
"The product is very affordable."
"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The price of HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is expensive."
"The solution’s pricing was very good."
"It's a costly solution and is more expensive than VxRail."
"It has helped to reduce our VMware licensing costs due to host consolidation."
"It is not too expensive, but it is quite expensive for me."
"Customers always complain that SimpliVity is a little bit higher in price point as compared to other solutions available in the market."
"The solution is affordable and quite reasonably priced in terms of the product one gets."
"Cost of this product is high."
"It's about $10,000 monthly."
"​Cost is a factor. It is quite expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

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...
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...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limite...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We resea...
What do you like most about HPE SimpliVity?
The solution's technical support is good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE SimpliVity?
The price is almost equal to VMware vSAN, making it not much cost saving. However, the time-saving during upgrades is...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Information Not Available
Red Bull Racing, Mandarin Oriental, Brigham Young University, UCLA, Merlin Entertainments, Sasa Cosmetics, Travelport, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Princess House
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra dHCI vs. HPE SimpliVity and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.