HPE Hyper Converged vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series comparison

HPE Hyper Converged vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

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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 HPE Hyper Converged is 2.9%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is 1.5%, down from 1.7% 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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Yudish Jatoo

Business Development Manager at MC3

Oct 19, 2023

Ensures end-to-end data security with redundancy measures and provides visibility into the system but node expansion challenges

One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good to have an open kind of platform for other hypervisors, maybe. Like Nutanix is doing, it's very open. Another area of improvement is the expansion node. Because today, we can add a few disks, which is limited. Or scale out. But in the capacity upgrades, there is a kind of limitation somewhere. In future releases, I would like to see more advanced features in terms of replication on the DR side. Because today, the product is doing what should be done. But it's not at the same level with the other third-party vendors like Veeam, applications like Commvault, and other production.

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Genesis Dapoza

Email Administrator at Technopaq, Inc.

Mar 1, 2024

simplifies management for clients familiar with VMware, and offers a user-friendly management and configuration experience

With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers. The drawback is that the hardware resources (CPU, memory, storage) are shared among all the VMs running on the VX Series. If the server's processor is underpowered for the VMs, many of the VMs might have performance issues. An improvement could be to have more granular control over resource allocation to VMs.

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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

"Highly available storage is the most valuable feature. The entire rollout is hyper-converged and requires no extra storage further than the hosts in which Hyper-V is running. Another feature that has been great is the support from StarWind in general. We have their proactive support package on the main cluster that employs Starwind Virtual SAN."

"When it comes to ease of installation, the whole process is designed to be user-friendly and straightforward."

"This was a great implementation for a small to mid-size business."

"The price was right."

"StarWind vSAN is easy to deploy and administer."

"Having the ability to scale horizontally if needed is a huge plus for future growth."

"Having support is also very valuable to us as we are a small team."

"The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities."

"The HA, which means I have a copy of the VMs always available, and the moment a VM is down, the system tries to power it on again."

"The solution has many good features."

"The most valuable features are resiliency and data protection."

"The solution has good backup resolution updates."

"There are multiple advantages. Typically, being an all-flash storage, which is available through either SimpliVity or dHCI, the performance is much better because the IOPS goes high, so it's more powerful in terms of performance. Secondly, if I'm talking of SimpliVity Hyper Convergence solution from HPE, unlike the competition, even if three hard drives fail, you are still running the solution."

"If you were comparing this solution to VMware, it has more features, and it's very fast on the recovery."

"The most valuable features of this solution are fast deployment, security, and it is easy to upgrade."

More HPE Hyper Converged pros

"The clients like the solution’s simplicity."

"The VX machines are scalable."

"We find the setup quite straightforward and very easy."

"Installation is straightforward because it's a vSAN. It only took one or two days."

"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series' deployment is easy. We are a tier-one platinum partner who is into multiple implementations."

Cons

"It is difficult to control all of the hardware components."

"A web management interface would be good, especially for those coming from other solutions that have one."

"It would be helpful to have a little more insight into what kind of performance the VSAN cluster is utilizing; something that would be more proactive on our side, versus their ProActive Support."

"I found that certain browsers are not fully compatible with the administration web access portal."

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

"For the StarWind VSA vSphere solution, I would like to see a simpler and automated virtual machine installation process in terms of network settings."

"StarWind really needs to market its product more."

"With data verification, I would like to know how does the solution perform validation of data being synced between two VSANs."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"We've had to do a power cycle to bring it all the way down, bring it back up for power outages, A/C shut-downs of our DC office, but it hasn't presented a problem."

"Its technical support services could be faster."

"The price can be improved. We would like to see support for some open source virtualization technology like for example KVM."

"One of the things that can be improved is that today, is supporting VMware, maybe as a hypervisor. But it would be good to have an open kind of platform for other hypervisors, maybe. Like Nutanix is doing, it's very open."

"We have faced some challenges when upgrading. With Hyper Converged, you have to fully upgrade because there are no incremental upgrades available in this solution. For example, let's say we have two nodes. If we want to upgrade storage, we also need to upgrade computing. That means a full upgrade EME."

"If the solution could further compress the data, it would use less storage."

"The solution is not very stable."

"Could be more secure and more economical."

More HPE Hyper Converged cons

"The user management could be a bit better. It's something they could improve upon in future releases."

"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series needs to improve its stability. Its resolution should be faster."

"The product must provide AI features."

"With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers."

"Support could be better."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."

"The pricing is excellent. It will run on anything. You don't have to buy a $100,000 server, with hardware you don't need. You just pay for the license and you're good to go."

"The cost seems a bit steep, and I wish it was less expensive."

"The licensing is straightforward, with free and trial versions available."

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

"If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."

"StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"The solutions cost us a lot."

"The solution is too expensive for our customers. The pricing should be lower."

"The price per value compared to other solutions, like Nutanix and SimpliVity. (We made the deal before approval of HPE SimpliVity deal)."

"With this solution, I buy everything together, pre-packaged, pre-installed, and in just 15 minutes, it's installed."

"The product's pricing is very competitive because HPE provides a buyback policy to users...Users can make either monthly or yearly payments towards the licensing cause of the solution."

"The solution is expensive - not only the hardware costs but server costs too. And the more you scale, the more expensive it gets."

"It is a cost-effective solution."

"It is an expensive solution, however. If they could adjust the pricing, that would be helpful."

More HPE Hyper Converged pricing and cost advice

"The tool's pricing is competitive."

"There is room for improvement in the licensing structure, maybe. Regarding sizing the resources, sometimes it's difficult to calculate/compute them based on the client's requirements."

"You need to pay a license for additional features. If we need to monitor hardware for the automatic alert notification, we need to pay them."

"The tool is expensive."

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814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

15%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

18%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

What do you like most about HPE Hyper Converged?

The solution's most valuable features are scalability, easy migration, easy recovery, and flexible backup possibilities.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Hyper Converged?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten.

What needs improvement with HPE Hyper Converged?

The solution's pricing for the hardware and support could be reduced.

What do you like most about Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The VX machines are scalable.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The licensing model is moderately complex. The tool is expensive. It is VMware’s fault, though.

What needs improvement with Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series?

The product must provide AI features. It depends on VMware since the core is software. The solution must provide a mo...

VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Comparisons

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

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 6% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

VxRail vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 42% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 17% of the time

VMware vSAN vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 8% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 7% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs HPE Hyper Converged

Compared 4% of the time

More HPE Hyper Converged Competitors

VxRail vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 38% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 20% of the time

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 15% of the time

HPE Alletra dHCI vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 10% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series

Compared 4% of the time

More Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series Competitors

Product Reports

StarWind Virtual SAN

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

HPE Hyper Converged

Download HPE Hyper Converged product report

Download Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series product report

HCI

November 2024

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

HPE Hyper Converged 380, HPE Hyper Converged 250, HPE Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS

Lenovo VX Series, ThinkAgile VX Series

Learn More

StarWind

Video not available

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Lenovo

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.

HPE Hyper Converged solutions combine intuitive software with the reliability of a world class platform to deliver cloud-like simplicity to your business.

Now, IT can become an internal service provider to end-users by quickly delivering the resources they need for application development and consumption. With HPE Hyper Converged systems companies can operate with cloud efficiency to simplify IT operations with one comprehensive control panel to deploy, monitor, analyze and update – with a single generalist; consume with cloud flexibility to deliver a cloud-like experience, with multi-tenant workspaces that eliminate stranded resources and flexes on demand; and deploy at cloud speed to empower developers and lines-of-business with a self-service portal that can instantly compose and recompose VMs in minutes. Built-in enterprise grade features, such as performance and resiliency enable HPE Hyper Converged systems to easily handle a wide variety of virtualized workloads, including general purpose virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and cloud.

Differentiating yourself from the competition is vital in today’s fast-moving business environment. To support your business, IT systems must be simple, agile, and cost-effective so you can meet your customers’ requirements to be ever online. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series enables you to meet these requirements by focusing on the business outcome you require, rather than on building your infrastructure.

ThinkAgile VX Series, powered by VMware vSAN, is available in several models. Each is preconfigured, pretested, and optimized to provide the simplest way to bring a new VMware hyperconverged environment online. If you have an existing VMware environment, the VX Series can integrate into it easily.

Designed for any size business from SMBs through large enterprises, VX Series can be used as infrastructure for remote office/branch office (ROBO) and retail stores as well as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and enterprise applications.

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

North Lindsey College, FireWhat?, HudsonAlpha

Information Not Available

HPE Hyper Converged vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series