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HPE SimpliVity vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 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 SimpliVity
Ranking in HCI
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
153
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
196
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (3rd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)
 

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 SimpliVity is 9.7%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 8.0%, down from 8.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Q&A Highlights

Janet Peng - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2019
 

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.
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.
Sisir Ghosh - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 17, 2023
Scales easily, helps with consolidation, and enables us to clone a VM
Usually, there are separate administration teams that take care of servers, but in our organization, servers are usually looked after by the application owner. However, the application owners cannot reinstall the software, OS, and other things. That only aligns with the role of the HCI administrator. If these rights can be provided, it will be very easy. Previously, it was there, but after certain updates, we found that they have withdrawn those services. For example, you requested a VM, and based on the business use case, I approved it and gave you a bare-metal server. Now you are the owner of that particular VM, so whatever you need, you should be able to do over there, but currently, you have to request me for the installation of the OS that you need, and I have to do it. It is an overhead for the HCI administrator. If that can be offloaded to the VM owners, that will be much easier for us. I have already shared this feedback with Nutanix.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Integration with virtualization platforms helped us to resolve many issues we were facing while using the physical storage."
"The Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."
"It has improved our organization in terms of its uptime as our main cluster has never been offline due to a SAN failure."
"One of the most valuable features is the way it sets up the virtual SAN, because we don't have to buy a separate appliance for storage. It uses the existing storage on the servers, which is definitely a cost savings for us."
"The software is easy to setup and manage, and the support is excellent."
"Although StarWind Virtual SAN free is fully functional and can be used in production, the support that comes with the license is priceless."
"The fact that I can now count on a true failover solution is what is most appealing."
"I like StarWind's high availability. The failover is almost immediate, so the end users have no idea the guest VM moved at all. We can failover all guest VMs onto a single hypervisor, place it into maintenance mode, install updates, and reboot a hypervisor all during the daytime and remotely, with confidence the process will be successful."
"SimpliVity has hardware acceleration, which frees up CPU utilization."
"I have found backup and replication to be useful. We have a 10 megabit line between the data center and our main site. The backup and replication are very good. Additionally, the solution runs on VMware which is a benefit."
"We like the backup feature, which is inbuilt."
"The solution is scalable."
"It's much more simple than Nutanix and other hyper-converged solutions, at least from our point of view."
"Offsite backup, replication, and duplication of data are important for our plant environment since we are hard on our equipment."
"The main thing is its performance. In terms of performance, it is a lot better than VMware. Obviously, technology is changing a lot all the time. We were on just VMware with a separate attached array. The performance was kind of a step backward from just running separate servers. Now, the performance is much better, and we can take snapshots and backups of really big servers in just a matter of seconds. We can even restore them in a matter of seconds."
"​It allows you to take advantage of the unique platform of computing, cloud management, storage, and integrated networks, as well as software-defined data management, which is easy to use​. ​"
"It is very easy to clone systems using the solution."
"It's much easier and faster even when you want to create a server from a template or clone."
"Ability to create multiple VMs."
"The technology of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is the most valuable feature. You don't need multiple screens to manage."
"It has centralized management. It is easy for an engineer to manage. More work goes to patching, upgrades, and maintenance. Nutanix is very easy to upgrade. It takes one click. Engineers do not need to spend additional time with Nutanix for upgrades. With one click, it will complete the upgrade and show the results. Other hypervisor solutions are not like this, specifically since you must do all the components one by one."
"The features that I have found most valuable include its HA facility, viability, robustness, flexibility, it's time to go live is very short, and it has a friendly user interface."
"The pricing is pretty good."
"Best features are around data locality, compression, and deduplication."
 

Cons

"The main thing I would like to see improved is the level of documentation."
"StarWind currently has a Windows native application that it uses for management. There is not a web-based GUI at this time."
"I would like to see improvements in the documentation area."
"In the next release, they could make some graphs of the real-time loading, speed of storage, and interfaces. Of course, these can be viewed in other places. But, in the event of a malfunction or troubleshooting, this would be convenient."
"The documentation can be better for the free tier."
"This is a great product."
"Our company was hoping for deduplication and encryption across HCI. That is currently not supported."
"I would like to see different levels of support offered."
"It crashes often. When one particular VM has random, large IOPS requests, it will bog down the node, and there isn't enough time for the replica to be brought up. So all the VMs on that one particular node will essentially become offline."
"The upgrades need improvement."
"SimpliVity needs to add support for Hyper-V and KVM."
"Its price can be improved. Customers always look for better prices. It is more expensive as compared to other products available in the market."
"The life-cycle management can be improved."
"It could integrate better with other platforms. It's a proprietary solution of HPE, so you are stuck. Before I was running SimpliVity as an independent solution. it wasn't a card and software, so you could put in whatever server, IBM, Dell, etc."
"The product is expensive."
"The greatest disadvantage is the update process. Every patch or release update must be checked and deployed with the HPE solution, which sometimes is a little bit difficult. It is not difficult in terms of installation, but it is difficult to get the patches in time."
"The reporting feature isn't very good."
"This product would be improved if it included a hybrid cloud solution."
"As Nutanix Acropolis AOS is on the expensive side, one of its areas for improvement is the price. It would also be better if it can be integrated with other cloud providers, because currently, it's only for private cloud deployment."
"We ran into an issue as a managed service provider because Acropolis isn't designed to be used the way we are running it. For example, if we want to deploy a Kubernetes service, the customer networks need to reach our protected cluster network. We have isolated our customers in separate VLANs. However, our customers' networks must access our cluster network to get features like iSCSI or Kubernetes to run. It's challenging."
"It's lacking in some features but overcompensating in others."
"I think some of the tasks that must be done using CLI could be added to the web interface."
"The compatibility and integration of Nutanix Acropolis AOS could be improved. For example, we have a WAF application firewall and it does not work on this solution. Not all the OS's run on AOS. You need to have a newer version of an operating system if you want Nutanix to perfectly run all the different options."
"They could improve the graphical user interface."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."
"Once you buy the license, you are free to build your own hardware solution based on your needs."
"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."
"The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."
"This solution has a great price for the functionality."
"The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."
"The solution can be expensive if you are using a lot of nodes."
"The solution is priced high. However, there are plenty of features as part of the package that other solutions do not have."
"The licenses from the product are expensive compared to the other solutions in the market."
"HPE has decided to sell the solution in all-flash configurations, which may not be as cost effective for smaller mid-market enterprises."
"The solution is expensive; not every budget can fit in there."
"It is not too expensive, but it is quite expensive for me."
"Cost of this product is high."
"This solution, while costly as all these solutions are, was in fact less expensive than upgrading my old SAN."
"The pricing is quite good in comparison with HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Scale, and even traditional architecture."
"The price of the license for Nutanix Acropolis AOS is less expensive than the competition. There is a favorable cost saving. Having only the need to deal with a single vendor, the management of the customer's entire stack is cost-effective."
"It is slightly more expensive compared to a standard, on-prem, bare-metal configuration. There is about a 30 percent overhead there."
"The license is quite clear to me. It's much clearer than what we had with our previous virtualization environment. The licensing is not complex to understand."
"Setup cost is minor, pricing is quite a bit (we have a 7-node-cluster for about 450K EUR with 2 vGPU-nodes for Citrix) but that includes hardware, software, and support."
"There is a license required for this solution and my clients usually purchase a two-year license with extended support. The price of the solution could be reduced, it is more expensive than competitors."
"Able to grow with smaller, more linear increments of investment"
"Our customers are on three years license to use Nutanix Acropolis AOS. The price of the solution includes all features and support."
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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…
 

Answers from the Community

Janet Peng - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2019
Jun 10, 2019
It depends very much on your use case. When I look at HP, they position their HCI offer primarily in the ROBO space for enterprise DC solutions. HP pushes its Synergy platform. Nutanix is well positioned in the data center space and has made huge strides there whilst HPE has lost a little bit of momentum with their HCI offer. You need to be aware that the native Nutanix hypervisor has its limit...
2 out of 17 answers
EI
May 29, 2019
In a Nutshell, to keep it simple, they are both SaaS (Storage as a Service) Solutions in a sense, but SimpliVity is “ONLY” SaaS locked on HPE serves and no awareness of Hypervisor metrics, whereas Nutanix is best suited to different workloads that REALLY traverse all the realms of Hyperconverged technologies, from Data Center Consolidation/Migration, to VM consolidation reducing the “V-Tax” that come with different Hypervisor offerings (Nutanix is shipped with free AHV), to specific workloads with NO guess-work like VDI or Kubernetes in-premise cloud. So my take is make a list of what you need and then compare apples to apples, two hints: 1. Check this document https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/products/simplivity-vs-nutanix.html 2. Try our sizing online tool to Assess: https://sizer.nutanix.com/#/ If you feel you have more questions, take your time to touch base with representatives alternatively, just one note, at Nutanix, because we USE hypervisors to deliver our Storage Controller, we have a unique insight of HOW different workloads behave for different customers, and that gives us an advantage on what we are able to do for them, whilst an ONLY SaaS solution is one that will only give you yet another tool to optimize your workloads. It is up to you to figure out HOW that set of resources benefit your specific needs.
KH
May 29, 2019
Nutanix is the only SW based HCI vendor in the market today giving customers the freedom of choice. You can deploy our HCI SW on your choice of hardware and hypervisor (we also have our own KVM-based hypervisor that is included with the product). Whereas with SimpliVity, you are tied to HP and VMware. What if you deploy on HP today and your organization makes a strategic choice to change to Dell, Cisco or Fujitsu? Nutanix is the only vendor that allows you to port your licenses between different HW vendors. Doesn’t hurt that we already created the HCI space and are the leaders. HP is also one of our close partners so you can deploy Nutanix on Proliant.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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...
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from ...
Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Red Bull Racing, Mandarin Oriental, Brigham Young University, UCLA, Merlin Entertainments, Sasa Cosmetics, Travelport, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Princess House
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE SimpliVity vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.