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HPE SimpliVity vs Scale Computing Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
187
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
Scale Computing Platform
Ranking in HCI
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.2%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE SimpliVity is 9.8%, down from 10.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Scale Computing Platform is 1.2%, up from 1.0% 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.
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.
Benjamin Bodenehim - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 19, 2023
The solution is user-friendly, stable, and easy to deploy
The primary use case is to create our own cloud and virtualization out of the cloud The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI. The solution has a lot of user-friendly features. The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions. The snapshots are…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"StarWind saved us about 80% of our storage costs over our old solution."
"The fact that I can now count on a true failover solution is what is most appealing."
"This solution made it possible to deploy a new infrastructure in the shortest amount of time, at a low cost without purchasing expensive hardware storage, and use unused servers."
"Being hardware agnostic is a must and definitely scored points for us."
"The support team is available to solve any problem efficiently."
"The price was right."
"Speed and high availability have been the most valuable for us."
"The solution is also quite flexible. As an example, other vSAN solutions that we looked at had more stringent requirements regarding mixed HDD/SSD storage which wouldn't have worked in our environment."
"The ease of use on the backup and DR and replication side of things is good. It can be done by a VMware admin with no additional training."
"The feature that I like the most is the backup feature embedded inside the HPE SimpliVity. When we have any activity, within five minutes, we have a backup. It also has PDR for performing disaster recovery."
"The backup and restore features are the most valuable."
"The setup is very easy."
"It is simple and easy to use."
"HPE SimpliVity is a very valuable and effective solution. It's also a scalable solution. As the customer requirements and application requirements increase, it can scale to accommodate them."
"Has good performance and ease of use"
"I like HPE SimpliVity's hard disk compression capabilities. The data is compressed into very little space or volume. I think that the principal value of HP SimpliVity is its capacity to compress the data, and I'm saving a lot of disk space using SimpliVity."
"The most valuable features are the appliance-type feel and that you don't need additional licenses as everything is built-in."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI."
"I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive."
"I like that Scale Computing HCR is slimmed down and gives me the features I need and not features that I don't need."
"The most valuable feature of Scale Computing HC3 is if one of the devices fails, you won't even notice, the service maintains operation. The customers don't have to waste two, or three days on delays. Additionally, you do not have to waste time with recovery software, it is a lot easier."
"It gives the ease of management for a small IT department."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The product's initial setup phase is too easy."
 

Cons

"Server-side snapshots are one thing the Linux appliance can't do yet."
"The main thing I would like to see improved is the level of documentation."
"Pricing is a bit high."
"There should be publicly available tutorials on YouTube or other platforms that help the users to integrate this solution with other platforms, for example."
"The documentation can be better for the free tier."
"For the StarWind VSA vSphere solution, I would like to see a simpler and automated virtual machine installation process in terms of network settings."
"Some configuration options still demand service restarting."
"While StarWind.com excels in numerous areas, there are a couple of notable functionalities that it currently lacks. One of these is duplication, which could be an invaluable feature for data redundancy and backup purposes. The ability to duplicate data across different storage locations can be crucial for safeguarding against data loss, and its absence is a minor limitation in an otherwise stellar offering."
"The local support in Argentina is not good. This is a new technology and HP doesn't have a lot of technology specialists here in Argentina. It's very hard to find the specialist here."
"The way that it handles the memory could be better."
"HPE SimpliVity could be more flexible and scalable. I don't feel SimpliVity is flexible or easily scalable because I still need to buy another server to add to my clusters. I can't just run or harvest and add to my solution. I need to buy another server. There are a lot of components that are not giving a lot of value to me right now. I also had a few problems with the built-in hard disk drives. I've had many issues with the harvest stripes that the servers use. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it's unusual to have a physical failure on the HPE platform. I don't see any value at the software level, especially in the software that manages that solution. I was waiting for something, especially in the application layer that I would use, but that is all over VMware, and it doesn't have an integrated module that I can use to manage the server and all the instances."
"Product doesn't scale."
"There are a lot of different components to choose from in the chassis. This could be easier by providing a standard or a base model to create and configure from."
"Upgrading can be complicated."
"I'm not a technical guy, and I am pretty much okay with the way it is, but it would help if it was closest to Nutanix in Gartner's Magic Quadrants. Nutanix very often beats us. Nutanix provides Acropolis for free. It probably would be great if we have a virtualization layer. It is something that might be lacking in our solution. We depend on VMware, and it is very expensive. It is lacking the software that allows us to install it with HPE and not depend on a third party."
"There may be issues around scaling."
"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added."
"On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area."
"I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."
"Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication."
"I've had so many issues with the sales team when I was looking to make some improvements, and improve the performance. They would create so many excuses to force me to buy new nodes all the time and not let me add more memory to each node."
"Scale Computing HC3 said in an announcement they were going to integrate with a backup service which would be good. If they could do this it would be beneficial."
"The product could use a better control center."
"The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."
"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."
"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."
"The cost was ultimately low to implement, which allowed us to be 3-2-1 complaint."
"The pricing is fine for the work that it does."
"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."
"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."
"This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."
"The only thing that I think we are paying for is the VMware licenses, but we are enterprise, so it is not horrible."
"Scaling isn't cheap"
"Cost of this product is high."
"The price of the solution is reasonable. We have purchased a five-year license with all the support and upgrades."
"One big advantage with SimpliVity is that you don't need the higher license cost or VMware to put together a simple SimpliVity solution."
"This solution, while costly as all these solutions are, was in fact less expensive than upgrading my old SAN."
"It's about $10,000 monthly."
"There is not a license required for the solution."
"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."
"I pay for Scale Computing HC3 and it includes customer service for one year. We paid for an additional year for customer service but that includes the updates and everything for the software. Additionally, the licensing is for Windows, which is the same for everybody."
"The product is worth the money, but I would not say it's very cheap or very expensive."
"rate HC3's pricing a five out of ten since it is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
56%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Educational Organization
39%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

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?
HPE SimpliVity is much more affordable than Nutanix or VMware vSAN, which are HPE's typical competitors. I don't have...
What do you like most about Scale Computing HC3?
The product's initial setup phase is too easy.
What needs improvement with Scale Computing HC3?
There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node. It shows you a small graphical interface, but you...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
Scale Computing HC3
 

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
Resorts World Las Vegas, Stena, Telford Offshore, Goodwill, Sandals, Jerry's Enterprises, Mendard's Royal Farms, Delhaize, Benchmark Electronics, Classic Hotels, Genting Casino, Lindt, Sainsbury's, Landmark Cinemas, Golden Queen Mining, Coca Cola. Holiday Inn, Iron County School District, Sevier County Bank, City of St. Cloud Minnesota, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, KIB Electronics, Brake Masters, Lincoln County Hospital, Ohio Summit County Board of Elections
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE SimpliVity vs. Scale Computing Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2024.
813,161 professionals have used our research since 2012.