We performed a comparison between HPE SimpliVity and VxRail based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, VxRail seems to be the superior solution. Our reviewers found HPE SimpliVity to be more difficult to deploy and more expensive to purchase than VxRail.
"The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem."
"It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” accessible by all hosts. StarWind cuts down virtualization cost and complexity by eliminating the need for a physical shared storage (SAN). -StarWind offers the Enterprise-level high availability (HA), deployed and easily configured . we get technical support from star wind team when implementation software and after setup if we face any issue."
"It allows you to use ANY consumer or enterprise HDDs and SSDs, and that's a really great thing!"
"StarWind vSAN has allowed us to leverage our server infrastructure more completely without the need to add more hardware."
"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."
"The product creates opportunities with hybrid on-premise solutions."
"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."
"It has reduced the amount of switching, network connections, etc., because the converged StarWind Virtual SAN allows us to connect high-speed network interfaces between different boxes instead of having to connect SANs via the network, then connect those two clusters together."
"The most valuable feature is high availability."
"The compression and deduplication features are most valuable because they allow us to have a small footprint for storage. It is a very stable product, and we are also able to get all that we need in terms of reporting."
"Backups happen very quickly."
"The HPE SimpliVity disc compression is very valuable."
"The backup and restore features are the most valuable."
"I like the expandability of the solution. We can effortlessly grow the storage and resources without downtime."
"Dedupe, compression, and replication of primary and secondary data, locally and remotely."
"The globally federated architecture means that the backup across sites does not consume precious MPLS bandwidth, which is cool."
"Updating the product has been very easy."
"It's a turnkey solution, which is good for customers, because they are buying into stability."
"VxRail can manage the whole cluster at the same time, so it's easy to expand. VxRail has more features vSAN ReadyNodes that make it easier to implement from scratch."
"The initial setup was not complex."
"We are very happy with the purchase, and it works well. It is fast. We went with the full-flash version, meaning that we have SSDs. So, we can build a Windows virtual machine in two minutes. We were surprised when we first tried to do that."
"I can roll out the system in thirty minutes and the customer can work with it."
"For me, the most valuable feature is in relation to the software updates."
"VxRail's technical support is very good."
"Having more support plan options would be nice."
"They recommend RAID10 for HDD, which reduces the usable storage capacity."
"The software could benefit from more tooling to help with initial deployment."
"StarWind Virtual SAN architecture is slightly complex and requires the team to carefully identify and study how the solution integrates with VMware vSphere."
"It would be good to have a little more access to control certain aspects within the UI."
"It would be nice if we could designate pools, or tiers, for storage of different speeds, and then assign rules to new VMs that would automatically place them into the proper pool."
"The documentation could be a little more concise, but, for the most part, it just works."
"Updating the software can be a bit tricky."
"SimpliVity has very limited options for the virtualization layer."
"SimpliVity needs to improve the support for native backups, like SQL and Exchange."
"When we make some upgrades to the platform, it does take time to stabilize the structure again."
"The life-cycle management can be improved."
"The solution could improve by adding better support of the VMware add-ons and a more intuitive user interface for administrators."
"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."
"We had some hardware compatibility issues with the earlier versions of HPE SimpliVity. We upgraded to the latest version a few months ago, and since then, there is no hardware failure, and it is better. They don't provide a portal to create a ticket directly for the HPE SimpliVity. We have a web portal to create a ticket when we have an issue, but for HPE SimpliVity, we need to call the local vendor for support. If they are not able to resolve the issue, they contact the global support, which takes more time. Technology is moving very fast, and everybody nowadays is focusing on the cloud base. In the future, they should integrate it with the cloud base for the backup."
"They can bring more awareness about this product. In this part of the world or this region, people normally don't know about SimpliVity and its capabilities. The company we have it sold to hasn't been able to fully utilize all the features or understand the features. So, product awareness should be improved."
"VxRail could be easier to set up. It's tricky to configure the network properly and match the requirements."
"The initial setup was not that easy, it was a medium difficulty level."
"While VxRail offers compatibility with AMD processors, its capabilities in this area could benefit from further development."
"When we have a vulnerability or we need to upgrade VxRail, it takes a long time. It takes eight hours each time we upgrade."
"It can be a bit complex for engineers who are new to it. There's a learning curve involved. They have to learn to operate it."
"They need to keep upgrading the environment and improving automation so that the solution keeps getting better and better."
"The fact that is based on vSAN is the main issue of this solution."
"Right now, it's difficult for a non-technical person to participate in using the product. It could be made more consumer-friendly."
HPE SimpliVity is ranked 5th in HCI with 151 reviews while VxRail is ranked 1st in HCI with 120 reviews. HPE SimpliVity is rated 8.6, while VxRail is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of HPE SimpliVity writes "Provides a unified management interface that allows administrators to manage all aspects of the infrastructure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VxRail writes "Offers a hassle-free, complete package, and is energy-efficient". HPE SimpliVity is most compared with VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE Alletra dHCI, Dell PowerFlex and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, whereas VxRail is most compared with VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE Hyper Converged and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. See our HPE SimpliVity vs. VxRail report.
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Hi, Refer to your questions if you are a COO of a small company then both solutions would be costly as a minimum of 3 nodes solution is required. Both are good at their places. Let's say, VxRail is deeply engineered with VMware and they have strong integration and performance testing results. in terms of expansion, federation, compression/deduplication, etc., is much more improved. Whereas HPE SimpliVity used its own storage virtualization software and backup software. Whereas in VxRail you can also use any backup software. Apart from the discussion, my suggestion would be to go with simple X86 Servers(any OEM) with Sangfor( they have built-in administrative software (i.e. VCenter), built-in backup (no need to buy any other software), multi-hypervisor support, cost-effective even if you plan to provide SaaS service you can easily do it from your company immediately. They also provide vNGFW, vADC, vIAM, etc. It is an end-to-end HCI Solution with Security support included. Prices are very reasonable(I don't know your region). Thanks