Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Reviews

Any type of infrastructure, whether it is a customer having a three-tier infrastructure, which we are migrating to converged or hyper-converged, or even customers planning to have their own hybrid cloud-based infrastructure, bringing a cloud foundation within their organization. There are multiple use cases for group companies. 

People are opting for Sangfor HCI so they can offer cloud-based services to their group companies from a single stack of HCI. Sangfor is present in the manufacturing industry, the hospital and healthcare industry, and the financial industry. 

The largest deployment in Pakistan is a 48-node cluster, which reduced the requirement from over 100 servers to 48.

Sangfor HCI has proven to be beneficial by consolidating infrastructure and reducing the footprint of data centers. This has led to significant cost savings in terms of power, cooling, and space. 

The simplified licensing model, which includes everything and provides enterprise-class features with free backup, offers a better return on investment. Additionally, it provides high-level support services that enhance business continuity and disaster recovery, making it a great value for the organization.

The extraordinary product quality, unmatched support services, and the third-generation HCI offering are some of the most valuable features of Sangfor HCI. It includes a simplified single license regime, providing enterprise-class licenses and built-in backup. 

The integration of their own firewall, Internet access management gateway, and security features within the HCI ensures robust security. The drag-and-drop layout for infrastructure setup, easy operation management, and comprehensive support services are also noteworthy. 

The scalability, with support for configurations such as a 48-node cluster, is another valuable aspect.

Initially, there were issues with wrong sizing and certain features being locked, although these have been fixed. The major drawback is its adoption in major tier-one sectors or banks, which is gradually improving. 

In its early days, Sangfor created hidden snapshots that led to storage penalties. This has been resolved. Another concern is the initial reluctance of tier-one banks to adopt a Chinese brand amidst large technology giants like VMware and Nutanix.

I have been reselling Sangfor HCI for over six years.

The stability has been excellent. I have not experienced any complaints or issues related to performance, bottlenecks, or latency.

Sangfor HCI is highly scalable. For example, one of our customers is using a forty-eight node cluster, which demonstrates its robustness. It scales easily by adding new nodes, and it is ready to go within minutes.

Their customer service and support are excellent. I would give them a rating of one hundred points.

Positive

Over my 22 years of experience, I have mostly worked with Dell products. Despite selling many storage boxes like PowerVault, Compellent, and PowerStore, I have not had much experience with other HCI solutions. 

Although I have worked with VMware and VXLAN, I did not sell other full-stack HCI solutions before Sangfor.

The initial setup is straightforward. You can deploy it as easily as any other hypervisor, and even a semi-technical person can complete it with phone support.

The return on investment is justifiable and significant. Consolidation saves on power, cooling, and space costs. The simplified licensing model, which includes everything needed, provides a better ROI. Using Sangfor HCI for firewall and Internet access management also reduces licensing costs and footprint, further boosting ROI.

Initially, Sangfor was very competitively priced compared to other leading HCI solutions. Now, while the pricing has begun to align more with the market, it remains competitive and offers good value compared to other options.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

If you're dealing with a huge workload running on a massive infrastructure, Sangfor HCI can reduce the physical hardware while maximizing resource utilization. 

Sangfor HCI is a one-stop solution that enables you to store and centrally manage your VMs. 

Support may be an issue for customers in some industries. For example, financial institutions may require 24/7 support. 

I have used Sangfor for two or three years. 

I rate Sangfor HCI 10 out of 10 for stability. 

I rate Sangfor HCI seven out of 10 for scalability. We have nearly 80 users, Most of our clients are small and medium-sized businesses. 

I rate Sangfor support eight out of 10. 

Positive

I rate Sangfor HCI eight out of 10 for ease of setup. Deployment is pretty straightforward and can be completed in four or five days. 

Sangfor HCI is reasonably priced, and there are no additional costs. 

I rate Sangfor HCI eight out of 10. You should give Sangfor HCI a chance. It has more advanced technology and is more user-friendly than other solutions. 

On-premises

My clients use it on all their virtual machines. These virtual machines contain web applications, and that's Sangfor's main purpose. They have application portals to collect user data, such as registration forms.

Sangfor HCI has a really good GUI. It allows us to monitor the temperature of the server and many other things.

We just deployed Sangfor HCI for our client, and the one problem we faced with Sangfor is preventative maintenance. When we do preventative maintenance, we must upgrade the operating system and run some updates, such as APT updates, because most virtual machines are on Linux. We need to keep the OS updated from time to time. Normally, we do a PM twice a year. Every time we do it, we face challenges. We needed to run an update on the VMs one at a time, which was the biggest challenge we faced. We have over 200 virtual machines, and doing the updates one at a time is tough. There's a window for preventative maintenance with downtime we have to agree on with our client. Normally, the downtime lasts about a day or half a day, depending on the client's requirements, such as the kind of uptime they require. If it's an application that should be highly available all the time, the updates are a huge problem for us. We can't update one virtual machine at a time. We need to update all of them simultaneously. That is why I would rather choose something like Nutanix.

There is a feature to upgrade multiple VMs simultaneously, but it crashes.

I've worked with this solution for around six months.

Sangfor can crash. I rate stability a five out of ten.

When we upgrade virtual machines, there is a feature that allows us to upgrade multiple virtual virtual machines at a time. But the problem is it crashes. The whole server can go down.

Every time the organization needs to expand, we must expand vertically or horizontally, and Sangfor is not cut for it. When it comes to scaling up, Sangfor can't do the job. We use Sangfor for a fixed thing. Let's say we know the organization has only 200 users and won't expand. Then it's okay to use Sangfor. Sangfor is not scalable.

My clients are enterprise-level businesses.

Sangfor is easy to set up. We just have to put the ISO file in our thumb drives. Then, we go to our bare metal server and deploy the ISO. Generally, this is what we do, and it's pretty straightforward.

The deployment time depends on how scalable the organization is. If it's full or fewer than ten servers, we can deploy the solution in a day or a couple of hours if we have experienced engineers. We can deploy the solution with two people.

The solution is affordable.

For preventative maintenance, Sangfor needs us to update one machine at a time. We have over 200 VMs, so the updates affect availability. Because we need to update all the VMs simultaneously, I would prefer something like Nutanix.

From a customer's point of view, Sangfor's instructions are straightforward. If the user is computer literate, they will understand and do it. If instructions are given correctly by me, and users follow them properly, they can fix the problem.

I recommend that prospective users study their client's requirements. They should try to understand what the client wants whether they'll be scaling up in a short period, and users have to consider all those factors before they choose a product like this. Depending on the kind of organization it is and how big it is, if it's a small organization, users can go for Sangfor and save a lot of money. But for big organizations, users must spend some bucks for these hypervisors.

Since there's a lot of room for improvement, I rate Sangfor HCI a six out of ten.

From a business perspective, we use Sangfor HCI due to its competitive pricing compared to other competitors such as Nutanix. We have reviewed Nutanix as well and found that Sangfor HCI offers similar ease of use. So, in terms of user interface (UI), the experience is more or less the same.

Sangfor HCI has a bundle of security features that are easy to monitor on the HCI dashboard.

Sangfor HCI has room for improvement in terms of integration. So, the integration with Sangfor HCI is not as extensive as in Nutanix. 

Usually, the integration should be straightforward, but with Sangfor HCI, we need to use another API to make the integration happen. That's what happened with our client's project.

In future releases, from a business point of view, Sangfor HCI needs to focus on coding, research, and testing, or involve the R&D department. Most of the time, Sangfor HCI utilizes this technology to follow the BIUI (Business Intelligence User Interface). 

Sometimes it becomes difficult to recall the exact details of a particular feature at the moment. Maybe the next feature should address this issue, so that we don't experience significant delays in the process.

This is our first year using the system.

The solution is stable. I haven't had any hiccups. 

I rate the solution's stability a seven out of ten.

Sangfor HCI is a scalable solution, provided you get the expected point or criteria.

I rate the solution's scalability a seven out of ten. Our clients usually include enterprise businesses. 

The setup process for Sangfor HCI was quite straightforward. We utilize HP servers and have an HP technical assistant on board. Additionally, we have technical support from Sangfor HCI. 

The technical person responsible for deployment is well-versed in the necessary steps and knows what to do and what not to do to deploy the solution.

Considering the huge scale of the deployment, it is crucial to have the right expertise. Although there may be some unique aspects and considerations, overall, I would say the process was relatively straightforward.

We deploy it for our clients.

The solution’s pricing is very competitive. I would say it is cheaper than Nutanix.

I rate the solution pricing a five out of ten, with one being the cheapest and ten being expensive.

I would suggest going for Sangfor HCI because, at the end of the day, HCI depends solely on your client’s or you. It offers the best price if it fits your requirements and you need centralized access to various authentication. The system is good.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We were look for less expensive virtualization solution that can accommodate our VM workload and provide virtualized storage as well.

Our old environment consisted to multiple SAN storage devices. Maintenance such equipment is very costly and requires a separate in network infrastructure.

We wanted to utilize storage capacity available in our hypervisor nodes to provide clustered storage service using storage virtualization technologies similar to Microsoft S2D and VMWare vSAN, but at a low cost.

No, it did not improve our organization. At first Sangfor HCI look good product, but one we started to use it we faced many comparability issues. It is an appliance style of product and we cannot have administrative access to it. Where as in Hyper-V, ESXi, and/or KVM we can have an admin level access to install or add-ons or agents. Also it is not compatible with any cloud service providers e.g. Azure/AWS/GCP and neither it has hardware certified by any leading ERP providers.

After using it for 3 years only thing good about it is that it's cost less compared to Microsoft, and VMware solutions.

The features that Microsoft, and VMware gives on their Data Center and Enterprise licenses are provided by Sangfor HCI on Standard license.

Other than this there is no valuable feature.

Sangfor HCI can improve it's self in many ways.
1) Admin need a granular control on their system. There is no command line interface like we get in Hyper-V and ESXi.
2) The documentation and support from the community are not available. Support engineer lack knowledge also.
3) GUI also requires much working as well. The web interface of HCI and SCP are not user friendly.
4) No compatibility with third party solution and also no support with cloud services (Azure/AWS/GCP) and leading ERP providers.

I've been using the solution for 3 years now.

The all appliance solutions are stable and reliable, Sangfor HCI is the same.

The solution is scalable. You just have to add a node to the current cluster. It's not difficult.

The support engineer skills are not that good. They especially the support team we got in our country lack knowledge of their own product. There's a general lack of information. The documentation and knowledge base or community portal are lacking. I'd rate this aspect two out of ten.

Negative

We were using Microsoft Hyper-V. We decided to switch because we needed a solution that consists of storage virtualization. We also needed to remove our out dated SAN environment.

Since it is an appliance the setup is straight forward and quick.

We had three people from our company and two people from the vendor
handling the initial setup. Maintenance after setup is fairly basic and
requires simply looking after the hardware and looking out for heavy
usage of the processor. Three people are looking after it on the admin
side.

We have deployed it at two of our sites. One is at the head office, and the other is at our disaster recovery site.

We had help from the vendor. They were on-site and helped to integrate everything. But they lacked expertise.

ROI is not that good. After running it for almost 3 years and we had not a good experience with it.

Pricing is very cheap compared to Hyper-V and VMware.
Since it is an appliance setup cost in terms in time is very low.

Yes we evaluated VMware's solution. But management decided for Sangfor HCI as it was very cheap in cost.

With the experience we faced we will give it 2 out of 10 as the admin level experience is not good. No command line support. No third party integration. No public cloud support. No proper documentation.

If anyone is looking for a less expensive appliance type HCI then they can consider it. But for hybrid environments the solution fails.  

Hybrid Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Sangfor is actually the HCI and we are dealing in that.

The solution is very reasonably priced. It was not expensive at all.

The support is very helpful.

Its initial setup is very simple. 

It is a very stable product. It's reliable. 

It's scalable. 

The solution offers good compatibility with other products. 

The migration process could be easier. 

We started selling Sangfor three months ago.

The stability is very good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

While it's stable, it depends on the implementation. It must be implemented properly. 

It's scalable. We have ten to 15 clients that are on the solution or in process of coming onto the solution. 

Technical support is great. We are very happy with the level of service.

We're also aware of HP, however, their solution is not as good and neither is their support. 

The initial setup was simple and straightforward.  

We have a tech that can handle all aspects of the solution, including implementation. He's been doing it for the last three or four years and understands it quite well. 

Sangfor is cheap and reasonably priced. 

Sangfor has one license and doesn't require any third-party licenses.

The licensing is renewed yearly.

We've implemented it for a couple of companies. There are maybe ten to 15 companies we have with orders still pending. 

I'd recommend the solution to others. It's very cheap and works very well. It's a great solution for companies in Pakistan. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. 

Public Cloud

We are primarily using this product to store our applications. We are using to host data for us to perform analytics on.

The interface is typical for this type of product. I would rate the user-friendliness an eight out of ten.

Sangfor does not support a SAS configuration, which is something that we would like.

I would like to see support for Kubernetes and Docker.

We have been dealing with Sangfor for less than eight months.

I think that there are issues with scalability because Sangfor consumes a high amount of power. In order to scale using Sangfor, I would also have to scale up the amount of power in my data center.

I am currently not getting enough technical support because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am looking for direct support, but I don't have it.

The price of Sangfor is cheaper than other competing products.

I am currently looking to replace this solution with something from perhaps Nutanix or Dell. I am still looking for the best solution to use in our next project.

Overall, I think that this is an average product. I am not satisfied with it and do not recommend that others use it.

I would rate this solution a five out of ten.

On-premises

We use Sangfor HCI for the Sangfor Cloud platform. We are soon going to host our own cloud platform service by using Sangfor HCI. We've already got a conditional queue from one of the customers, and we're consistently in talk with Sangfor regarding this deal.

We are working with the trial license of the Sangfor platform. For the first three months, we're going to use it on a trial basis, and after the customer confirms the purchase order, we'll be permanently going for the Sangfor Cloud solution.

It should have object storage. It already has network virtualization and micro-segmentation, but it is missing object storage. It does not have object storage. vSAN also does not have object storage, but Nutanix has object storage, and it is natively integrated into its HCI. So, if you pay for the object storage license, you have that module pre-built. 

I would've been really happy if we had point-to-point network connectivity between the virtual firewall and the customer site lease line so that we could have a private IP VPN.

Sangfor is relatively new in all markets. I would request the Sangfor team to come up with a partner training program with a free voucher so that we can get some of our staff trained and certified in Sangfor and educate them in a proper way.

It has been about five months since we've been using the Sangfor platform.

We've been using it only for about five months, and I will be able to comment on the stability of this platform after about two years. I've been working with VMware for 10 years. So, there is no point in comparing it with VMware.

We're going with two nodes at the moment. There will be some downtime, but we can manage it for the next two to three months because we have fewer customers. We're going to provide the cloud service on the Sangfor platform, and soon, we'll be upgrading to the third node. After we have three nodes, it's going to be easier for us to scale up the platform.

We are a team of about 25 individuals. Four people are looking after this solution. When we start to scale up, we would need more people. With the license that we will purchase, we will also get support from Sangfor. If there are any specific cases, we will contact Sangfor support.

Previously, we had Harper from their team for support. He has now moved to a different role, and he was very good. I would rate him 4.5 out of five. 

Their technical support is pretty good, but we are having some language issues. Basically, we get support from China, and we are having some issues with English. I would rate them a four out of five.

We've worked with VxRail and vSAN in the past. We've not used Nutanix, but I would like Sangfor to grow as a competitor that could beat Nutanix. That's because the RFPs that are made are so much based on Nutanix. It is really difficult for VMware and vSAN to beat Nutanix. I would like to see Sangfor grow as a company and beat Nutanix with all its features. If they add object storage, it would be very good.

For me, it was initially a bit complex, but later on, I gave it to my team. They communicated with Harper and other support staff from the Sangfor team, and they were able to do it. It is not a difficult task for us now. We've already given the Sangfor virtualization platform to a customer. So, we already have two Sangfor clients, and we are looking forward to increasing the number.

Sangfor needs to be more aggressive because this is a new market or territory for Sangfor. Nepal is a very price-sensitive market, so Sangfor needs to be a little more aggressive with its pricing. I would rate them 3.75 out of five in terms of the price.

We're comparing it with VMware. 

To anyone looking to implement Sangfor, I would advise doing a three-month PoC. We have a system deployed right here in our test labs with two nodes, and we can give a Sangfor cloud platform tenant for a PoC. We are always ready to support customers, and I believe Sangfor is too.

It has only been about five months since we have been using it, and I'm pretty satisfied with it. I would rate it an eight out of 10.