We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"It's quite easy to manage."
"The access to our data is quicker and cheaper than it used to be in a traditional storage system."
"With an uptime of 384 days, StarWind has improved overall server reliability."
"Recovery and maintenance are now less stressful and most importantly, it allows our users to keep working."
"The vSAN provides full redundancy for storage while reclaiming some rack space."
"Quick setup, great support, stability is great"
"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."
"Having the ability to scale horizontally if needed is a huge plus for future growth."
"The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited."
"The solution is quite stable."
"The setup was very straightforward."
"We've had no issues with scaling the solution."
"The integration with AWS is a valuable feature."
"The support team responds quickly."
"Perfectly suits customers dealing with the combination of future storage needs and, at the same time, keeping up their computing power."
"Dell PowerFlex is a one-stop-shop solution. Storage, compute, network, application monitoring, and support cases are all combined into one solution. It's very easy to administer compared to when you have a reference architecture where you need to design and build everything yourself. You would also then have to work with multiple vendors."
"The StarWind array has greatly improved our workflow internally as it is quite easy to use and provides robust features that allow us to provide anything our clients need quickly and efficiently."
"Product functionality and performance are wonderful."
"The product runs wonderfully and has already gone through several failure tests."
"It is the perfect solution for hyper-convergence at a fair price. Our customers have Hyper-V and VMware environments, with Windows servers and Linux."
"Live migration between nodes was quick and simple."
"I do like that I can manage StarWind with a console running on my local desktop."
"The initial setup seems to be very straightforward."
"We run probably 16 virtual machines, and all of them are now highly available, and highly redundant."
"StarWind currently has a Windows native application that it uses for management. There is not a web-based GUI at this time."
"The console is something that I feel could be improved. There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it can be jazzed up and/or made to be a little more intuitive."
"StarWind really needs to market its product more."
"A mobile app to sync up for overview and status would really be helpful."
"The number of different ways you can set it up can make it a little daunting."
"It would be nice to add the ability to use raw partitions instead of file containers."
"While we had no problems setting the system up, and service technicians from StarWind could assist us very well, they could provide some form of in-depth documentation."
"There needs to be more visibility on how long the cloud replication will take as there is no current ETA."
"I think there might be some room for improvement when it comes to pricing, because although I know how to convert customers, at the end of day, it's quite expensive. Sometimes your feature architecture is still coming out much cheaper than hardware costs for your infrastructure."
"Compared to similar solutions, Dell PowerFlex is not cost-effective and has room for improvement."
"They should provide continuous support for data migration."
"Needs some more monitoring tools."
"We've had some issues around the licensing."
"The storage capability must be improved."
"The installation is complex."
"The support of containers needs to be improved. At present, it is limited to VMware. There needs to be direct communication with the hardware rather than through a hypervisor."
"The only thing my team has recommended improving on is possibly a StarWind-customized GUI to monitor the overall system health, similar to 5nine Manager."
"We were slightly disappointed with the hardware footprint. We were led to believe, and all the pre-sales tech information requirements pointed to the fact, that it was coming on Dell hardware. Then it came on bulk servers."
"At times there has been a language barrier when communicating issues."
"I would request that the terms and conditions be reviewed and made more acceptable to corporate security so that we could finally turn on the proactive support feature, as it is included with our support agreement."
"It would be nice if the software told you a new version was available and prompted you to do the upgrade to keep everything up to date."
"We struggle a little with capacity management with the StarWind Hyperconverged appliance."
"The only thing that can use improvement is the StarWind Management Console and Command Center."
"The StarWind Command Center web portal could use some work."
More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Pricing and Cost Advice →
Dell PowerFlex is ranked 8th in HCI with 19 reviews while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 6th in HCI with 65 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 8.2, while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of Dell PowerFlex writes "Infrastructure management solution that offers rapid provisioning of computer storage but the APIs and enablers for custom automation could be improved". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Straightforward to use with good remote management and a simple GUI". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity and Dell VxBlock System, whereas StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, VxRail, StorMagic SvSAN and Red Hat Ceph Storage. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report.
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