We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and StarWind Virtual SAN 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."The most important benefits that we've seen from this solution is that it reduces the cost of management and it has easy monitoring systems."
"The solution scales extremely well."
"The most valuable feature of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is the integration with everything in a much smoother, such as in physical and virtual environments. VMware NSX is a simpler solution but, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is more robust compared to VMware NSX."
"The most valuable feature for our company is that it works internally. We have a lot of internal projects for optimization."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Its most valuable feature is its flexibility."
"By configuring networks, we are saving power."
"The price of the solution is good, especially when it comes to complex network solutions, such as UCS and Connect."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements."
"Active-active work mode leads to true redundancy of storage and allows us to distribute the load between multiple nodes."
"Virtual SAN runs on iSCSI, which is free and easy to configure. It's easy to manage from StarWind's GUI console, and it only required a few extra switch ports."
"The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices."
"A great feature is that I basically set it and forget it, as everything is automatic."
"This solution enables us to make better cost-effective use of our existing hardware and leverage the current infrastructure at a higher level than we could before."
"For those basic uses, it's simple to set up and manage, and it seems to do a fine job."
"We have been able to use more on-prem hardware to reduce cost and also use old disks that we do not trust enough for ordinary RAID or usage."
"I haven't been too impressed with the Cisco HyperFlex HX, honestly. It's a hard concept."
"The initial setup of profiles and templates could be improved. Maybe some end profiles that you can use based on your type of deployment would be good."
"In the next release, Cisco should add more integration and management capabilities as well as some tweaks to the dashboard that make it more user-friendly. They could also add support for multiple hypervisors."
"I would like a lighter product; something which can be carried by a mere human. The typical size still looks like a stack of data center-sized servers, which is typically fine, but not so good if you want to carry it around."
"The initial setup can be complex."
"The utilization needs to be better. It needs more options."
"Their technical support is very bad. We had an issue where instead of an engineer we got a PDF "doctor" that didn't know anything about our problem which was very frustrating."
"The problem is that we always have to keep an eye out for new releases to make sure that the version we're running is up-to-date."
"They recommend RAID10 for HDD, which reduces the usable storage capacity."
"The most disappointing side of the application is the free edition. There used to be GUI attached. That has recently changed to only CLI management of the application."
"I wish they would improve the documentation for the beginner level as it's not very clear on the web page."
"The only way I can see this product needing improvement is the consultation level of the StarWind sales and engineers."
"The configuration can a bit cumbersome."
"Though I have learned some of the nuances with the upgrading of firmware/windows/etc., it would be nice to have a more efficient method of doing so."
"The interface of the management console of the StarWind Virtual SAN is complex, and it's difficult for the novice user to interact with the management having less knowledge or training in the product."
"They need to improve the speed of the interfaces, thus allowing for better traffic on the network."
More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] is ranked 8th in HCI with 90 reviews while StarWind Virtual SAN is ranked 4th in HCI with 182 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] is rated 8.0, while StarWind Virtual SAN is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] writes "A fast and easy deployment that allows secure access to our medical applications ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind Virtual SAN writes "Excellent support, great performance, and good redundancy". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), Dell PowerFlex and HPE SimpliVity, whereas StarWind Virtual SAN is most compared with VMware vSAN, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, StorMagic SvSAN, Red Hat Ceph Storage and DataCore SANsymphony. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs. StarWind Virtual SAN report.
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