We performed a comparison between Dell vSAN Ready Nodes 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."High Availability is the best feature of product."
"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 main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."
"Besides being 80% cheaper than the other alternatives, the simplicity makes reconfiguration and support much easier."
"Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs."
"The product has improved the ability to mimic physical SAN environments to demo scenarios and troubleshoot problems."
"I have found the graphical user interface to be the most useful thing about Virtual SAN."
"A great feature is that I basically set it and forget it, as everything is automatic."
"I have found the most important features of Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are the capacity to manage the storage because the storage is built in the servers. The type of profiles you can attribute to the storage is a benefit. You can manage the storage by profiles. Overall the solution is a good speed and performance."
"We find the initial implementation process simple and straightforward."
"The tool's most valuable feature is high availability."
"No concerns regarding the footprint in the data center."
"The product is useful for DR and other things."
"The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is file sharing."
"They are heading in the right direction and moving to integrate everything with a hybrid cloud, and moving workloads back and forth."
"It is easy to install."
"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."
"The initial setup is straightforward once you know what you're doing."
"We opted for 24-hour monitoring and support, which has already paid for itself."
"The easy way everything can be configured and ready to run in less than a day is great."
"The hardware footprint is great. We've got two 2U servers which replaced four 2U servers. Granted, they were about three years old at that point, but we actually increased our processing capacity by about 50 percent while keeping our storage capacity about the same. We've actually been able to downgrade to a half rack from a full rack because we've gotten rid of some of our network equipment and some of our additional storage arrays."
"Live migration between nodes was quick and simple."
"The hardware footprint is perfect. It fits in our rack perfectly, and we were able to condense a lot of physical servers we had. It has greatly eliminated the excess stuff in our server rack..."
"We also opted for 24-hour support monitoring for any issues. They are extremely quick to respond on issues we even cause ourselves such as bumping a network cable."
"The configuration can a bit cumbersome."
"Regular updates to the software are required, and subtle design changes would be welcome."
"Performance when in storage-separate configuration needs to be improved."
"I wish they would improve the documentation for the beginner level as it's not very clear on the web page."
"They need to improve the speed of the interfaces, thus allowing for better traffic on the network."
"The main issue we ran into was the documentation. We attempted to set up the product in our test environment by ourselves and ran into several areas of the documentation that were unclear to us."
"Having more support plan options would be nice."
"A mobile app to sync up for overview and status would really be helpful."
"The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified."
"Upgrades are carried out manually."
"Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is a great hyper-converged system that is a perfect platform for supporting any kind of workload. The only workload that it's not designed to support is big data."
"This product is not sufficiently scalable."
"The power switch on the hardware is located in a poor location where it can accidentally be pushed. In an update, they should solve this issue so people do not push it accidentally to have their service go down. A possible solution is the switch should be inside."
"The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster."
"Scalability is an area that could be improved. We are looking at a maximum of 32 nodes now in a cluster, but going to 64 or 128 would be a major advantage."
"Compatibility with other hardware nodes needs to be improved."
"This product is not one hundred percent enterprise-ready, so it is more suitable for SMB."
"The monitoring and report software is a bit hit and miss."
"Updates need improvement."
"The only real flaw that I have seen so far is this hard drive that was accidentally ejected because when it was received and added back into the RAID. There was an error there. It was not added back into the RAID correctly, so I have an outstanding hard disk. Apparently, a guy just knocked it with his hand as he was in my office, so it was just a small eject. He said that he didn't crash into anything. That is the only thing that has reared its head."
"Most meetings are done via Zoom, and I'm sure you could switch to a text based conversation if needed as they seem like a very accommodating team. It's not something I would worry about if you are a potential client."
"The overall product documentation and knowledgebase articles could use some rewriting and clarification."
"The only issues are when Hyper V itself has limitations and I'd love to see support or enhancement in the area of direct-attached GPU cards."
"We ran into some issues with going from Hyper-V 2012 R2 to Hyper-V 2019."
More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Pricing and Cost Advice →
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked 11th in HCI with 14 reviews while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 6th in HCI with 65 reviews. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is rated 8.6, while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes writes "Offers good performance and is easy to use". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Straightforward to use with good remote management and a simple GUI". Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, Dell PowerFlex and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure, whereas StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, VxRail and StorMagic SvSAN. See our Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report.
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