We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and Scale Computing HC3 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."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."
"The installation of StarWind Virtual SAN was pretty easy, and the configuration was done in no time."
"It has reduced our overall maintenance and overhead by having to only maintain physical boxes for one cluster instead of having to manage physical boxes for two clusters."
"I like StarWind's high availability. The failover is almost immediate, so the end users have no idea the guest VM moved at all. We can failover all guest VMs onto a single hypervisor, place it into maintenance mode, install updates, and reboot a hypervisor all during the daytime and remotely, with confidence the process will be successful."
"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."
"The fact that I can now count on a true failover solution is what is most appealing."
"As the client had acquired another company some distance away, they were concerned about having a single SAN in one location or the other. StarWind vSAN allowed us to keep a copy of the data local to each site without asking the client to pay for two SANs in addition to the two new servers they needed."
"The product gave us a cost-effective way to deploy a highly available server environment."
"The integration with AWS is a valuable feature."
"We're doing a lot of VMware for IT so this solution is really valuable from a VMH point of view. We're trying to assist our customers mainly with management, because that's what they want. The most important aspects are ease of management, as well as ease of configuration, allowing them to attach additional nodes and resources for the applications."
"The solution is quite stable."
"The solution was connected to alternate storage. It provides great scalability and reliability."
"The catalog of APIs for automation has been most valuable, although they are quite limited."
"The resiliency and data protection are the most valuable features."
"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 most valuable features are the appliance-type feel and that you don't need additional licenses as everything is built-in."
"The most valuable feature of Scale Computing HC3 is if one of the devices fails, you won't even notice, the service maintains operation. The customers don't have to waste two, or three days on delays. Additionally, you do not have to waste time with recovery software, it is a lot easier."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI."
"I like that Scale Computing HCR is slimmed down and gives me the features I need and not features that I don't need."
"The product's initial setup phase is too easy."
"The solution is scalable."
"I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive."
"I'd prefer it if a remote console was provided."
"It could have a dashboard so that you can check all servers' SAN health and performance."
"A great feature would be a wizard and to include a new disk in the SAN. At the moment, including a new disk requires several steps - some that must be done at the OS level and others in each node."
"The documentation could be clearer in terms of explaining the installation."
"We don't really have any issues with this product."
"There should be some kind of active monitoring connected to StarWind vSAN, so you will be able to act when needed."
"Android app for monitoring and receiving push notifications as alarms or monitoring I/O from any mobile device could be a good feature and nice to have as we are not always on our desk."
"The documentation could be a little more concise, but, for the most part, it just works."
"I would like to see a more user-friendly interface."
"Including instrumentation would be a helpful improvement."
"Needs some more monitoring tools."
"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."
"The installation is complex."
"The solution needs to offer more documentation and educational materials."
"I am not really impressed by the technical support of this solution."
"Licensing restrictions can be frustrating."
"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added."
"Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication."
"The product could use a better control center."
"Scale Computing HC3 said in an announcement they were going to integrate with a backup service which would be good. If they could do this it would be beneficial."
"On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area."
"The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions."
"I've had so many issues with the sales team when I was looking to make some improvements, and improve the performance. They would create so many excuses to force me to buy new nodes all the time and not let me add more memory to each node."
"I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."
Dell PowerFlex is ranked 8th in HCI with 20 reviews while Scale Computing HC3 is ranked 16th in HCI with 8 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 8.0, while Scale Computing HC3 is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Dell PowerFlex writes "Is very resilient and protects our data, but the solution is complex". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Scale Computing HC3 writes "A reliable stripped-down solution that comes with excellent support". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE Alletra dHCI and Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure, whereas Scale Computing HC3 is most compared with VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VxRail, Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure and DataCore SANsymphony. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. Scale Computing HC3 report.
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