We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series 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 valuable feature is the managed service, which has been an important part of monitoring our critical infrastructure."
"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 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."
"Without the need for any downtime, enterprises can simply grow their storage infrastructure using StarWind Virtual SAN by adding new servers or disks to the current infrastructure."
"The customer support provided by StarWind is excellent."
"We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."
"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 Windows-based StarWind GUI is easy to use and understand and integrates seamlessly with VMware's vSphere portal as well."
"I like Cisco Intersight."
"Offers very good data protection and provides system uptime availability effectively."
"Deduplication is a valuable feature available in Cisco HyperFlex."
"It consumes a smaller footprint when I compare it with other competitors."
"The compression and deduplication are very high. Therefore, we can use the size of the product more efficiently than other storage solutions."
"On the VDI side, because the storage is local to the HyperFlex, it was very easy and convenient. The performance is exceptional."
"The possibility to share the workload is one of its most valuable features. We have many applications which have need of workloads only a few times in a month, so we share HyperFlex with them."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Installation is straightforward because it's a vSAN. It only took one or two days."
"The VX machines are scalable."
"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series' deployment is easy. We are a tier-one platinum partner who is into multiple implementations."
"We find the setup quite straightforward and very easy."
"An extended trial period would serve as a way to get clean insights into the technology's adaptability and alignment with their specific needs before committing to long-term integration."
"I would like them to invest time in reducing the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure."
"It would be great to have more automated tooling around managing the iSCSI connections in Windows"
"Feature-wise we are only waiting for the release of a "planned disaster" feature that would allow us to patch a hypervisor node without having to take the full storage offline."
"I found that certain browsers are not fully compatible with the administration web access portal."
"High availability for direct attached hardware drives could be useful for increasing the performance of a storage appliance."
"It would help us if the vendor continues to release software updates for earlier versions of the Windows operating systems."
"This product would benefit from having automated alerting functionality."
"They can't get a POC to work because there are big latencies between the two sites we have. Even though we have a private fiber connection and everything else works well, they can't get the two products to talk to each other. They are not able to build it up. It looks like it's a firmware issue. They said it isn't but now it's looking like it is. I hope we can sort it out."
"The initial setup of the Cisco HyperFlex HX platform was medium-level difficult. It's a little bit different from traditional servers. It takes getting used to the learning curve."
"HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two."
"Cisco HyperFlex should decrease the amount of memory needed from the Controller VM that controls the physical discs. They control the discs by using the virtual VM over every ESXi host and the VM consumes memory and consumes more hardware resources. They have to improve that by decreasing the amount of required memory and CPUs to control this disc on the server."
"We are operating two clusters for site resiliency. I would like to support running redundant/resilient vCenter server instances on each rather than a supported external server."
"We need to be able to scale out and not just up. When you want to scale up or scale out, you are quite limited."
"When it comes to customer needs, the licensing price could be better."
"Cisco has to continue improve the management tools to provide a better command line interface with more functions. That would be better for administration."
"Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series needs to improve its stability. Its resolution should be faster."
"Support could be better."
"With the VX machines, the clients often confuse the hardware itself with the services and resources. VMs are configured according to resources - memory, hard disk capacity, and network. These resources, including memory and processor, are actually shared on the VX Series. So, if the server's processor is underpowered or unreliable for the VMs, many of the VMs will encounter issues. Ideally, the physical server configuration should align more closely with the needs of the virtual servers."
"The user management could be a bit better. It's something they could improve upon in future releases."
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is ranked 8th in HCI with 90 reviews while Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is ranked 16th in HCI with 4 reviews. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is rated 8.0, while Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series writes "A fast and easy deployment that allows secure access to our medical applications ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series writes "simplifies management for clients familiar with VMware, and offers a user-friendly management and configuration experience". Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), Dell PowerFlex and HPE SimpliVity, whereas Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series is most compared with VxRail, Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, Lenovo ThinkAgile HX Series, HPE Alletra dHCI and HPE Hyper Converged. See our Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series vs. Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series report.
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