Dell PowerFlex vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell PowerFlex and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes 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.
To learn more, read our detailed Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"High Availability is the best feature of product.""Support keeps track of alerts of the system and verifies with us if we need help to fix any issues. They have great and quick technical support.""The backup is readily available for use, and the restoration process is easy.""The most useful aspect is the hyper-converged SD SAN and the ease to expand it by just adding cheap SSD or NVME disks.""The fact that the solution is vendor-agnostic allows it to be used with any virtualization vendor while remaining a powerful abstraction over storage.""Using our own choice of HW allowed us to price our service to answer our customers' needs.""This product now allows us to migrate virtual machines between nodes as if we had a dedicated $100,000 SAN in the mix without the additional cost and management of the SAN.""The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Pros →

"The solution is quite stable.""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 setup was very straightforward.""It has reduced downtime. Before, on our previous solution, we used to have downtime on some of the servers because of the sort of convention. But currently I've not experienced any downtime on any of the servers, and there is no more resource congestion.""The support team responds quickly.""The integration with AWS is a valuable feature.""The most valuable feature of this solution is integration.""Saves us a lot of space in the data center."

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"The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is file sharing.""The solution immediately expands storage area when you add nodes.""The product is useful for DR and other things.""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.""It is easy to install.""The most valuable feature is the set of user tools that are available.""They are heading in the right direction and moving to integrate everything with a hybrid cloud, and moving workloads back and forth.""You don't have to spend much time evaluating the hardware. It can be deployed in a short time. The tool is also easy to upgrade."

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Cons
"While it is possible to implement disk encryption in StarWind using Windows Bitlocker, such a solution can be a little tricky to manage.""It should be improved in the way it detects the right filesystem image after a complete shutdown of the system or in the case of disaster recovery.""The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.""It would be good to have a little more access to control certain aspects within the UI.""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.""If there was one feature I would like to see it would be a built-in subsystem for managing UPS backups shutdown procedures providing a way to initiate VM shutdown on all host servers, shut down the host servers, then put the fault-tolerant mirroring in standby, and finally shut down the StarWind SANs.""Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers.""There needs to be more visibility on how long the cloud replication will take as there is no current ETA."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"Exporting data from the dashboard is not very user-friendly. It's just designed in a way that it's going to cover let's say 90%, 80%, of the end-users needs. If you need more sophisticated reporting it's not easy to have.""Needs some more monitoring tools.""The storage capability must be improved.""I am not really impressed by the technical support of this solution.""Including instrumentation would be a helpful improvement.""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 installation is complex.""We've had some issues around the licensing."

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"The solution should provide daily task alerts for data recovery maintenance, usage, and other instructions to ensure the systems are in a good status.""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.""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.""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 solution doesn't scale.""Upgrades are carried out manually.""Dell vSAN Ready Nodes' deployment is complex."

More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
  • "We are happy with the price."
  • "The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."
  • "The pricing is fine for the work that it does."
  • "When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
  • "The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."
  • "The pricing is excellent. It will run on anything. You don't have to buy a $100,000 server, with hardware you don't need. You just pay for the license and you're good to go."
  • "The licensing is a bit weird. If you license the standard version of StarWind, it allows you four terabytes. Then, they have a pro version, but with the pro version, the only difference is it doubles the terabytes to eight."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing for this solution is good."
  • "The price of the solution is fair, it is priced in the average range amongst competitors."
  • "The cost of this solution is fair."
  • "The solution is expensive and I give the cost a two out of ten."
  • "The solution's price is medium."
  • "The price could be improved."
  • "The product is expensive."
  • More Dell PowerFlex Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is a problem, which is the lack of an integrated price structure."
  • "The price of the solution was reasonable."
  • "We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."
  • "Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."
  • "The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions."
  • More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines… more »
    Top Answer:The cost of this is less than you expect. Since they're selling a software stack, you do need to consider your own… more »
    Top Answer:You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the… more »
    Top Answer:VxRail vs. Dell EMC PowerFlex VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being… more »
    Top Answer:The product is expensive. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten.
    Top Answer:The tool's most valuable feature is high availability.
    Top Answer:The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions.
    Top Answer:Dell vSAN Ready Nodes' deployment is complex.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    StarWind SAN & NAS
    VxFlex, VxRack FLEX, PowerFlex
    vSAN Ready Nodes
    Learn More
    Overview

    StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

    VxRack System consists of hyper-converged rack-scale engineered systems, with integrated networking, to achieve the scalability and management requirements of traditional and cloud native workloads. The VxRack series is purposely designed to enable customers to quickly deploy Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and/or Private Cloud architectures. VxRack Systems tightly integrate hardware with software and management layers.

    The result is a fully tested, pre-configured, hyper-converged system with simplified operations at data center and Service Provider scale. VxRack Systems support the deployment of a variety of application workloads, allowing IT to rapidly deliver new services while improving overall agility and efficiency.

    Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are pre-configured building blocks that reduce deployment
    risks with certified configurations, improve storage efficiency by up to 50%1
    , and can help
    you build or scale your vSAN cluster faster.14 Whether you're just getting started, and/or
    expanding your existing VMware environment, Dell EMC is here for you every step of the
    way with consulting, education, deployment and support services for the entire solution.

    Offer
    30-days for free

    Try it today

    Learn more about Dell PowerFlex
    Learn more about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
    Sample Customers
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    Canopy, 8x8Inc., Atos, Canadian Pacific, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Xerox
    Rackspace
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Construction Company8%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Healthcare Company11%
    Wellness & Fitness Company11%
    Computer Software Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company60%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Government10%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business64%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise55%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise66%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise62%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell PowerFlex is ranked 11th in HCI with 19 reviews while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked 12th in HCI with 13 reviews. Dell PowerFlex is rated 8.2, while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is rated 8.4. 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 Dell vSAN Ready Nodes writes "Scalable solution, easy to install but maintenance costs are considered high". Dell PowerFlex is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), HPE SimpliVity and FlexPod XCS, whereas Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure. See our Dell PowerFlex vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report.

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    We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.