Dell VxBlock System vs SteelFusion comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell VxBlock System and SteelFusion based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure.
To learn more, read our detailed Converged Infrastructure Report (Updated: March 2024).
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Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Integration with VMware and VMotion definitely brings a lot of value.""VxBlock has good performance, so that is an advantage.""Good default features.""It's a highly optimized piece of equipment that doesn't give us any problems.""Virtual machines for the infrastructure.""The most valuable feature of this solution is the speed.""Good flexibility and speed.""The monitoring and management parts are the most valuable. Monitoring is specifically valuable because you have one console to monitor everything. This console is called Vision."

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"Sync to Central and edge protection mitigate my risk in our branch offices. All services that need to be local to the user exist on local servers. Users run applications and access data locally while the data is constantly being synced to Central, and protected. If an edge device fails, we can recover quickly."

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Cons
"It's a good product but the price could be lowered. It's expensive.""We are finding it a bit challenging in terms of the management of a specific VxBlock component. Currently, we have different units as a part of the block storage. We have one for Cisco equipment and one for Dell. When we have an issue in the infrastructure, Dell EMC VxBlock System should automatically detect it and send a notification to VC support, but, unfortunately, it is doing that only for one unit. It is not working for Cisco components. We have informed them about this area of improvement, and they are working on this. The way different parts are integrated should be improved. We should have one console to log in to see all the infrastructure in terms of each machine and hardware.""The hardware lifecycle is not documented very well. For example, now you can buy a piece of equipment, but you don't know if the hardware is going to be a team production next month or next year.""This solution does not support Hyper-V, and we would like the new version to be supported and certified to work with Hyper-V.""It is a good product, but for us, it is like a black box. We are not really sure about its internal components, and how to do the terminal upgrade, and how to make sure about the security of the device. We understand how it works, but in order to do the upgrades, we have to get help from the company. We cannot do it ourselves. In another model that we had, the internal team could do the upgrade but not in this one. There is no clear process for a new upgrade or update. They should provide a software intelligence tool that has a dashboard where you can see the current firmware, the latest firmware, and the documentation and the process for the upgrade. For VxBlock, we have different management consoles. There is no single management console that you can use to manage all components inside VxBlock. Their scale up and scale out process is also not clear. Their support is also a little bit slow in responding to the cases.""Scalability is an area that needs to be improved.""Lacks flexibility with third-party applications.""There are components of VxBlock that are not managed or supported by Dell because some of the components are from Cisco. Thus, when there are problems with compute nodes, though Dell was managing the interaction, we had to rely on Cisco to solve the issue. When Cisco was not responding as quickly as Dell would for their components, it made it difficult for us because we needed to have the failed nodes back up and running. As such, the disparate ownership of components in the equipment is an issue."

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"Setting up disks for use is a multi-step process that could use some refinement. Setting up a core-to-core replication or DR strategy is also cumbersome."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "We purchased this solution with a ten-year manufacturer warranty, and we have a three-year warranty with our local partner."
  • "Its price is high. That's why people are now moving to hyper-converge."
  • "Compared to other solutions, Dell VxBlock System is more expensive."
  • More Dell VxBlock System Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Price is an issue – this is expensive stuff. My advice is to beat up Riverbed as much as possible on price. These things are expensive and there is room for negotiation."
  • More SteelFusion Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:With a converged infrastructure, it's easy to troubleshoot from network to server issues from a single point of reference.
    Top Answer:Compared to other solutions, Dell VxBlock System is more expensive.
    Top Answer:The solution could use a clearer description of working methods to tell people more about its use cases.
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    Ranking
    4th
    Views
    1,780
    Comparisons
    785
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    362
    Rating
    8.0
    26th
    out of 39 in HCI
    Views
    425
    Comparisons
    121
    Reviews
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    Average Words per Review
    0
    Rating
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    VxBlock, VCE VxBlock System, Dell EMC VxBlock, VxBlock 1000
    Learn More
    Riverbed
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    VxBlock and Vblock Systems simplify all aspects of IT and enable organizations to achieve better business outcomes faster. Seamlessly integrating enterprise-class compute, network, storage and virtualization technologies from industry leaders Cisco, Dell EMC, and VMware, VxBlock and Vblock Systems, powered by Intel Xeon processors, deliver the world's most advanced converged infrastructure: engineered, manufactured, managed, supported and sustained as one, allowing you to focus on your business.

    The Dell EMC Converged Systems portfolio offers choice, flexibility, and reliability for accelerating IT transformation - VxBlock System offers additional levels of flexibility with a choice of network virtualization from VMware NSX or Cisco ACI.

    Dell EMC VxBlock System Will Help You:

    • Protect and consolidate your high-value workloads
    • Deliver cloud operations faster
    • Simplify life cycle management
    • Simplify operations 
    • Modernize IT
    • Protect critical business data

    With Dell EMC VxBlock System You Can:

    • Automate key processes
    • Move to a VMware-based private or hybrid cloud model
    • Gain ongoing validation for technologies across the stack
    • Mix and match SAN/LAN switches, different storage arrays, blade and rack servers, and more
    • Reduce patching and upgrade efforts using a turnkey system 

    Dell EMC VxBlock System Features:

    • Native data protection: Dell EMC’s data protection suite includes backup and recovery, centralized management, and replication.
    • Cisco C-Series servers: Dell EMC VxBlock System is now integrated with Cisco UCS C-Series rack servers, including the C220 and C240 in the M4 and M5 server lines. 
    • Server scalability boost: You can increase server scalability by approximately 56%. 
    • Storage mix: Dell EMC’s VxBlock System gives you the ability to mix four different types of storage arrays (Unity, VMAX, XtremIO, Isilon). It also includes multiple all-flash storage options (Unity 350F, 350F, 550F, 650F), and more.
    • Data center efficiency: The solution simplifies lifecycle assurance - which reduces time spent managing upgrades - and it can also reduce rack space and lower power costs.
    • Simpler RCM compliance: You will have simpler RCM compliance and your upgrades will feature an RCM dashboard showing the release level status of all components; You will also have access to RCM compliance score, RCM summary and detail reports, and RCM pre-positioning.
    • Deep CI context KPI metrics This feature includes capacity reporting and performance analytics with historical perspective.
    • Advanced, real-time CI-level alerting Dell EMC VxBlock System’s alerting feature includes operational state alerts, performance alerts, call home alerts, custom alerts and alert forwarding.

    Dell EMC VxBlock System Benefits:

    • Manage more efficiently 
    • Reduce operational risk 
    • Simplify upgrades and assure compliance
    • Focus more on added-value projects
    • Be more agile 
    • Reduce OPEX
    • Proactively manage workload health
    • Improve capacity planning 
    • Resolve incidents and problems faster

    Reviews from Real Users:

    “It's a highly optimized piece of equipment that doesn't give us any problems." - Architect at a manufacturing company 

    "It's at least 99 percent problem-free because it's factory-built. So from an informational point of view, everyone trusts that VxBlock has been tested well at the factory and has been configured to their requirements.” - General Manager, Enterprise Technical Solution at a tech services company

    "The monitoring and management parts are the most valuable. Monitoring is specifically valuable because you have one console to monitor everything. This console is called Vision.” - Data center Manager at a financial services firm

    Riverbed SteelFusion is the first and only hyper-converged infrastructure for branch IT, enables 100% consolidation of branch data and servers from remote sites into data centers, delivering complete data security and centralized data protection, without compromising on any of the benefits of running branch services locally for your users. SteelFusion eliminates the need for physical servers, storage and backup infrastructure at branch locations, creates the ability to instantly provision and recover branch services, and provides full visibility and superior performance of on-premises and cloud-based applications, leading to dramatic increases in data security, business continuity, agility and operational efficiency.

    Sample Customers
    Atos, Canadian Pacific, IDS, City of Denton, CenturyLink, BNP Paribas, Asyaport, EDF, CSC, Fox Sports, Insight, Hunter, KPIT, Paetec, Rosetta Stone, Sonda, Switch, Xerox
    Roxtec, Engen, Bobst, CBP, IUCN, Mahoning County, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm27%
    Government18%
    Energy/Utilities Company18%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company11%
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Government10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    No Data Available
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise8%
    Large Enterprise62%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise65%
    No Data Available
    Buyer's Guide
    Converged Infrastructure
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, NetApp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and others in Converged Infrastructure. Updated: March 2024.
    765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell VxBlock System is ranked 4th in Converged Infrastructure with 12 reviews while SteelFusion is ranked 26th in HCI. Dell VxBlock System is rated 7.8, while SteelFusion is rated 9.0. The top reviewer of Dell VxBlock System writes "Can be deployed quickly, is easy to manage, and is stable and resilient". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SteelFusion writes "Sync to Central and edge protection mitigate my risk in our branch offices". Dell VxBlock System is most compared with Dell PowerEdge VRTX, FlexPod XCS, Dell Vscale Architecture, IBM VersaStack and Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, whereas SteelFusion is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI).

    We monitor all Converged Infrastructure 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.