VxRail Overview

VxRail is the #2 ranked solution in our list of HCI Software. It is most often compared to Nutanix Acropolis AOS: VxRail vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS

What is VxRail?

VxRail is the only fully integrated, preconfigured, and pre-tested VMware hyper-converged infrastructure appliance family on the market. Based on VMware’s vSphere and Virtual SAN, and EMC software, VxRail delivers an all-in-one IT infrastructure transformation by leveraging a known and proven building block for the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).

With the power of a whole SAN in just two rack units, they provide a simple, cost effective hyper-converged solution for a wide variety of applications and workloads. VxRail Appliances deliver resiliency, QoS, and centralized management functionality enabling faster, better, and simpler management of consolidated workloads, virtual desktops, business-critical applications, and remote office infrastructure.

VxRail is also known as VCE VxRail .

VxRail Buyer's Guide

Download the VxRail Buyer's Guide including reviews and more. Updated: January 2021

VxRail Customers

World Wide Technology Inc, Renault Sport Formula One Team, 8x8 Inc, Brownes, Canadian Pacific, Canopy, Denton, EDF, Unilin, Xerox

VxRail Video

Pricing Advice

What users are saying about VxRail pricing:

"We most likely pay yearly for support. The cost was justified by now because it stays up and I don't have to constantly open tickets. I probably rebooted the system once or twice. We haven't replaced any discs in the storage, we haven't had to do any disc replacements, so it just runs. You pay a little more but you cut down on the maintenance."
"VxRail is very cost-effective and affordable in the long term. It is more recommended when it comes to financial life, but it may depend upon the license. VxRail comes with VMware licensing, which may not be that cost-effective as compared to others. With VMware, it's an auto check competition. VMware is an expensive solution, especially for Nutanix. Nutanix have their own hypervisor called Acronis, which is very cost-effective against the VMware. Nutanix is cheaper for the hardware but not for the software. If you ask the Nutanix partners to deploy Nutanix over Cisco servers or Dell EMC servers, the cost will be higher. Nutanix wants to compete financially. Therefore, they propose their software over the Supermicro server, which is a very cheap Chinese server. In fact, I don't like their terms of service. HyperFlex has the highest price, and it is very expensive. I don't know why. It may be because this is a UCS system, which comes from Cisco and is already expensive. When it comes to HyperFlex, they need the labor to deploy Hyper-V, Citrix, or any other hypervisor."
"It is just as cheap to move over to an HCI solution as it is to maintain a legacy system."
"A typical node that I would sell to a customer has a list price be between $80,000 and $100,000 per node. Organizations typically start with four nodes. That's the hardware, software, VMware licensing, everything. Customers typically pay about half of that - approximately $45,000 to $50,000 a node. On average, it costs about $200,000 to get your foot in the door."
"VxRail is not cheap, but it's not expensive either."

"The real ROI is the benefit of being able to do a true hybrid cloud, not having to move from CAPEX to OPEX in a pure break."

VxRail Reviews

Engineer0221

Engineer at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees

May 9, 2019

Download

Dual power capabilities take up a quarter of the energy than we were using before which equals savings every month

What is our primary use case?

I use VxRail in my DR site, so it houses my virtual infrastructure. I also use it for storage.

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable feature is the fact that the storage is integrated with the VxRail so I don't have to go in between systems when I have to monitor my storage."

"The only issue which is every now and again is that when you log in it will tell you that there's an issue with VxRail when there actually isn't. All that's required is a refresh or reload. The solution itself works but you may get some bad reports every now and again. Probably once every couple of months; there is no effect to the solution's capabilities."

What other advice do I have?

On a scale from one to ten, with one being the worst and ten being the best I would give VxRail a solid nine. It's not something that has disappointed. Every time they have a release it's a new version and there are more features added. To make it a perfect ten they should improve the HTML client. There's an HTML client that works well in the web client since you don't have the desktop client. It works better than flash, and if they improve that, they might get a 10. Other than that, the product hardware is pretty good. I would tell someone considering this solution that it is a product to…

See Entire VxRail Review (1466 Words) »

Vasanth_Kumar

Director Of Information Technology at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 10, 2020

Download

Stable with good technical support and good integration capabilities

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution to run the loudmouth to host our virtual server's core courses.

Pros and Cons

"You don't have to worry too much about the hardware and you don't have to work on integrating a storage device. We instead have this as an all-in-one solution and everything is available as a box."

"Right now, it's difficult for a non-technical person to participate in using the product. It could be made more consumer-friendly."

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We don't have a relationship with Dell. We just procured the latest version of the solution. When we decided on our requirements, we had multiple calls with Dell and the attorneys to ensure that we received what we needed. Apart from choosing various generations or various models on VxRail boxes, we also took to deep dive into the actual configuration on each processor to understand how much memory to use. It's easier if you have a technical professional on your side when you're dealing with Dell. I'm a technical person, so I could get into the weeds with them. If you…

See Entire VxRail Review (1093 Words) »

Free Report: VxRail Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about VxRail. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2021.

Download now

457,459 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Mina Magdy

Senior Infrastructure Solutions Specialist at Equinox International

Aug 23, 2020

Download

Stable, durable, cost-effective, and affordable with remarkable cover points feature

Pros and Cons

"The cover points feature in VxRail is remarkable. It's unique. It has an intervention failover system as well as an automatic failover system, reaching clusters existing in VxRail. This makes all files act as a single file with a large and huge resource, and, of course, with customized administration, configuration, and resources. It provides automatic failover for redundancy and data recovery."
"VxRail is very cost-effective and affordable in the long term. It is more recommended when it comes to financial life, but it may depend upon the license. VxRail comes with VMware licensing, which may not be that cost-effective as compared to others. With VMware, it's an auto check competition. VMware is an expensive solution, especially for Nutanix. Nutanix have their own hypervisor called Acronis, which is very cost-effective against the VMware. Nutanix is cheaper for the hardware but not for the software. If you ask the Nutanix partners to deploy Nutanix over Cisco servers or Dell EMC servers, the cost will be higher. Nutanix wants to compete financially. Therefore, they propose their software over the Supermicro server, which is a very cheap Chinese server. In fact, I don't like their terms of service. HyperFlex has the highest price, and it is very expensive. I don't know why. It may be because this is a UCS system, which comes from Cisco and is already expensive. When it comes to HyperFlex, they need the labor to deploy Hyper-V, Citrix, or any other hypervisor."

"If they can provide deduplication compression through the traditional hard drives, as Cisco does in the HyperFlex system, it will be very cost-effective, especially when it comes to archiving workload. VxRail doesn't allow the mixing of old flash clusters and hyper clusters. When I'm starting with an old flash cluster and it comes to archiving workload, I will also need to attend the new cluster. So, I either manage two different clusters, or I pay and upload my work with the archiving mobile hard drive, which is not cost-effective at all. The main key is to allow mixing between two types of clustering, like Nutanix, or allow deduplication of completion over the period of shared hard drive on SAV. It will be much better."

What other advice do I have?

I would rate VxRail an eight out of ten. They should allow the deduplication compression over the hard drives and mixing of the hyper and the old flash clusters.

See Entire VxRail Review (1022 Words) »

Chris Bujak

VDI SysAdmin/Engineer at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees

Nov 21, 2020

Download

Good managed updates, great hyper-converged storage and very stable

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for general computing. We have everything on it and anything that's licensed is on it. We have our file servers, database servers, applications servers, web servers, etc., on it. Anything that fits on it basically.

Pros and Cons

"I like the managed updates. They are really nice in VxRail. Everything comes packaged and the updates are much easier than with other solutions that I've had to work with."

"The requirements need improvement. Some of the managers of VMs are a little sensitive to where they need to be placed in the environment and what names they need to have. I would like a little more control over that so that it fits into our naming scheme and it fits our organizational structure within vSphere."

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer. We're running an ESX 6.7. We're running the latest version of VxRail manager, but we're not running the latest version of ESX or V share. It can do for us. We want other people to find the bugs first. My advice to other companies is to learn and ask lots of questions. Make sure that you understand the solution at the outset. Make sure the networking team is solid. Any hyper-converged solution like VxRail should rely on the network more than a traditional environment. You need to make sure your networking team is involved from the beginning. I would rate the solution…

See Entire VxRail Review (1021 Words) »

reviewer1308753

Data Center Team Lead at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees

Aug 6, 2020

Download

A good solution for medium-sized setups and replacing legacy systems especially with VMware

What is our primary use case?

In medium-sized installations, many of our customers require a reasonably-priced solution to replace legacy computer storage. Those are the customers who we are suggesting using the VxRail solution to. If the customer is building a data center using VMware, we are recommending VxRail because of the VMware compatibility. Medium set-ups can be used in a large enterprise but only when they need this solution as a smaller part of their environment. It works well for small setups or medium setups, or for new application setups.

Pros and Cons

"This is a good solution for medium-sized installations especially when it will be coupled with VMware."

"There is a limitation on the number of nodes."
"Troubleshooting can be a little more difficult than legacy systems."

What other advice do I have?

I recommend VxRail as a solution especially for those using legacy services. We often recommend VxRail over other competitors. The only exception really is if the customer does not want Dell computing resources. For example, the client may have another vendor they tend to use. So if everything they have is HP they may like to have an HP solution. If they are using Cisco, they may want a Cisco solution. Those are the only times that we will not go with suggesting VXRail. On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I would rate the VXRail solution as an…

See Entire VxRail Review (933 Words) »

Jason Weber

Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Jul 24, 2020

Download

Very stable with excellent customer support and great scalability

What is our primary use case?

The solution is primarily used as a general data center and VDI.

Pros and Cons

"The solution is perfect for the lifecycle management of hardware."

"The licensing costs are too expensive. They should work on their pricing model."

What other advice do I have?

We're a partner with Dell VMware. VxRail is a part of Dell. I largely just sell and set up the solutions; I don't use the solution regularly myself. It's an amazing product overall. This solution definitely requires an organization to plan everything out correctly. You need to map out your networking, understand what your resource utilization is going to be, make sure you get the right amount of RAM and storage on the host, and then also understand the impact to your licensing costs for Microsoft. I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I would give it perfect marks if it wasn't so expensive.

See Entire VxRail Review (815 Words) »

reviewer1067061

Information Technology Solutions Architect at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees

Jan 11, 2021

Download

Great for modernizing a data centre but simulator access is limited to premium customers only

What is our primary use case?

Our company is global. We have a wide range of customers and clients in many countries. Our customers who use VxRail are typically big companies. Some of our customers are in the banking sector and use VxRail because they're concerned about using automated software for updates, upgrades, etc. VxRail is for a specific category, mostly for banking, oil, and gas — a few others sectors as well.

Pros and Cons

"For me, the most valuable feature is in relation to the software updates."

"There could be better documentation and they should allow everyone to access the simulator."

What other advice do I have?

I would absolutely recommend VxRail. From my previous experience, and because I work with a wide range of technical engineers, compared to other products, this solution offers a solid hardware performance. Generally, we look for value combined with price. If you're able to find a better solution, it will also come at a higher cost. Considering the range of prices overall, Dell is the best — my first choice. You can go for a premium version, but there will be an additional cost. For example, you can go for NetApp, which is better hardware, but the price is higher. Overall, on a scale from one…

See Entire VxRail Review (807 Words) »

Managing56d7

Managing Director at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 5, 2019

Download

Allows for flexibility across the hybrid cloud

What is our primary use case?

It is part of the VMware stack for our data center and cloud.

Pros and Cons

"I like the new releases that Dell EMC is doing with VMware. They are allowing for flexibility across the hybrid cloud. This allows organizations to use containers and to be able to move into the public cloud, but also not have lock-in. They can come back to the private cloud when they want to, so it's creating a lot of flexibility across the stack."

"It still has some maturity to grow. It needs to be more tightly integrated with its own family of products. It has shown that it is open with the other products within the market, through its stack, but it needs to have the proof in the market (with use-cases), and it has to have the scalability with the integration."

What other advice do I have?

The first thing they should do is look at their overall enterprise architecture. Don't immediately follow the advice and take the jump to move. What they want to do is look at the investments that they've already made, and look at what the future state is that they want to go to, not just for that one simple solution. They need to look at what's their entire enterprise architecture future state, then consider everything: skills, interoperatability, integration, and future scalability. Then, look at the solution that they want to go with because they want that flexibility. They should be able…

See Entire VxRail Review (777 Words) »

See 23 more VxRail Reviews

Read archived reviews (2+ years old)

Product Categories

Hyper-Converged (HCI)