Dell PowerFlex vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Dell PowerFlex
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Dell PowerFlex (formerly VxFlex) software-defined storage solutions aim to enable transformational agility for organizations looking to modernize their datacenter operations. The vendor states PowerFlex enables extreme flexibility, massive scalability, and enterprise-class performance and resiliency while simplifying infrastructure management and operations.N/A
StarWind HCA
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
The StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution designed to reduce application downtime on a reasonable budget.N/A
Pricing
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HCA
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Small Businesses
StarWind HCA
StarWind HCA
Score 9.6 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
StarWind HCA
StarWind HCA
Score 9.6 out of 10
Scale Computing Platform
Scale Computing Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Score 9.0 out of 10
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.8
(59 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(53 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(54 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Dell PowerFlexStarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Likelihood to Recommend
Dell Technologies
Definitely would recommend this unit or this family of units into most peoples organizations. Especially if you're starting fresh with a whole dedicated SAN and dont have to move a ton of data over to these (though that is possible, it is very messy). If you're moving from existing storage, then you will have to be prepared for some sore spots!
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StarWind
As a nonprofit, we needed a virtualization platform that was reliable, cost effective, and simple to administer. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance checked all the boxes for us. We went with their refurbished models to lower the cost, and they've been rock solid. We were able to simplify our environment and the platform has been so reliable that I really don't have to think about it. This has been great for me as the sole sysadmin. There are a lot of pieces to manage, and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance have allowed me to focus less on the platform and more on the VM's themselves and the other pieces of our network environment. I think as long as you get the "right size" of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance that this platform could work well for many organizations.
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Pros
Dell Technologies
  • Gets all your (SAN) ducks in a row, and makes it easy with a single pane of glass
  • The usual good dell support if you're paying for the right support level
  • It can get expensive with options added but base price is pretty competitive
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StarWind
  • It is extremely easy to set up, it comes with most options pre-configured for you. But the support group will walk through your entire setup and migration.
  • It is monitored by StarWind 24x7. Instead of issues being reactive with the monitoring I'm hoping things will be more proactive.
  • The performance has been outstanding. I think disk was our main limiting factor with our hold hardware.
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Cons
Dell Technologies
  • Costs are high, especially when having to replace multiple old SAN's with the one type
  • There is alot of down time when you have to push updates out to the units
  • Not sure we still have the full hang of all the functions as there's some pretty deep functions that are not explained well
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StarWind
  • Support team has slight accent but is not too difficult to understand.
  • Emphasis on security can be improved. Things like default passwords were not changed initially until requested.
  • Can't really think of much else...If I had to split hairs...on reboots sometimes it took a while to sync with the other node. Max was 30 minutes, but 99% of the time it's 3-4 minutes.
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Likelihood to Renew
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
The hardware appliance convinced me. It is also good to use as a product in the box.Experience of the speed and security of the storage and the data on the storage is important.Installation is relatively easy and support is supportive. You are not left alone.Therefore a clear recommendation
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Usability
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
Overall, the appliance is versatile. It covers the adaptation to all current hypervisors and can be addressed via different protocols. This prepares you for a wide range of uses.Rack mounting is also well thought out. And last but not least, apart from the technical performance, it is also an eye-catcher.
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Reliability and Availability
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
Working with the
support team has been great. Connecting with somebody during and after business
hours has been smooth, and they have always been responsive and professional. I don't have to wait very long to hear back from them when either sending out an email with a question or inquiry or when calling after business hours when we had to shutdown and bring back up the servers due to hurricanes here in Florida.
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Support Rating
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
Literally, while writing this review, I just received an email from starwind saying my VSAN version was out of date due to a recent update coming out and they offered to help me install it. Its just amazing how "on top of it" support is. They'll monitor downtime, reboots, version issues, even the bios firmware on the Dell servers... I can't imagine using any other vendor, they just do it all, and they do it well.
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Implementation Rating
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
The old saying: Preparation is everything.It should be ensured in advance that the operating system is up-to-date and therefore suitable for the appliance.The recommended network adapters should also be used in the network and the firewall rules adjusted.If this is planned in advance and everything is prepared, then the installation can be carried out relatively quickly.The manuals and the StarWind website are also a very good help.
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Alternatives Considered
Dell Technologies
No answers on this topic
StarWind
Scale was a proprietary SAN software/hardware and outrageously high priced. The StarWind HyperConverged Appliance was just Dell servers with VMWare ESXi Hypervisor installed running two Windows Servers virtual machines where the StarWind SAN software is installed on. The only thing that was proprietary for StarWind was the StarWind SAN software
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Return on Investment
Dell Technologies
  • Money saved in having a bunch of other competing storage units
  • All kinds of time saved for our admins that have to deal with storage
  • The units look good and give you that futurey data center vibe!
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StarWind
  • Our CIS software has some poorly optimized SQL logic. Our old Failover Cluster w/ a VNXe3200 SAN would take up to 7 seconds to pull a customer's records up. It now takes only 1-2 seconds. Our front office has been much more pleasant since their install.
  • I would only rarely have to interact with our blade switches and VNXe SAN, so I wouldn't necessarily retain the knowledge of how to configure them. Each time I'd need to make a change, I'd have to refer back to my documentation. That's no longer an issue I have to deal with.
  • The rack footprint for our cluster went from 14U to 4U, and we were able to achieve it with much less network cabling and with lowered power requirements.
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