We performed a comparison between StarWind HyperConverged Appliance and VxRail 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 StarWind Virtual SAN management console is intuitive and easy to use."
"This was a great implementation for a small to mid-size business."
"Virtual SAN runs on iSCSI, which is free and easy to configure. It's easy to manage from StarWind's GUI console, and it only required a few extra switch ports."
"The ability to keep data accessible even in the event of hardware failures is highly valued, as it ensures business continuity."
"The customer support provided by StarWind is excellent."
"We are running Hyper-V on twin servers in failover, and being able to manage servers from anywhere I need to, virtually, has been a game changer."
"The backup is readily available for use, and the restoration process is easy."
"It has given the company an almost zero possibility of downtime."
"Live migration between nodes was quick and simple."
"It is a safe, fast, and cost-effective storage system that improved our systems to have zero downtime."
"The presence of built-in storage saved the company from having to purchase a separate storage array and related network equipment."
"High-availability is what I bought it for."
"The support is the most valuable feature. The support has been amazing. It's around the clock. One of our hard disks accidentally ejected without me knowing or being onsite. They called and told me about it before I had a chance to see it myself."
"The low cost of this solution has also made a big difference in our budget, which has been very helpful."
"We no longer need multiple staff members performing small, mundane tasks."
"In our experience with StarWind, the support has been by far the most valuable feature."
"VxRail is easy to deploy and easy to scale up."
"Enterprise is a complete solution that includes performance, backups and disaster recovery."
"The stability of VxRail is good, we have not had any issues."
"The solution is really stable."
"It helps our servers and it is very efficient."
"VxRail performs well in the VDI environment."
"Depending on your architecture type, it's simple to manage and implement VxRail compared to other solutions. That's why most of our customers use it."
"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."
"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."
"The number of different ways you can set it up can make it a little daunting."
"Ability to to test the virtual storage are network area and storage speed from StarWind Management Console."
"Performance when in storage-separate configuration needs to be improved."
"It would be nice if we could designate pools, or tiers, for storage of different speeds, and then assign rules to new VMs that would automatically place them into the proper pool."
"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."
"Although minor, some of the documentation could be rewritten to be clearer."
"The system failovers properly on its own without too much worry."
"The truth is that the operation and support offered is good, but we consider that the product's usability could improve, as well as the data resynchronization time after an unexpected closure."
"Updates need improvement."
"We haven't had to use the ProActive Premium Support feature much yet. But they contacted me one time because there was a glitch on one server, a networking issue... I have not seen the problem since."
"It would be nice if it were possible to do the ISCSI setup that you do on Windows directly in the management GUI of StarWind."
"Most meetings are done via Zoom, and I'm sure you could switch to a text based conversation if needed as they seem like a very accommodating team. It's not something I would worry about if you are a potential client."
"An emphasis on security can be improved."
"I think that the pre-installation questionnaire was a little confusing and ambiguous."
"The only area that surprised me had to do with the fact that each host runs a StarWind virtual machine used to maintain the health of the vSAN, which individually uses 24GB of memory per host. You should keep this in mind when determining the resources you will need when selecting hardware and components for your specific setup. If I knew that, I would have chosen to add more memory per host to make up for the use."
"There could be better documentation and they should allow everyone to access the simulator."
"The fact that is based on vSAN is the main issue of this solution."
"We have some issues, but they are possibly out-of-the-box issues. There was a host that was dead on arrival, and there were some file issues on other hosts. We're currently working actively with Dell to resolve all these issues. Once they are resolved, the product should be stable."
"The way that the VxRail is licensed could be improved."
"VxRail could be easier to set up. It's tricky to configure the network properly and match the requirements."
"We spend around six months waiting for a confirmation and firmware upgrade to confirm this step."
"Having a native replication would be an improvement."
"Pricing could be improved."
More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Pricing and Cost Advice →
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 6th in HCI with 65 reviews while VxRail is ranked 1st in HCI with 120 reviews. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.6, while VxRail is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Straightforward to use with good remote management and a simple GUI". On the other hand, the top reviewer of VxRail writes "Offers a hassle-free, complete package, and is energy-efficient". StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, StorMagic SvSAN and Red Hat Ceph Storage, whereas VxRail is most compared with VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and HPE Hyper Converged. See our StarWind HyperConverged Appliance vs. VxRail report.
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