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Integration with vCenter WebClient services and Cisco UCS Ecosystem, as it gives a Single Pane Of Management which lowers administration-cost (improving TCO).
This product has a lot of room to improve: Competitors have a much larger feature-set, stability during installations/upgrades is a big issue.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
Not really, all the implementations I’ve seen were problematic.
What needs improvement?
This product has a lot of room to improve: Competitors have a much larger feature-set, stability during installations/upgrades is a big issue.
For how long have I used the solution?
1 year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
During my first installation (Version 1.7) I ran into problems, took about 3 weeks for me to fix.
During the upgrade to version 1.8 I ran into another problem: I had to escape all VM’s to another storage solution and had to restart the complete installation, which also failed miserably.
The upgrade from 1.8 to 2.0 was going OK, but then I received a message from Cisco that they ran into problems with this upgrade (and so they didn’t recommend this upgrade).
In short, upgrades and installations cause a stability issue.
If Cisco Hyperflex/Springpath is running, it is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As for all first generation HCI solutions: The compute and storage components are related to each other which limits scalability and all converged node host-configuration had to be the same.
With the first versions of Cisco Hyperflex/Springpath you had to deploy multiple clusters in a large datacenter which added a lot of management overhead to the product.
How are customer service and technical support?
Its support has been moved to Cisco Support, which sometimes can take a long time before there is a good answer/solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
For Springpath/Hyperflex I’ve used VMware vSAN. The combination of Cisco and Springpath should deliver a one-in-a-box HCI solution (software/hardware/network/compute/storage/virtualization).
However, after using the product for a while, I found the network integration is limited to the Fabric Interconnects and only during installation do you have the option to change network settings (other than normal operations).
So it doesn’t deliver a complete HCI solution after all.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup had to be straightforward.
With version 1.7 and 1.8 the installation was a nightmare, there were many manual steps to take and if there was something wrong with the installation you had to restart by re-entering all settings (if you didn’t use a .XML file).
With version 2.0 and later, the installation has been redefined and good. My recommendation to Cisco is to further simplify the installation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Re-evaluate other HCI solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated VMware vSAN and HPE SimpliVity which are storage-only solutions in a HCI environment. We were looking for an all-in-one-box solution.
What other advice do I have?
Only use it for specific use-cases : VDI, small VSI (test/dev), and not for DB-servers.
