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Azure Local vs Dell XC Appliance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 21, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure Local
Ranking in HCI
11th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Dell XC Appliance
Ranking in HCI
16th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Azure Local is 3.1%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XC Appliance is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Azure Local3.1%
Dell XC Appliance1.7%
Other95.2%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

AhmedGhani - PeerSpot reviewer
Iinfrastructure Architect at Ministry Of Justice
Has improved disaster recovery operations and streamlined infrastructure management but pricing and hardware support remain challenging
In assessing the impact of data center modernization efforts with Azure Stack HCI, Microsoft may currently focus on their cloud, and once they have their cloud in Saudi Arabia, this will be a significant change. Azure Stack HCI was viewed as a temporary solution for a private cloud with good features, though not comparable to what is available in Azure cloud. Work is still ongoing on the benefits of hybrid cloud with Azure. Azure Stack HCI has been rated a seven out of ten. License and cost are main reasons for this rating, as the issues faced in the beginning of implementation were significant hurdles for the operation team. The implementation was very difficult for the operation team at that time, as the necessary skills to implement and integrate this product were not available. One of the major issues was the support for the hardware after five years, including Cisco and HP, which created significant challenges for the operation team.
Enables seamless integration with multiple software and outstanding AI tools
The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor. If multi-hypervisor support is required and VMware does not provide it, then Dell's appliance won't support it. I find it overly reliant on VMware. In cases of company mergers involving different platforms, software that can handle a multi-hypervisor environment would facilitate quicker integration.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Azure Local, formerly known as Azure Stack HCI, is gaining attention due to its offering of a cloud experience on-premises."
"The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent."
"Azure Stack HCI has been very beneficial for disaster recovery operations, though the main data center still has a mix of infrastructure between other products."
"The solution has the latest processor."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its ability to manage VMs."
"The features of Azure Stack HCI that have proven to be the most beneficial for optimizing our company's data center operations revolve around its performance."
"Some of the best features of Azure Stack HCI are that, as we are primarily a Microsoft Windows Server organization using Microsoft Windows Server on most of our servers, we already own data center licenses for Microsoft operating systems, and the hypervisor, Azure Stack HCI, actually comes with that license, which allows us to switch from VMware to Azure Stack HCI without any additional cost, significantly reducing our operational costs, especially now that Broadcom has purchased VMware, to $0."
"The scalability is extremely good."
"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."
"The most valuable feature is that you can assign a volume to an off-shore workload on the fly."
"The solution's hardware is great."
"The solution's best feature is its simplicity. It's so simple to deploy it. You've got the VMware, and it's own appliance. It is really helpful. The system is online within half a day and saves so much time."
"We are getting time back to other things because we are not having to look after the infrastructure, as we have had to do in the past."
"The most valuable feature is the low management overhead, and the lower skill set required to manage it."
"What I like the most is that it is easy to implement, easy deployment and that it's easy to manage."
"The solution's best feature is its simplicity."
 

Cons

"The implementation was very difficult for the operation team at that time, as the necessary skills to implement and integrate this product were not available."
"We faced multiple problems with the product’s stability."
"Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware."
"The integration with Azure Arc provides a unified management experience, but I find it to be fairly clunky."
"Microsoft professional services are considered lacking as they often do not resolve problems, labeling them as client's infrastructure issues."
"The product's initial setup phase can be a bit complex, making it an area where improvements are required."
"A little bit of the storage architecture could be improved."
"The biggest challenge with the tool is not being able to manage everything from Microsoft Azure Portal."
"Currently, there is no support for the servers that are not in the cluster."
"The cost of using the public cloud deployment is astronomical."
"We are not always advised of new features or updates, so we must research to stay up to date."
"To improve this product, I think there is a lot of work that is required by Dell to simplify the maintenance and life cycle upgrades."
"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."
"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."
"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."
"The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor. If multi-hypervisor support is required and VMware does not provide it, then Dell's appliance won't support it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The main licenses are the OS licenses, the OEM licenses, and so on. They are very much aligned with the cost of expectations. We never had any challenges with the licensing at all."
"The pricing is high compared to other tools."
"The pricing is dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."
"The pricing is good."
"We received a good price from Dell."
"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."
"The price point is very fair for a product in this category but can vary depending on the components selected within the family of products."
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908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack HCI?
This solution costs €10 per core per month. The whole stack is free if you are renting Windows Server Datacenter.
What needs improvement with Azure Stack HCI?
There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors. The end-to-end encryption provided by Azure...
What is your primary use case for Azure Stack HCI?
Azure Stack HCI is used for integrated compute, storage, and networking.
What advice do you have for others considering Dell XC Appliance?
My advice for people who are selling this product is to first make sure that you educate the customers. The customer doesn't often know much about HCI and what the need to be using it for. If they ...
What needs improvement with Dell XC Appliance?
The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor. If multi-hypervisor support is required and VMware does not provide it, then Dell's applian...
What is your primary use case for Dell XC Appliance?
Dell offers several benefits with its appliances. Primarily, I can combine them horizontally and vertically, reaching up to sixty-four nodes. Additionally, Dell employs its own artificial intellige...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Local vs. Dell XC Appliance and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.