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Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs NetApp HCI [EOL] comparison

Cisco and NetApp are both solutions in the HCI category. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of NetApp users who would recommend it.
NetApp HCI [EOL]
Read 32 NetApp HCI [EOL] reviews
    88% willing to recommend
     

    Comparison Buyer's Guide

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    Executive Summary
    We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and NetApp HCI [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, VMware, Nutanix and others in HCI.

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    Buyer's Guide
    HCI
    March 2025
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    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

    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Reviews Sentiment
    6.7
    Number of Reviews
    90
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
    NetApp HCI [EOL]
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Reviews Sentiment
    5.6
    Number of Reviews
    32
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
     

    Featured Reviews

    Nuno Mendes - PeerSpot reviewer
    High performance solution that makes it easy to efficiently manage VM resources
    In our case as a credit recovery company working with the state, our infrastructure is fixed and stable as we don't have the same need for growth as other types of companies. That said, one of the biggest problems with HyperFlex HX is that if you want to adjust your solution in terms of processing power, memory, or disk capacity, you have to buy completely new hosts. From a financial perspective, it can be very expensive to do so, and from a legal perspective, there are all kinds of compliance issues we would have to sort out before buying any new solution or application. Since we as a company will only be operating for perhaps the next ten years, when our HyperFlex solution comes to its end-of-life in 2024 our next step will likely not be with HyperFlex or any other solution from Cisco. Instead, from a financial point of view, we will likely turn toward a cloud solution because, that way, we won't have to spend so much money on physical infrastructure. We are, after all, only a small company and HyperFlex can be very expensive for other companies of our size, whether in Portugal or elsewhere like the United States. One other area for improvement is in regard to HyperFlex's integration with VMware. HyperFlex integrates with a specific version of VMware in such a way that HyperFlex doesn't always resolve security issues with VMware at the same pace as what you see in native implementations of VMware. This has happened in one or two situations in the past. On the other hand, the integration is otherwise adequate, especially in terms of availability and virtualization features (such as being able to split up each of our four hosts within VMware).
    Read full review
    MB
    Crashed continuously, complex to deploy, and bad after-sales support - NETAPP FIXED the problems in 2022
    Their after-sales support, SLA, and third-parties availability should be improved. NetApp's support is very difficult to engage. We have an SLA of onsite support within 24 hours. but they don't respect the SLA. Its stability was very bad. It has been crashing continuously. In one year, we got three crashes, which is unbelievable for an appliance that is guaranteed for 10 years without any crashes. In 2022, NetApp Italy, driven by the country manager Davide Marini, fixed all our issues and added additional computation power for free. This is a great example of customer care. They could have done it right the first time of course, but admitting the errors and putting in place such a remediation plan has been a very professional behavior.
    Read full review

    Quotes from Members

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

    Pros

    "It is a stable and scalable solution."
    "When we use it for VDI solutions, it is very easy to deploy and support."
    "Cisco offers very good quality."
    "The ROI we have seen from the high performance that has saved us time and money."
    "The implementation process is okay."
    "The most valuable features of this solution are scalability, performance, and reliability. It scales well inside of a large data center."
    "The product is easy to manage and flexible for upgrading without major changes."
    "Cisco provides the ability to configure BIOS, something that no one else can do, on a remote basis. That's really helpful sometimes. The bus-snooping alteration tool for BIOS is fantastic. That's one of the game-changing features that Cisco alone has at this point."
    More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros
    "It is easy to set up, and you don't have to do much work to get it to do what it needs to do."
    "This is a strong product and it works very well, and the processes around it continue to grow and mature."
    "The solution integrates well with all the other applications that we use on our environment."
    "The multi-vertical aspect is what is most valuable for us. The main reason we wanted a multi protocol was because Amazon was not able to provide us with access to the same data as we could get from Linux and Windows lengths. That was our value proposition for this solution."
    "It is scalable, and NetApp Deployment Engine (NDE) makes its deployment easier."
    "It is highly scalable. Their support is also extremely good."
    "It has reduced our hypervisor footprint by around 20%."
    "It is easy to administrate the solution, and the company handles its technical support well."
    More NetApp HCI [EOL] pros
     

    Cons

    "It needs improvements in terms of I/O. Sometimes I have felt it is slightly slow while we are trying to provision VMs or access VMs."
    "The initial setup can be a bit complex."
    "There is a VMware plugin for HyperFlex, which sometimes it hangs up in our environment, and doesn't function well."
    "I would like a lighter product; something which can be carried by a mere human. The typical size still looks like a stack of data center-sized servers, which is typically fine, but not so good if you want to carry it around."
    "Lacks easy integration with other vendors."
    "I haven't been too impressed with the Cisco HyperFlex HX, honestly. It's a hard concept."
    "Their technical support is very bad. We had an issue where instead of an engineer we got a PDF "doctor" that didn't know anything about our problem which was very frustrating."
    "A stretch function is really needed. Germans think that because of the high availability and the security that two data centers are better but we want edge all in one cluster. This is a needed feature, the cluster feature, and we'd also like to see a possibility for ROBO offices."
    More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons
    "Because I like block mode, I'd like to see SAN connectivity. I would like to be able to easily put it into my current environment."
    "There's a limitation with a block in the file. That's where I see that it's not very efficient for upgrades and for management."
    "HCI has not enabled us to consolidate workloads or break down silos and has not increased application performance. It has also not resulted in more efficient use of compute resources."
    "I'd like to see some additional graphics capabilities because I'd like to look at some virtual desktop integration for CAD software."
    "My biggest pain point is the installation part. I would like to see the appliance itself remove the entire switch that goes behind it and figure out how to do all the cluster interconnects within the box itself."
    "At the moment, I am not looking for new features. Quality of Service (QoS) and capacity efficiency are the two things that I want to resolve in my customer's environment. QoS improves the performance of each tenancy, and with capacity efficiency, the customer can achieve more capacity as compared to the normal capacity."
    "I would like to see the implementation process improved."
    "There have been some drive type of issues where we have to apply a new code level. Storage nodes kick certain drives until they act as though they have failed when really they haven't. You just have to reinsert them, then they go on about their happy way. It's sort of a bug."
    More NetApp HCI [EOL] cons
     

    Pricing and Cost Advice

    "We are on an annual subscription and the price is fair."
    "The pricing is a bit expensive."
    "HyperFlex is a little pricey."
    "It is highly priced compared to other vendors."
    "The price is a bit too high."
    "There is a license required to use this solution."
    "There is no additional licensing cost other than the cost for each part."
    "We currently have a perpetual license, which is kind of unlimited, so we don't have the normal licensing cost, yet."
    More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pricing and cost advice
    "Its price is comparable to the competitors in the market."
    "Its pricing is lower than our previous solution."
    "All the licenses are included when you buy the program."
    "Licenses run on a yearly basis, and there aren't any additional fees other than the standard licensing fee."
    "Its price is aligned with the market. In addition to the standard licensing fees, there is an integrator cost."
    "The price of the solution is okay but could improve."
    "This solution reduced our maintenance costs. We were going to have to pay one to two million dollars to put in compute nodes. We are avoiding those costs."
    "Where we lost nearly 75 percent of our infrastructure due to a malicious attack and were able to recover two and a half hours into it due to the integration, it saved us and all of our customers. Because we were able to recover so fast from the attack, the solution paid for itself right there."
    More NetApp HCI [EOL] pricing and cost advice
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    Top Industries

    By visitors reading reviews
    Computer Software Company
    27%
    Financial Services Firm
    8%
    Government
    8%
    Manufacturing Company
    7%
    Financial Services Firm
    22%
    Real Estate/Law Firm
    18%
    Computer Software Company
    16%
    Comms Service Provider
    8%
     

    Company Size

    By reviewers
    Large Enterprise
    Midsize Enterprise
    Small Business
     

    Questions from the Community

    How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
    Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
    See all answers
    How does VxRail compare with Cisco HyperFlex HX Series?
    VxRail provides stable solutions for technical problems while at the same time not being too expensive for a company to invest in. Even if you are working with a limited budget, this platform offer...
    See all answers
    What do you like most about Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series?
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    Comparisons

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    Compared 29% of the time
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    VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
    Compared 24% of the time
    HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
    HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
    Compared 19% of the time
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
    Compared 17% of the time
    Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Logo
    Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
    Compared 11% of the time
    More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors
    No data available
     

    Product Reports

    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]
    April 2025
    Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] reportDownload Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report
    Buyer's Guide
    NetApp HCI [EOL]
    March 2025
    NetApp HCI [EOL] reportDownload NetApp HCI [EOL] product report
     

    Overview

    The Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform is a purpose-built, high-performance, scale-out file system with a wide array of enterprise-class data management services. The data platform’s innovations redefine distributed storage technology, giving you complete hyper-convergence with enterprise storage features:

    • Enterprise-class data management
    • Continuous data optimization
    • Securely encrypted storage
    • Dynamic data placement
    • Clusterwide parallel data distribution
    • Linear and incremental scaling
    • API-based data platform architecture
    • A simplified approach
    Cisco

    NetApp HCI is the only true enterprise-scale hyper converged cloud infrastructure. NetApp HCI comes in a 2 RU chassis with 4 node expansion slots.

    NetApp
     

    Sample Customers

    BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Ready Pac Foods, Bryant University, Bellevue Group, KPIT Technologies, City Harvest
    American Showa, Children's Mercy, Coca-Cola, Consultel Cloud, Evangelische Landeskirche in Wurttemberg, Imperva, Surface Mount Technology
    Buyer's Guide
    HCI
    March 2025
    Download Free Report
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