Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure comparison

Cisco and Sangfor are both solutions in the HCI category. Additionally, 89% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...

Read 90 Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] reviews

89% willing to recommend

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converg...

Read 32 Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure reviews

3,868 Views
2,309 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [...

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converg...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

To learn more, read our detailed HCI Report (Updated: March 2025).

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converg...

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Management (13th), HCI (9th)

Featured Reviews

Nuno Mendes

IT Manager - Resp.Department at Parvalorem

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).

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KashifAli

Project Head, Director of Sales and Operations at Core ISP Router

User-friendly GUI, capable technical support team but complicated license mechanism

Sangfor HCI's license mechanism is too complicated. The license agreement is a distributed license. Within the HCI platform, Sangfor HCI has multiple licenses in terms of services. Sangfor HCI has a separate license for the security services, a separate license for the Doctor services, and application services. They have multiple SKUs in separate forms. As per local market requirements, I think they need to couple up these or bundle up the license model.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The possibility to share the workload is one of its most valuable features. We have many applications which have need of workloads only a few times in a month, so we share HyperFlex with them."

"The most valuable feature is full integration with Cisco API and UCS, which means you can have complete networking and storage from Cisco."

"Scalability is easy and simple."

"Deduplication is a valuable feature available in Cisco HyperFlex."

"The most valuable features of this solution are scalability, performance, and reliability. It scales well inside of a large data center."

"The solution is easy to use and to learn. It is well integrated with VMware."

"Cisco technical support is very skilled. From what I've had to access, there were quick responses and the necessary escalation."

"It is a solution that best suits thre needs of our organization."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pros

"It is flexible like a hyper-convergence system. You can add nodes, and you can scale to have better performance and stability. I also like the backup feature, the recovery system, and the web interface GUI to handle everything."

"The most valuable feature of Sangfor HCI is the built-in recovery functionality. The migration is simple to do from other solutions, such as VMware."

"Very user-friendly and simple."

"The manageability feature is the most important aspect of the solution."

"I find the simplicity of Sangfor very valuable. It is easy to configure and user-friendly. The overall user experience as well as the usability of Sangfor is outstanding."

"It was not expensive at all."

"The extraordinary product quality, unmatched support services, and the third-generation HCI offering are some of the most valuable features of Sangfor HCI."

"Their GUI interface is a bit easier than VMware's."

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure pros

Cons

"I would rate the installation of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten. It can be complex."

"Deployment on-prem was quite difficult."

"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."

"The initial setup of the Cisco HyperFlex HX platform was medium-level difficult. It's a little bit different from traditional servers. It takes getting used to the learning curve."

"Its price could be better."

"The initial setup is very complex because there were some issues. It is not clear to how set up this solution."

"Unlike other options, you need to pay a subscription to Cisco yearly instead of paying for the hardware outright, which makes it more expensive in the long run."

"Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series could improve by having the documents be more readily available and the support could be more flexible."

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] cons

"Its virtual machine tools can be improved. These tools should be enhanced for use in other applications and operating systems, such as Linux."

"As far as I know, no hyper-convergence solution includes security, so you have to buy security from another brand. For example, you buy SimpliVity or Nutanix. They don't really have a security solution inside the product. It would be good if there is a security solution inside this solution so that it is not only for the virtualization of CPU, RAM, disk, and network but also for security."

"It can have more compatibility and new features. I would also like to see better performance. Some of the other HCI solutions already provide the SSD and flash storage and much higher Intel processors. Sangfor HCI can improve on that."

"Support may be an issue for customers in some industries. For example, financial institutions may require 24/7 support."

"Initially, there were issues with wrong sizing and certain features being locked, although these have been fixed."

"The error reporting needs to be improved."

"Sangfor could improve its built-in CAP system. Right now, we need to use an external tool for CAP."

"The documentation and support from the community are not as good or as mature as VMware or Hyper-V."

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing is perpetual and the only thing that you may need to pay for on a monthly basis is if you're going to use their cloud-based management features."

"It's much more expensive than rack servers. It was an issue, but when you compare it to the number of people who were administrative assistants before, it's on the positive ROI side. It's much cheaper."

"Our licensing is Hybrid. We have all of our applications for billing and outage management through this."

"There is a 30 percent additional premium that all the companies are charging for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series because of the lack of chips and bottlenecks in the market. The cost of the solution is high right now."

"Our licensing costs are large, but it is combined between all of the Cisco products that we have."

"It is relatively expensive, but it can easily return value by freeing up other resources."

"The pricing is a bit expensive."

"They are not the cheapest on the market. But there's an old saying I like to quote: "If you know that you are getting what you pay for, it's fine if it's expensive.""

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] pricing and cost advice

"The tool’s pricing is better when compared to VMware or Nutanix. The product’s licensing is on a yearly basis."

"The solution is affordable."

"It is in the middle range as compared to other hyper-converged infrastructure solutions. There is a three-year warranty on the hardware. The license also includes other features. Sangfor has included Continuous Data Protection (CDP) and a built-in firewall with the license. Other top brands, such as VxRail and VMware, require a separate license for such features."

"The product's pricing is less expensive and competitive than other alternatives. I would rate the product's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Considering the capabilities provided, the product is expensive."

"The solution has a good initial cost but a high renewal cost."

"The price of Sangfor is cheaper than other competing products."

"Sangfor needs to be more aggressive because this is a new market or territory for Sangfor. Nepal is a very price-sensitive market, so Sangfor needs to be a little more aggressive with its pricing. I would rate them 3.75 out of five in terms of the price."

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

27%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

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?

It's easy to get the tool started.

See all answers

What do you like most about Sangfor HCI?

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten... Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor HCI?

I rate the pricing of Sangfor HCI at a five, as it is thirty to thirty-five percent more efficient than other solutions in terms of total cost of ownership.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sangfor HCI?

I would like Sangfor to have a presence on some public cloud offerings, such as Azure or AWS, to build disaster recovery sites. This functionality is currently missing in the Pakistani market.

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 29% of the time

VxRail vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 24% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 19% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 16% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

Compared 11% of the time

More Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] Competitors

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Compared 19% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Compared 18% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Compared 11% of the time

VxRail vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

Compared 5% of the time

More Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL]

March 2025

Download Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure

March 2025

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure report

Download Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure 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

Sangfor HCI is an IT infrastructure platform built on converged architecture. It integrates server virtualization, distributed storage, and networking. Sangfor HCI provides a unified management platform that converges compute, storage, networking, and security on a single software stack. This approach delivers a simplified architecture, ease of use, and reliability for business-critical applications.

Hyperconverged infrastructure is a unified system of data storage. HCI combines storage, computing, networking, and management, unlike traditional storage solutions. HCI systems enable you to build your private cloud, expand to a public cloud, or have your own true hybrid cloud. Sangfor HCI presents two product models: The Sangfor HCI server appliance is a hardware version that enables easy deployment. Sangfor HCI software is the digital version combined with a third-party server that enables flexible deployment.

Sangfor HCI supports Windows systems on desktop and is web-based. Its range of use cases cover a wide spectrum of industries, from healthcare to manufacturing. It is applicable for mid- and large-sized businesses. The software is customizable. Users can customize the logo and contact information in the user interface.

Benefits and Features

Stability: Sangfor HCI delivers high reliability and availability with 0 RPO and 99.99% availability. The infrastructure is fully redundant to ensure business continuity. This means no data is lost in the event of hardware failure.
Simplified infrastructure: The solution supports visual management, making it easier to use. The single platform provides a central control with access to resources.
High performance: One unit of HCI can support up to 100,000 IOPS. The solution supports data striping, data locality, SSD caching and AI-based DB optimization. It also supports linear expansion without bottlenecks.
Hyper-converged infrastructure that enables working with different scenarios. For instance, cloud transformation and data center consolidation. It is fully converged, which means it provides unified management, full resource visualization, and orchestration with SCP. The standardized HCI unit consolidates hardware appliances, a storage network, IP network, and server into a single unit.
Integration: Sangfor HCI offers deep integration with NFV components. Users can deploy complex SDN networks.
Pay-as-you-grow model: The pay-per-use model reduces operational expenses and total cost of ownership.

Use Cases

Sangfor HCI can be applied tin various scenarios:

Enterprise applications: Users can benefit from the reliability and performance of Sangfor HCI for business-critical processes. The system is optimized for enterprise applications to enhance their performance and stability.
Datacenter consolidation: The unified and software-defined technology simplifies the operational management and the architecture of data centers.
Cloud transformation: You can add a cloud management platform, transforming Sangfor HCI into a complete cloud computing solution. You can then run your cloud workloads and benefit from the automation features of Sangfor HCI.
Data protection and recovery: Sangfor HCI offers multiple data protection features, such as continuous data protection (CDP), which ensure the integrity of sensitive and user data. You can protect backup snapshots and take backups. It records virtual machine IO logs at frequent intervals. It offers disaster recovery capabilities that ensure business continuity.

Reviews from Real Users

Gabriele P., Senior Software and Systems Engineer at SAMU.IT, says "It is flexible like a hyper-convergence system. You can add nodes, and you can scale to have better performance and stability. I also like the backup feature, the recovery system, and the web interface GUI to handle everything."

A Junior Solutions Engineer at a tech services company adds that "Sangfor has many solutions, and you can easily manage their machine servers with just one management. They're always striving for greatness, and they continuously update their products. For example, they have now built endpoint security within the firewall. They are continuously improving not only the security but also all other products."

Sangfor

Sample Customers

BluePearl Veterinary Partners, Ready Pac Foods, Bryant University, Bellevue Group, KPIT Technologies, City Harvest

TOSHIBA TEC Singapore, J&T Express Indonesia, Crowne Plaza Vietnam, Hermina Hospital Indonesia

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