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Dell XC Appliance vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

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

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
Ranking in HCI
10th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
21
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 March 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is 2.8%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Dell XC Appliance is 1.6%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes2.8%
Dell XC Appliance1.6%
Other95.6%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

KuldeepSingh4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Experience improved efficiency and customer satisfaction with enhanced integration and management capabilities
Scalability involves two types of environments: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and non-VCF environment where we use VMware Validated Foundation. With VCF we have significant automation built-in within the VCF console within SDDC manager as the primary management console. For non-VCF environments, it depends on customer choice. For small environments, we do manual scalability and sometimes use Terraform scripts to keep the host ready and add in the cluster automatically. For large environments with frequent scalability actions, we propose the Terraform solution that builds ESXi, does necessary configuration, and automatically starts up for associating with the existing environment. If scaling is infrequent, with one or two hosts per month, it is a manual job. From a challenge perspective, it seems easier, with just a few pre-checks regarding make and model compatibility, disks, and server health on the hardware level.
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

"The tool's most valuable features are compression and its usage in Kubernetes."
"If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability."
"No concerns regarding the footprint in the data center."
"The product is useful for DR and other things."
"The solution immediately expands storage area when you add nodes."
"I rate vSAN ReadyNodes as a nine out of ten."
"You don't have to spend much time evaluating the hardware. It can be deployed in a short time. The tool is also easy to upgrade."
"The tool's most valuable feature is high availability."
"What I like the most is that it is easy to implement, easy deployment and that it's easy to manage."
"The most valuable feature is that you can assign a volume to an off-shore workload on the fly."
"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."
"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."
"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."
"From a single screen, I can view VM details, performance, and hardware issues, such as power supply or fan malfunctions, along with RAM module problems."
"It's an extremely stable solution, and I highly recommend it."
"The solution's best feature is its simplicity."
 

Cons

"I would want VMware to ensure that when there's a hardware failure on a host, it should gracefully migrate the VMs to another host available in the cluster without restarting, which would be a great improvement."
"Sometimes we experience performance issues and disk failure issues frequently. Sometimes it impacts another disk group situation."
"Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is a great hyper-converged system that is a perfect platform for supporting any kind of workload. The only workload that it's not designed to support is big data."
"The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster."
"The solution doesn't scale."
"Although vSAN ReadyNodes work well, a faster firmware lifecycle with the release of validated firmware catalogs more quickly would be a desired improvement."
"The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required. The price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes could be lowered."
"We have experienced some issues with performance."
"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."
"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."
"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."
"Currently, there is no support for the servers that are not in the cluster."
"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."
"Dell needs to do a lot of work to simplify the maintenance and life-cycle upgrades for the product."
"The main issue with the DirectVXL appliance is that it only supports a single orchestrator or hypervisor."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a problem, which is the lack of an integrated price structure."
"The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions."
"My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the solution. The solution is expensive."
"The solution is more expensive than a traditional array. The prices are skyrocketing."
"Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."
"The price of the solution was reasonable."
"We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."
"The pricing is dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Computer Software Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Performing Arts
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
There is no specific licensing model for vSAN ReadyNodes as it is linked with Broadcom VMware's solutions rather than Dell's. As a group under Comcast, we receive very good pricing from Dell due to...
What needs improvement with Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
I would want VMware to ensure that when there's a hardware failure on a host, it should gracefully migrate the VMs to another host available in the cluster without restarting, which would be a grea...
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...
 

Also Known As

vSAN Ready Nodes
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rackspace
Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XC Appliance vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.