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Dell XC Appliance vs HPE SimpliVity 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 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
HPE SimpliVity
Ranking in HCI
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
155
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Dell XC Appliance is 1.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of HPE SimpliVity is 6.1%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
HPE SimpliVity6.1%
Dell XC Appliance1.7%
Other92.2%
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Mohammed Lokman Hossen - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager, Enterprise Technology Services at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Has integrated solutions and rapid recovery made management smoother and more reliable
There is the latest update from HPE regarding HPE SimpliVity. For virtualization, HPE has to depend on other manufacturers, OEMs such as VMware or Hyper-V. Recently, HPE declared the VM essential virtualization solution. In the future, if HPE integrates HPE SimpliVity with VM essential, that will be a great combination. Functionality-wise, I am totally satisfied with HPE SimpliVity, but for improvement, if HPE integrates its own virtualization solution, this combination and integration will be beneficial because this integration can be configured with the cloud-based system. A VM can be uploaded to the cloud from this, which will be advantageous for backup to other sites.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's an extremely stable solution, and I highly recommend it."
"The solution's best feature is its simplicity."
"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."
"Overall, the Dell XC Appliance is a very good product."
"The most valuable features are the deduplication and the compression features."
"The most valuable feature is the low management overhead, and the lower skill set required to manage it."
"When we compare it to normal hardware servers, I'd say it is quite easy to configure and deploy."
"The built-in backup and quick restore are good features."
"It makes it easy for our customers to manage all virtual machines and different workloads and be agile."
"The whole backup and recovery capability, where we are able to create full backups and restore full backups in typically 40 to 50 seconds with a data reduction ratio of 290:1, has been a great feature."
"HCI has indeed reduced the complexities of our server environment, and my systems architect/engineer now has more time to work on other pressing projects and investigate new technologies, which he was able to acquire and implement."
"Operational efficiency is definitely one of the biggest benefits, as they could get rid of all those man hours worrying about babysitting their SAN and their servers and the network and take those hours and put them back into real value for the business working on issues with the applications, not the SAN and the infrastructure."
"In terms of HPE SimpliVity's most valuable features, its backup integration is a good thing. Its performance is very good as is the whole integration."
"No SAN switches and having a native backup is pretty cool."
"Its performance is quite good, and it is also easy to use. One of the biggest benefits is the included backup solution."
 

Cons

"The cost of using the public cloud deployment is astronomical."
"The solution's storage size could be improved."
"We are not always advised of new features or updates, so we must research to stay up to date."
"There should be more provisioning capabilities within the solution."
"In the next release, I would like to see support for Docker and containers."
"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."
"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in the operations area because the support for that server space is minimal."
"The product is expensive."
"HPE could give us more options for server models to chose when using the product. Right now, we can only use the DL380."
"Overall, the biggest issue I have is regarding the price."
"We're getting ready to replace it with something because SimpliVity has completely stopped supporting their solution on Cisco hardware."
"When we make some upgrades to the platform, it does take time to stabilize the structure again."
"We know that a small set of workloads are not suitable to run OK on the SimpliVity platform. Large database servers could be a problem running on the platform."
"​I have some worries about the support after the acquisition. ​The support was better before HPE acquired SimpliVity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We received a good price from Dell."
"The pricing is good."
"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 dependent on the technology and is in direct relation to the manufacturer and the components."
"The pricing for Dell EMC solutions is quite expensive and not really made for small or medium-sized businesses."
"The product is expensive."
"We bought this solution as a package that included all of the hardware and all of the software."
"We did get some quotes from Nutanix, and they were ballparks. So, it is not cheap, and there is nothing free, but those two were comparable."
"It is expensive for this market. Everyone says that it is a very good product, but the only complaint is about the price."
"Customers always complain that SimpliVity is a little bit higher in price point as compared to other solutions available in the market."
"One big advantage with SimpliVity is that you don't need the higher license cost or VMware to put together a simple SimpliVity solution."
"There are additional costs for storage."
"The pricing of HPE SimpliVity is comparable with other solutions so the price is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business67
Midsize Enterprise49
Large Enterprise80
 

Questions from the Community

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...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We researched VMware vSAN but found HPE was a better option for us. HPE SimpliVity has ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE SimpliVity?
Standalone HPE SimpliVity is more expensive than other OEMs and solutions. Regarding the software side, VMware is costing significantly more nowadays compared to other solutions in the market. The ...
What needs improvement with HPE SimpliVity?
I haven't noticed anything that should be better in HPE SimpliVity, as I haven't done extensive work on this platform; I have only completed a couple of projects recently. Pricing could be an area ...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SimpliVity, HPE HCI
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cardlytics, AEW Energie, Aubert, Zhongtong Information Service, Commune de Villepinte, Teikyo University Hospital
Red Bull Racing, Mandarin Oriental, Brigham Young University, UCLA, Merlin Entertainments, Sasa Cosmetics, Travelport, St. John’s Riverside Hospital, Princess House
Find out what your peers are saying about Dell XC Appliance vs. HPE SimpliVity and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.