FlexPod XCS vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance comparison

NetApp and Oracle are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. NetApp is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3, while Oracle is ranked #2 with an average rating of 10.0. NetApp holds a 10.3% mindshare in CI, compared to Oracle’s 14.2% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

FlexPod XCS

Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews

2,096 Views
859 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Read 6 Oracle Private Cloud Appliance reviews

690 Views
656 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

FlexPod XCS

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

FlexPod XCS and Oracle Private Cloud Appliance compete in the private cloud infrastructure category. FlexPod XCS is advantageous with pricing and support satisfaction, while Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is highlighted for its feature set that many find justifies its cost.

Features: FlexPod XCS is notable for scalability, versatile integration, and robust data management systems. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance features powerful automation, streamlined configuration, and comprehensive solution orchestration.

Room for Improvement: FlexPod XCS could enhance its setup process and streamline deployment. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance might benefit from improving initial cost barriers and expanding support for a wider range of integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Oracle Private Cloud Appliance offers a simplified deployment model with efficient customer service, while FlexPod XCS provides a more extensive setup process with responsive support services.

Pricing and ROI: FlexPod XCS ensures competitive setup costs and attractive ROI through cost-effective scaling. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, though higher in initial investment, offers substantial returns by handling demanding workloads, promising long-term savings.

To learn more, read our detailed FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

September 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

FlexPod XCS

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

295

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Ranking in Converged Infrastructure

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 10.3%, up from 9.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is 14.2%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Converged Infrastructure Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Oracle Private Cloud Appliance	14.2%
FlexPod XCS	10.3%
Other	75.5%

Converged Infrastructure

Featured Reviews

John Kevin

Deputy IT Manager at MBBank

Enforces standardized setup procedures following Certified Validated Design (CVD) guidelines and offers greater flexibility and control over the system compared to traditional systems

The GUI setup follows the right setup, meaning we have to follow the CVDi.e. Certified Validated Design. Everything is clear, because you can build CI yourself, but without rules, it can be messy. With FlexPod, there are rules to follow, making it more standardized. This helps with troubleshooting and compatibility assessments, simplifying troubleshooting significantly. We also use FlexPod pre-validated architectures to validate the design. It is very, very important to us because we had a bad case in 2015 where separate items integrated poorly due to no version or firmware compatibility certification. Troubleshooting became a nightmare. So, standards are crucial for us, and everything entering production should be verified or at least documented for certification.

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Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Offers comprehensive support and performance but initial deployment requires expertise

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. It simplifies the management of virtual machines, networking, compute, and storage, allowing me to create multiple virtual machines easily without logging into the storage system. It offers free licensing of Oracle Linux and Solaris, and provides high-performance capabilities through extreme performance storage options. Additionally, the product ensures comprehensive customer support.

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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

"It's less resource-intensive, given that it comes in a package."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is that there is one call for support."

"When you open the box, they give you a very nice diagram. Which was my initial guide through setting up any NetApp SAN. It worked itself out pretty well."

"Validate designs are a good. They work in the background to combine all the infrastructure and storage. They create automation which can create volumes and attach VMs directly to massive CIFS."

"It scales well. It allows us to have very flexible architecture but to have the same level of simplicity that we'd normally expect in hyper-converged environments."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the automation point because it's a lot less staff to have to manage it."

"The overall versatility and validate designs are great. We previously used a different platform, but we gained a lot of utilization with FlexPod."

"It is easy to add-on to the tool. If we need to add a new switch, a new server, or a new chassis for Blades, it is easy. It is not disruptive. You just do it."

More FlexPod XCS pros

"Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is a complete solution that includes built-in hypervisor management and Appliance Manager, and integrates with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure."

"Supports connection to most of network topology, such as VLAN and network segmentation."

"You will find the high availability and License Team with Oracle very valuable."

"The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA."

"It has helped us to reduce Oracle licensing costs for database and applications."

"It is scalable as the box can be increased by one compute node, if required."

Cons

"One of the things that I've wanted would be availability of a health status, similar to Active IQ from my converged platform, on an app. I have dashboards so I can see the health of the system when I'm in the office, but when I'm not in the office I can't."

"I would like to see more orchestration tools in FlexPod because we virtually end up with integrating the v-orchestration tool within FlexPod. I would like to see something like that included within FlexPod."

"I think it is sufficient for now, but in the next generation, I'd just like to see bigger, faster, and better."

"I have noticed a lot of customers, they will kick it over the fence. It is FlexPod; it is that mystery animal. The room for improvement is to better present it to those users, so they will not have to be afraid of it."

"On the UCS side, sometimes it is difficult to set up."

"I would be interested to see more integration with other applications."

"It would be helpful if they sold a pre-boxed option so that you can buy a rack and everything's already there, everything's connected."

"As the technology grows, we're looking to upgrade our storage systems to something faster, and we're hoping to improve our servers with next-generation technology. So we want to enhance our server infrastructure and explore server virtualization with VMware. That's the improvement that our clients are demanding."

More FlexPod XCS cons

"Patching processing takes a long time. Only one compute node is patched at a time."

"In comparison to competitors like VMware, there's a perceived need for Oracle to enhance OVM, making it more flexible and user-friendly."

"The initial setup was very complex."

"OVM Manager Interface is using HTML5. It should be reconverted to be a Java interface."

"The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We definitely saw a lot of operational cost savings using FlexPod. As far as capital outlay goes, that was a little bit too much for us to swallow and we weren't able to recognize enough savings in that area to afford it."

"Buy storage based on the solutions you need, the technologies you need, and what will make your life a lot easier down the road."

"It seems very cost effective once it's in place, and it's easy to expand and easy to add capacity without a lot of extra money."

"It is not cheap, but there is a return on investment in time saved and efficiency."

"We purchased the solution through CDW. They are a partner and knowledgeable."

"The product is kind of expensive even from an entry-level standpoint. I would say FlexPod would be the way to go if you are a larger business or one with large data volume."

"FlexPod has saved data center costs, due to the fact that we reduced our footprint for storage in a big way. We went from three complete racks down to a 2U storage array for more than 300 terabytes of storage."

"The footprint in the data center is quite large, especially when you scale out. Maybe find some hardware in the future, where if a new blade comes out, then Cisco can say, "Look, we'll buy those blades back off you, and we'll give you this blade for X amount of money." A buyback scheme would be good for hardware, and even NetApp as well. Something like a buyback scheme for blades and stuff moving forward would be good, because I know that they're going to put more power into them. E.g., replacing four blades might equal one blade, which would be awesome, but we are still going to have those four blades around. Maybe having something where it will give you this much money for these blades so we can upgrade. That would be perfect."

More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice

"It is more expensive than the normal solution or the hyper-converged system."

"It is relatively cost-effective."

"No licenses for the shipped software or firmware."

"If you have many Oracle products, such as databases, middleware, and apps, it will help you reduce Oracle app licences and support costs."

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Comparison Review

it_user244362

Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees

Aug 30, 2015

Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod

Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

22%

Educational Organization

11%

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

23%

Government

17%

Comms Service Provider

10%

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	66
Large Enterprise	182

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FlexPod?

The system is designed for easy scaling. Because we define everything clearly. So when we plug the system in, we apply the profile, and it scales easily.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FlexPod?

The pricing is not cheaper, but stability is more important for us now. We focus on business gains, not static numbers. Following XCS rules ensures a stable environment, which is crucial. For me, C...

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What needs improvement with FlexPod?

FlexPod should focus more on automation. Integrating an automation tool with FlexPod would enable customers to leverage automation capabilities. More automation would be helpful. Currently, we cont...

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What do you like most about Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?

The most valuable features include distinct storage within the Oracle PCA.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?

The deployment process of Oracle Private Cloud Appliance is complicated and requires significant knowledge for initial configuration. Streamlining and simplifying the deployment process would make ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance?

I use Oracle Private Cloud Appliance ( /products/oracle-private-cloud-appliance-reviews ) as a complete solution for hypervisor management. It includes a built-in hypervisor, Appliance Manager, and...

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Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

HPE ConvergedSystem vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 11% of the time

VxRail vs FlexPod XCS

Compared 10% of the time

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HPE ConvergedSystem vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Compared 24% of the time

Dell VxBlock System vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Compared 22% of the time

Rackspace OpenStack vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Compared 18% of the time

Oracle SuperCluster vs Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Compared 18% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS

September 2025

Download FlexPod XCS product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

September 2025

Download Oracle Private Cloud Appliance product report

Overview

FlexPod XCS is the secure platform your applications need from edge to cloud. Easily manage your suite of cloud-native, edge, and enterprise apps. Integrate advanced cloud services without compromising performance, security, reliability, or scale.

NetApp

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance, is an integrated infrastructure system engineered to enable rapid deployment of converged compute, network, and storage technologies for hosting applications or workloads on a guest OS. It is a data center-class system that provides incremental and scalable performance optimized for consolidation of mixed workloads.

Oracle

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group

Agnitum Information Technologies, Mediacloud, Xait AS, Atos Global Managed Services, CaixaBI, ICA AB, BT Spain, Secure-24, Xait

Buyer's Guide

FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

September 2025

Free Report: FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance

Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. Oracle Private Cloud Appliance and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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