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FlexPod XCS vs Rackspace OpenStack comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 2, 2025

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
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
295
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Rackspace OpenStack
Ranking in Converged Infrastructure
7th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Converged Infrastructure category, the mindshare of FlexPod XCS is 12.8%, up from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rackspace OpenStack is 7.0%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Converged Infrastructure Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
FlexPod XCS12.8%
Rackspace OpenStack7.0%
Other80.2%
Converged Infrastructure
 

Featured Reviews

John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
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.
Bilal Inamdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Linux Administrator at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Flexible virtual infrastructure has supported complex KVM workloads and accelerated SAP-ready hosting
For Rackspace OpenStack security features, we currently opted for ShapeBlue one, which will be installing CloudStack. ShapeBlue is helping us in training. So, we are moving away from Rackspace OpenStack to CloudStack because CloudStack has most of the features that we require, and it is also lightweight. Rackspace OpenStack does not provide that thing. The product has all the things included, you can say like that. But the thing is, if you are a company, if you are a hosting company, you will require at least three to four people with higher expertise to install and get going with Rackspace OpenStack. It is very hard; you have to understand bits and many things about it, how it works. It is not something you just tinker around with. The second thing is we are moving to CloudStack because it comes as just a single package that I can install in a VM and I am done with it. I just need to configure it the first time, and everything, the experience out-of-the-box is very good with CloudStack. But Rackspace OpenStack is very assembled parts, you can say. Would you prefer an assembled PC or would you prefer an HP-provided PC, a branded PC? It depends on you. The main thing about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is totally built on many modules. It is approximately 30 to 40 modules, you can say. You have to learn and understand that, which there is a very steep learning curve. If I am not wrong, there is a very steep learning curve. There is not one way to install Rackspace OpenStack; there are several ways, approximately three to four ways. But it depends on who deployed it. Suppose a person deployed it in a different style; after one or two years, he got changed, and another person comes. He does not know about that style, then it will be very hard to navigate. Currently, Kolla-ansible, which we have, is very hard to navigate for me. Although it is very easy to install, it is very hard to operate because it works on Docker. So, there are too many moving parts. If you say to me, there are too many moving parts, and the visibility is low on that. It is very hard to have any issue with it. It is a very stable product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Since going to all Flash, employees are much happier working remotely in our VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure)."
"Delivery speed and integration speeds have increased. The solution has enabled us to run mission-critical workloads. Our SQL cluster is on there, which is high IOPS. All-in-one solution is great for when you don't have a lot of staff, with multiple disciplines."
"Manual deployments of SAP workloads can take months, but with this automation that we have now, we can deploy within weeks or even hours in some cases."
"The usability and the functionality of the solution as it integrates with the UCS system and Cisco devices makes it absolutely great for our environment."
"The most valuable thing for me as a partner, as well as our customers, is the shorter time to market."
"The FlexPod solution increased back-end productivity and streamlined our IT admin."
"For FlexPod, it is always trustworthy. I had previously never seen flex machines from other brands or associated with other products. FlexPod is a large investment and they are good enough to support it."
"The solution is innovative when it comes to compute storage and networking. Each environment has knowledge of another in a FlexPod environment. This would be difficult to operate separately."
"I like its integration with GitLab and its simplicity. OpenStack has a lot of third-party libraries that it uses."
"The most useful opinion about Rackspace OpenStack is that it is very flexible, first of all, and the most important feature is that it is feature-rich."
"Rackspace OpenStack is stable and reliable, often compared favorably against other solutions."
"The most valuable feature is the customization, and with the customization you can really give the customers what they want."
"OpenStack allowed for mass uploading of images to Akamai cloud services."
"It was a very flexible and scalable solution. It was very useful because we were not dependent on a single vendor's solution. Increasing the number of machines or changing the hardware configuration was very easy."
"There are many services that can be directly used which are not available in VMware."
"The most valuable feature is the customization. With the customization you can really give the customers what they want."
 

Cons

"I would like to see a single upgrade download, so you could download an upgrade that would upgrade the NetApps that would have all the parts."
"Mainly, the interface needs improvement. I'm not a big fan of UCS Manager, sometimes. I believe they released the new one, and it seems like in every version something changes and something else doesn't work. When they switched to HTML5, I believe we had issues in version 3.2. They fixed it in the next version. The amount of work to upgrade a system for change control is tedious to have issues every time. I would recommend more regression testing, then testing the different browsers in that."
"The service catalogue and gallery. I find it difficult to go through documentation, and I would like to see user cases we can refer to."
"They could improve their technical support team. They need to have a specific phone number for you to call in for the FlexPod solution."
"If you have expertise setting up such environments, then you are good, but for customers or novices, it becomes a nightmare and stuff may actually be left out."
"Because when you try to do automation, there are many bits and pieces tied together. Sometimes, automation gets a little tricky for provisioning."
"Frontline support was atrocious, but once you bludgeon them properly, you get through to somebody who knows what they're doing, and it's very quick, easy, and clean."
"Not a ten because it could always be cheaper, it could always be faster."
"As a beginner, I find some difficulties in understanding Rackspace OpenStack, as it can be complex without a foundational grasp of cloud and networking concepts."
"It could use more examples in different languages (API use cases)."
"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."
"The line migration is a problem."
"It should have a single dashboard for cloud management and on-premises systems"
"In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say the support. Rackspace might have some good support but the open source OpenStack doesn't have support because there are too many versions coming and too many people are customizing it."
"So for the main stability, there have been a couple of issues that I've experienced."
"The pricing of Rackspace is quite high in the Vietnam market."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not going to save you money, but that is not the point. The opportunity to stay competitive in the marketplace is not a cost."
"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."
"The investment has been great. We put our money into it and it has given us something that we have been able to rely on for years."
"Make sure that you engage as much with whom you are buying from as a partnership, not just as a purchase."
"Buy storage based on the solutions you need, the technologies you need, and what will make your life a lot easier down the road."
"We have saved time with Snapshots, SnapMirrors, and backup and DR capabilities versus other platforms that we have looked at in the past."
"We immediately saw a return on investment due to the fact that replacing our legacy storage arrays with the new AFFs reduced the footprint and maintenance costs. Overall, we saw an almost immediate ROI."
"Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."
"The pricing is low."
"I use it as an open-source tool."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Marketing Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise66
Large Enterprise182
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Rackspace OpenStack?
As a beginner, I find some difficulties in understanding Rackspace OpenStack, as it can be complex without a foundational grasp of cloud and networking concepts. To improve, I suggest providing pro...
What is your primary use case for Rackspace OpenStack?
My main use case for Rackspace OpenStack involves large data management, as it provides a reliable database service. A quick specific example of a task where Rackspace OpenStack helps me is in hand...
What advice do you have for others considering Rackspace OpenStack?
I advise others looking into using Rackspace OpenStack to have a solid understanding of cloud concepts, as managing these aspects in Rackspace OpenStack requires a good knowledge foundation. I have...
 

Also Known As

No data available
OpenStack
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
X.commerce
Find out what your peers are saying about FlexPod XCS vs. Rackspace OpenStack and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.