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FlexPod XCS vs Vblock [EOL] comparison

NetApp and Dell Technologies are both solutions in the Converged Infrastructure category. Additionally, 96% of NetApp users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Dell Technologies users who would recommend it.
FlexPod XCS
Read 295 FlexPod XCS reviews
  • 1,666 Views
  • 583 Comparison Views
96% willing to recommend
Vblock [EOL]
Read 24 Vblock [EOL] reviews
    84% willing to recommend
     

    Comparison Buyer's Guide

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    Executive Summary
    We performed a comparison between FlexPod XCS and Vblock [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle and others in Converged Infrastructure.

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    Buyer's Guide
    Converged Infrastructure
    July 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
    Average Rating
    8.6
    Reviews Sentiment
    7.1
    Number of Reviews
    295
    Ranking in other categories
    Converged Infrastructure (5th)
    Vblock [EOL]
    Average Rating
    8.0
    Number of Reviews
    24
    Ranking in other categories
    No ranking in other categories
     

    Featured Reviews

    John Kevin - PeerSpot reviewer
    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.
    Read full review
    TS
    Centrally-managed and stable, but the initial setup could be made simpler and technical support can be improved
    There is a different platform and there are different interfaces for different parts of the product. Although there are some centralized components, you still manage each component using its own set of tools. There is definitely room for improvement in this regard. I would like to have a catalogue like menu where you simply define your end computing needs and the rest would be taken care of internally. The initial setup could be unified to make it simpler.
    Read full review

    Quotes from Members

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

    Pros

    "It runs very well lights out. Set it and forget it."
    "It provides ease of automation."
    "The solution can be innovative when it comes to cloud computing storage and networking."
    "From the integration standpoint, it is a lot easier to integrate than a lot of people initially felt. Being able to leverage either block or file capabilities of the storage is something that has been beneficial."
    "Not a perfect ten because it could use better integration on the network side between UCS and the switching layerKnowing that everything works, having a single place to be able to find out compatibility and things like that are the biggest benefits of this solution. The fact that LACP is not supported on UCS blades isn't so great. It would be nice if it was."
    "It simplifies infrastructure from edge to port to cloud. It proves that deployment is easy and straightforward. There isn't any need to do extra work."
    "The most valuable feature of this solution is the stability."
    "The advantage is being able to consolidate everything into a relatively small chassis."
    More FlexPod XCS pros
    "Some of the key features are the ease of operation and access, without constraining actions. The tool is available to actually move things around, do things quickly quickly."
    "Capability for scale and growth within a single rack brings strong possibilities for capacity planning."
    "The high redundancy of components has minimized frequent service degradation/failure."
    "​We have seen measurable increases in our system performance. Those increases have been directly measurable in application performance and the delivery of critical business information to our users.​"
    "It's an integrated box Mac solution, so it's a plug and play. The deployment and build is pre-made and ready to deploy. It makes it easy to apply."
    "Access to VMs is now faster due to the centralized management console."
    "UCS Manager worked well for net/blade management and has allowed fairly easy use of dedicated bare-metal blades."
    "Systems run solidly."
    More Vblock [EOL] pros
     

    Cons

    "As we do much of the Tier-I support ourselves, and thus don't normally need it, there is time wasted in moving up to the next level."
    "Something that we struggle with because we're a relatively small scale organization and the administrative effort is spread across so many different pieces of infrastructure, it would be nice to have a set of tools that enables us to get a little bit more information out of our system."
    "Sometimes, when the newer versions of any of the partners’ firmware or software come out, there's still sometimes a lag of the partners to support all of those new components."
    "There are too many drivers and software combined all together, and we need to have compatibility between all of them."
    "There are times where we have had issues with technical support."
    "One touch upgrades would be nice."
    "The last two calls that I have made to NetApp support have been handled too casually. People are too lax, not quite as professional as I would have liked."
    "We use technical support from time to time. Most of the time if we really need assistance we end up having to get above the tier one support. We're able to do a lot of the tier one troubleshooting on our own."
    More FlexPod XCS cons
    "I would like to see them improve their switching infrastructure and rely on Cisco configurations. They are a bit more complex and technical, but result in a slightly reduced cost in terms of switching on the network side of it."
    "In the next release, I would like to see a smaller footprint in the data center and have improvements to disk performance."
    "With respect to the technical support, there is room for improvement."
    "RCM upgrades are painful."
    "The implementation and support could be better."
    "VCE tools, like Vision or AMP were not stand alone, and depended too much on other management consoles."
    "RCM upgrades were not scripted, and you needed to roll on your own. We were led to believe this would be otherwise."
    "While most public clouds are deployed on Linux, there is current no certified Vblock working on KVM hypervisors."
    More Vblock [EOL] cons
     

    Pricing and Cost Advice

    "We purchased from CDW•G. They are great partners on the government side."
    "We pay approximately $1,400 USD in total for between five-thousand and ten-thousand ports."
    "It is expensive. My company is small. When you look at the price point, this is a big thing for us to invest in."
    "Pricing is always tough. We need to get to a point where the customer's happy. Then, as partners, we are also happy."
    "The total cost of ownership with this solution is good."
    "We have saved time with Snapshots, SnapMirrors, and backup and DR capabilities versus other platforms that we have looked at in the past."
    "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."
    "Because the solution is now stable, we are saving about $100 million USD a year."
    More FlexPod XCS pricing and cost advice
    "I would not say the pricing is not good value. It is still on the expensive side, near the top-end of cost compared to what's available now. Also, the licensing has to be improved. There has to be a clear definition of the licensing from the initial set-up so the customer knows what they are paying for, without being hit later on with extra licensing. The licensing definitions should be clearer and, perhaps, have one set of licenses rather than multiple licenses."
    "I think the pricing is on the higher end of the spectrum. There could be some adjustments that could be made there. Regarding licensing, watch compatibility with external products that you run on Vblock. It has got to be properly architected, otherwise, you will run into licensing issues."
    "Strive for a consolidated ELA."
    "Vblock is priced at a premium because people don't want the headache of managing and deploying different products."
    "Vblock appears from the first while to be very expensive. There are more items you cannot see in the BOQ: customer service, support, delivery short time, and highly experienced VCE engineers."
    "The paid support for Vblock is expensive."
    "It is not cheap."
    "Related to tech support: I believe it is too expensive."
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    Comparison Review

    it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
    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…
    Read full review
     

    Top Industries

    By visitors reading reviews
    Manufacturing Company
    20%
    Educational Organization
    13%
    Financial Services Firm
    9%
    Computer Software Company
    8%
    No data available
     

    Company Size

    By reviewers
    Large Enterprise
    Midsize Enterprise
    Small Business
     

    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.
    See all answers
    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...
    See all answers
    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...
    See all answers
    Ask a question
    Earn 20 points
     

    Comparisons

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    Compared 17% of the time
    Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS Logo
    Dell PowerEdge VRTX vs FlexPod XCS
    Compared 15% of the time
    HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS Logo
    HPE Hyper Converged vs FlexPod XCS
    Compared 15% of the time
    VMware vSAN vs FlexPod XCS Logo
    VMware vSAN vs FlexPod XCS
    Compared 10% of the time
    More FlexPod XCS Competitors
    Dell VxBlock System vs Vblock [EOL] Logo
    Dell VxBlock System vs Vblock [EOL]
    Compared 100% of the time
    More Vblock [EOL] Competitors
     

    Product Reports

    Buyer's Guide
    FlexPod XCS
    July 2025
    FlexPod XCS reportDownload FlexPod XCS product report
    Buyer's Guide
    Vblock [EOL]
    June 2025
    Vblock [EOL] reportDownload Vblock [EOL] product report
     

    Also Known As

    No data available
    VCE Vblock
     

    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

    VCE Vblock Systems is an all-in-one virtualization platform that integrates the leading storage, network, and compute technologies from the likes of EMC, VMware and Cisco. VCE Vblock allows organizations to easily and securely deploy cloud computing and virtualization in their environments, supporting these multiple technologies and providing flexibility and agility for changing business needs.

    Dell Technologies
     

    Sample Customers

    University of Sao Paulo, WD-40, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
    Xerox, ACS, and Columbia Sportswear.
    Buyer's Guide
    Converged Infrastructure
    July 2025
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