Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Reviews

The current customer for this solution is a service provider currently using private cloud and hoping to become a public cloud provider later on. vSAN starts its customers with private cloud to give them a taste of the technology. Later on they move to implementing public cloud. I'm a pre-sales consultant and we're a partner of Dell. 

ReadyNodes is a valuable feature. I'm happy with the fact that you don't have to worry about the footprint in the data center. It takes a very small footprint when compared to other traditional solutions, like the other storage server network solutions. I like the configuration and support, you get one vendor who supports everything; for the software and the hardware, which is excellent because you don't have to worry about multi-vendors where everyone blames the other if something goes wrong. 

I think the upgrades could be improved. If you compare it to other HCI solutions, like VxRail, the upgrade process is fully automated whereas on vSAM ReadyNodes it's a bit complicated and we have to do it manually. Finding some way to automate this process to make it a smarter, more perfect solution would be an improvement, it would make the solution more flexible, easier to administer, and would make my life easier.

I've been using this solution for two years. 

This is a stable solution. 

Scalability requires adding additional nodes but it's not a problem. 

Technical support is pretty good. 

We previously used the old traditional type of file storage and we switched because there was almost no difference in cost but we got a product with much better features. With this product you get consolidated sales and distribution, so you don't have to worry about multi-vendors. You can open one ticket and you'll get your issue resolved. It's not vendor specific.

Everybody's moving towards this. Everybody is dumping the old infrastructure uploads and moving towards renewal solutions, because it's the basic structure for cloud in the future, for anyone planning to become a cloud provider or build a private cloud.

The initial setup was not particularly straightforward but it wasn't too complex either. It was definitely more complex than other HCI appliances like VxRail. I've implemented both and VxRail is simpler for implementation. It took about a week for the solution to become operational. It depends, of course, on the cluster size. I have two sites with nine nodes per site. Implementation took a week at each site. Most of the maintenance is from the vendor's side. It's only very rarely that I have to interfere directly. We have five administrators working with the solution.

There are two costs that you have to consider before you can compare and you'll find that the HCI is cheaper overall. In a five-year duration, it is cheaper. But when you compare license to license, it is much more expensive but when you think of it, you need to think of the total cost of ownership and your ROI. 

I would suggest that if you don't have the hands-on experience to administer a solution like vSAN ReadyNode then you should consider other options. For example, VxRail is a bit more expensive, but if you don't have the basic knowledge required for vSan then VxRail is an internet solution that provides a much easier interface to manage and to administer.

I would rate this solution a seven out of 10. 

Our customers use this solution for virtualization. It's suited to small and medium sized organizations. We have a partnership with Dell and I'm a senior technical consultant. 

I'm currently doing an installation that is useful for DR and other things.

The main weakness we have with this solution relates to storage expansion. It's not sufficiently scalable in the sense that if we need to scale this product, we need to scale up everything. I'd like to see the single-click feature in the next upgrade.

We've been using this solution for close to five years. 

The solution is stable. 

We have problems with scalability.

The technical support is good. 

Positive

We previously used VxRail but vSan is better although very similar to VxRail.  What VxRail does have is additional software management that is easy to upgrade.

The deployment takes a couple of hours and is relatively straightforward. 

I'm not involved in licensing but I believe the cost is reasonable.

It's important to follow best practices so that the solution is stable. I rate this solution eight out of 10.

We use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes in different types of workloads.

I have found the most important features of Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are the capacity to manage the storage because the storage is built in the servers. The type of profiles you can attribute to the storage is a benefit. You can manage the storage by profiles. Overall the solution is a good speed and performance.

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.

I have been using Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes for approximately five years.

Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is a stable solution.

You can scale Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes vertically and horizontally. You can add assessing units and storage to one server, and add another server that can contribute to the whole group.

We have approximately five clients using this solution.

I have contacted the support from Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes because we have new devices or new hardware that can come with new features. Sometimes we have to consult the manufacturer in order to receive the best drivers or the best software.

I previously used VxRail and I switched to Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes because of the ease of maintenance. It's very easy to maintain because it has a layer that can automate all the things you need to. For example, in a normal solution, you have to shut down one host, upgrade that host, then bring that up again, shut down the other one, and upgrade that one. When this is done with Dell EMC VxRail, it is automatic.

The initial setup is easy. VMware has a straightforward deployment of any hyper-converged infrastructure. The full deployment of 10 Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes takes approximately one day.

I can do the implementation myself. However, only infrastructure workers can do this kind of deployment. For example, an insurance company a Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes, I don't believe their IT managers or IT people can do this as quickly or as well as we do, because we are used to doing it.

We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes.

The price of Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes could be better, it is a little expensive.

I would recommend Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes for any kind of workload but not something that has large amounts of data. Any kind of solution you need the performance. For example, private clouds are built of hyper-converged systems.

I rate Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes a nine out of ten.

I have been using the product for a couple of years. 

The tool's most valuable features are compression and its usage in Kubernetes. 

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes doesn't perform as well as IBM. There are significant limitations, especially with scalability and flexibility over time. For example, adding drives can be problematic if the specific drives aren't available with older nodes that are four or five years old. Unlike IBM, Dell vSAN Ready Nodes isn't as flexible and doesn't scale easily. Additionally, while present, features like deduplication and compression don't perform as efficiently as they do on IBM. Our experience shows that the tool isn't as robust or flexible as advertised.

The solution can easily scale up if all the necessary equipment is available. Until that point, it's ready. But when it comes to scaling, we have to buy a completely new server if we need additional storage. Then, we import this new server, requiring additional licenses. Sometimes, we don't need more RAM and CPU power, just more disk space. If we want to upgrade the existing servers with more drives, we have to add additional disk groups, which means buying a bunch of disks.

We did contact technical support at one point. Their support didn't meet our expectations. To put it shortly, we expected more. We faced issues with the recent version, and despite having tickets and everything configured correctly on our end, we were told by a developer from the team that the problem lay with duplication settings that needed to be turned off, which was not straightforward to do. The support person who advised us this wasn't authorized to make such statements, and afterward, they weren't allowed to join our meeting.

Neutral

The tool's deployment is easy. If the resources are skilled enough to handle data center work and installations. For example, experienced people can complete a ten-node cluster in a day. However, for a single cluster, ensuring the network and everything else is functioning correctly is important.

The solution is more expensive than a traditional array. The prices are skyrocketing. 

I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.