Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series HDD Pack, 1x800GB SAS, 1x240GB SATA, 6x1.2TB SAS
Mfg # HX-ENCR-01
CDW # 5267999
Know your gear
Get a flexible storage solution for your server machine with the Cisco Hard Drive Pack. This hard drive pack is compatible with the Cisco HyperFlex HX220c M5 node.
Enhance your purchase
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series HDD Pack, 1x800GB SAS, 1x240GB SATA, 6x1.2TB SAS is rated
4.10 out of
5 by
31.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Pnj3428 from
A complete hyper-converged solution for on-premises deployments, but its price can be better
What is our primary use case?
We have a remote site. We are developing this site so that we can locally access the VMware environment with the least network bandwidth. We have deployed the ESXi host virtual edition.
What is most valuable?
It is a complete package. For any kind of on-premises hyper-converged solution, we usually have to separate networks, but Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a complete solution. It has its own network and storage. The storage part is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
Its price could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for the last one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. There are no issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not contacted them regarding Cisco HyperFlex because the setup was straightforward. We have a team in the USA, and they were mostly dealing with any kind of sales-related queries, but for technical support, we have not encountered any problem to engage them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. The deployment took around two hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is rather fair when compared with other solutions like VxRail, vSAN, and HPE SimpliVity. We got a fair amount of discount from Cisco for Cisco HyperFlex.
It is cost-effective. We have renewed storage till next year, and we have already paid the vendor. When we talk about HyperFlex or any HCI solution, storage is the part where we can reduce a lot of costs. At the current moment, we are already using NetApp storage, which did not allow us to go for a full Cisco HyperFlex setup. We are planning to go to a larger scale next year. Then we will be able to see how cost-effective it really is for us.
What other advice do I have?
I would encourage people to go with this solution. I would rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a seven out of ten because we have not tested all the features so far.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-11-19T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
BhaveshParmar from
High performance, scalable, but repeated error not resolved
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is its performance.
What needs improvement?
I have been receiving a memory overflow message every day when I use the solution.
This memory overflow error is a cosmetic error. Over the last three years, I have been talking with Cisco to remove this error. Cisco and VMware should cross-check and troubleshoot this issue to come to a solution. They should remove it as soon as possible.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. However, we have had a memory overflow error, that has not to be resolved but it is only a cosmetic error.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series has been very good for what we are using it for in the current project.
We have approximately 400 users using this solution.
We do not plan to increase usage at least for the next six months.
How are customer service and support?
We have not had a good experience with the support. They were not very helpful with the cosmetic error we were receiving.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions previously, such as Nutanix. I find that Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is better than Nutanix. Cisco products have better performance overall.
How was the initial setup?
I did not face any problems in the implementation.
What about the implementation team?
We had a partner do the implementation of the solution. I was not happy with the partner because they have not resolved the error message we have been receiving from Cisco after months of conversations.
The partner support could improve.
All of our maintenance is handled by our partner.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a license required to use this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a seven out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
AthumanJuma from
Good value for money with full Cisco integration
What is our primary use case?
I use HyperFlex for high-performance infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is full integration with Cisco API and UCS, which means you can have complete networking and storage from Cisco.
What needs improvement?
HyperFlex could be improved by reducing the minimum number of nodes supported from three to two. In the next release, Cisco should include full integration with other virtualization vendors like Nutanix, the same way they do with VMware.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using HyperFlex for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
HyperFlex is very stable because it has complete solutions for networking and computing from Cisco.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
HyperFlex is very scalable because you can scale up by increasing the number of nodes and scale out by increasing the number of discs in the storage.
How are customer service and support?
Most of Cisco's products come with warrants and SmartNet, so if you have an issue, the customer interface allows you to rate it, and the technical team will respond based on the critical level.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The setup is very easy, I'd rate it five out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
HyperFlex is relatively expensive, but you get good value for money.
What other advice do I have?
I would give HyperFlex a rating of nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2022-05-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1205361 from
User-friendly, simple installation and configuration
What is most valuable?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is simple to use, user-friendly and has been best for our purposes.
What needs improvement?
The solution could improve by having more customization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series within the past 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have found Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series to be reliable and stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is good.
How are customer service and support?
The support of the solution is good, we have not had a problem.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation and configuration of the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series were easy.
The full deployment took approximately three months.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation with the help of a partner.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution could be reduced, it is a little expensive.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is you must have the project very well defined, or you will get in trouble.
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a ten out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-17T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1227132 from
Great integration with backup software
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is for backup virtualization, active directory servers, and backup file servers. We are integrators of HyperFlex.
What is most valuable?
I like the integration with backup software.
What needs improvement?
We had some issues with deployment, specifically with Intersight and deploying HyperFlex on-prem. It was difficult to figure that out with support so we spent a lot of time with them in order to get the solution deployed. That would be the main area where I'd like to see improvement. For a future release, I'd like to see the Containers Platform added to the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used this solution for the past two years.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service is good but it can take time to resolve any issues.
What other advice do I have?
For anyone trying to implement HyperFlex, I'd suggest using Intersight to perform the initial deployment of HyperFlex.
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-27T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1224180 from
Achieve the highest level of availability across data centers
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for stretched cluster uses when the customer has multiple data centers and he won't achieve the highest level of availability. He can stretch the workload between different data centers giving him more availability when one of these data centers fails and the workload can be migrated and replicated to the other data centers. From an infrastructure level you achieve the highest availability. I am talking about 100% availability from a storage perspective.
What is most valuable?
We are providing this solution for the customer or converting the customer from a traditional environment to a hyper-converged environment which consolidates all management and support on a single port. This is the main benefit of using the hyper-converged versus the traditional.
The stretching cluster features have the highest delivery of availability from a storage perspective. You gain all the features related to or coming from virtualization because it is based on a virtualized environment. We already implemented VMware over hyper-convergence. We took all the features coming from the virtualized or VMware environment, such as high availability, DRS and sanity rules and we can segregate the workload between two data centers using rules to maintain the workload even if one of data centers fails.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what could be improved, Cisco HyperFlex should decrease the amount of memory needed from the Controller VM that controls the physical discs. They control the discs by using the virtual VM over every ESXi host and the VM consumes memory and consumes more hardware resources. They have to improve that by decreasing the amount of required memory and CPUs to control this disc on the server.
From a technology perspective there is no problem. The main issue is cost-wise. Cisco costs more than its competitors.
As for what I would like to see in the next release, Cisco already has a solution, but in a different profile called the CWOM, Cisco Workload Optimization Manager, and Cisco Intersight. This solution manages and optimizes workloads on the infrastructure and integrates them with the monitoring solution and gives insights and recommendations for the customers. I think it is included on solutions such as the VxRail which has the vROps, vRealize Operations Manager. Cisco did not include this on this solution, but in a separate solution. They have to have a logs server to collect all logs and give insights from all hardware. This is included in the Cisco Intersight but it is not included in the hyper-converged infrastructure solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for six years.
I am running it now on an implementation project for hyper-converged with a HyperFlex stretched cluster. A solution from hyper-converged, but not such a standard implementation - it is stretched between different sites.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No problem with stability. I have a customer and I have not spoken to him since the last upgrade one year ago. He didn't face any problem.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is scalable.
I think you need one or two people maximum to operate it. They must have different technology experience from different perspectives because they deal with the virtual storage and the servers, but its concept is coming from computing and virtualization. Someone should have the knowledge of all the verticals.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco support is great. But when we ask about something, they reply with the standard schema, which makes me confused. Let's say I have a problem with a customer who has a problem in their Dell or Cisco servers and I open a ticket for it. Support replies please check, check, check, check. I know! I checked all this already. I know I have to check this before calling you. This takes time. We have to go directly to our customer and try to solve the problem. Maybe sometimes our customer is solving the problem. I don't like to give them advice that is only go and check one, two, three.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. The advanced solution was straightforward from an implementation perspective.
There was no problem with implementation. It has improved since past versions which had many errors and many bugs.
If our pre-requisites are ready, deployment and implementation take two days maximum.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to anyone considering Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is that they have to study what the hyper-converged solution is and why they are going into hyper-convergence. Why not use the traditional way? This is the first thing. If they understand the concept, they can very easily go through the implementation because the hyper-converged solution is based on automatic implementation. We have a virtual machine capable of implementing the solution, but in the background there are many automated tasks running. If you don't know what is running in the background you didn't understand anything.
You have to understand and then go through the automated implementation related to hyper-converged. Any new solution allows you to implement everything automatically, you don't need to implement different components and then integrate them with each other. You have to configure single machine. You can implement everything from that single machine.
You have to understand why you are going to hyper-converge before you go to the implementation.
You can dig into it, but you will not understand anything. If you're facing any issue, you can't solve the problem. So when you're implementing for other companies, Cisco or Dell or whatever, they are asking about the pre-requisites. You have to have these pre-requisites before going into the implementation because when you have more information relative to the customer side or the requirements and the pre-requisites, the implementation is straightforward. But if you lack all the pre-requisites you will face many problems and you will not be able to define where they are coming from.
On a scale of one to ten, I would give Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1390341 from
Usable, scalable, and easy to set up
What is our primary use case?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is essential to our vSAN solution; it's integrated.
What is most valuable?
I find the usability very valuable.
What needs improvement?
You have to get the same servers with the same storage; they need to be identical. However, in vSAN or in VMware we don't have to do that. We can just add storage and manage it in the same server.
In the next release, I would like to see more integration with VMware. I would also like to see more automation with other Cisco products so that we could have one dashboard for all Cisco products.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series this year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is good.
We currently have 1,000 to, maybe, 10,000 users.
How are customer service and support?
I have found the technical support to be very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I think it took two to three hours maximum to set up.
We have two engineers and one manager for deployment and maintenance.
What about the implementation team?
We used a system integrator consultant for the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no additional licensing cost other than the cost for each part.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and would rate it at nine on a scale from one to ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-03-16T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer711501 from
From an administrative perspective, the whole interface is seamless
What is our primary use case?
We have hosted a few use cases. Windows developed an application that we hosted in the production environment and all SQL database servers. After that, we used HyperFlex HCI to host DNS and DCP servers as well as various IT-related production servers.
What is most valuable?
HyperFlex's formatting features are easy to use. It's a one-click operation. From an administrative perspective, the whole interface is seamless.
What needs improvement?
In the next release, Cisco should add more integration and management capabilities as well as some tweaks to the dashboard that make it more user-friendly. They could also add support for multiple hypervisors.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Performance-wise, everything is good. So far, we haven't had any issues. There has been no downtime at all.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
For scalability, I would rate HyperFlex nine out of 10.
How are customer service and support?
We've received good support throughout the implementation and afterward.
How was the initial setup?
HyperFlex setup is very easy.
What about the implementation team?
We used help from vendor support during the setup.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
HyperFlex is a little pricey.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I rate HyperFlex eight out of 10. I would recommend it to others. It's a good product.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-10-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1769799 from
A highly stable and exceptionally scalable solution that offers a great technical support team
What needs improvement?
The product does not have a cloud version. I would like Cisco to introduce a cloud version of the solution in the future. The product should be made more flexible in terms of integration capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for two years. I use a high-end version of the solution. My company has a partnership with Cisco.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
I am satisfied with the solution's technical support. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The technical people are the ones who can answer whether the product is easy to deploy or not.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a bit pricier compared to other brands in the market. Yearly payments are to be made toward the licensing cost of the solution. The approximate licensing cost of the product depends on the model a person chooses. There is a need to make additional payments towards the maintenance and support of the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
My company is not considering the other available options in the market.
What other advice do I have?
I am satisfied with the overall product.
Cisco has already made a name for itself in the industry as a good brand.
I rate the overall product a ten out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-08-24T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Hussein Taha from
Straightforward to set up with good replication and the ability to expand
What is our primary use case?
Our workload is very heavy. We always acquire support from the tech engineer from Cisco, and they are always there for assistance and provide us the necessary health and guidance. In our environment, we manage to patch our infrastructure regularly, and we don't want to miss any patches. This sometimes it requires a lot of effort, and sometimes the updates are not recommended, and we have to wait for the recommended version. The patch management can impact us in our scope. This helps us centralize everything to make things easier.
What is most valuable?
One of the major features of HX is that you have the replication factor, and you have the option to copy your data - and not just once. You also have the option to copy it twice or even get a third copy. It depends on the RF while deploying the checks. This is one of the great benefits. That way, if there is a major outage and you lose one of the nodes, you still have your data, and the data store is up and running, and your service won't be impacted. This is very beneficial for our company as we own a service that should be up and running 24/7. It's related to one of the government sectors, and it's very critical to have it always up and to avoid any downtime.
The initial setup is very straightforward.
It's stable.
We can easily scale the solution.
What needs improvement?
The port could be improved. They have a robo port and can build a cluster with two nodes. This one needs a bit more focus. They need to provide us with more advice or maybe some documentation or some instructions for best practices, so we can leverage it effectively.
They should give us a little more information about how to use the CLI and offer more commands. Right now, if we can't find what we need, we need to raise a ticket or send an email. Sometimes we don't have that time to wait for the ticket or the case to be assigned. We should just have access to information about the CLI and various commands.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the HX for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. Sometimes we face an issue regarding the hard disk. We might find that it's unhealthy and must be replaced by Cisco. This can be easily monitored.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a scalable solution.
You can upgrade or add many hard disks so the business can keep continuity and scalability. It's also based on your business scope. We have ten branches. The ten branches are variants between the HX nodes. Some of them have ten hard disks, and some of them do not. Some of them have more. In any case, we find it very simple to scale where needed.
We have six system administrators working directly with the solution.
I'm not sure if there is a plan to increase usage just yet.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to set up. Once you choose the cluster mode that you want to go through, you can put in all the IPs, and HX will start to build the clusters across the nodes. While it's a little bit complex at the beginning, when you get used to it, it's simple.
We have two people available to maintain the solution once it is deployed.
What about the implementation team?
We have a partner for support, and they do most of the work. We do a bit ourselves in-house as well. Some of us on the interior team have an HX certification and have strong knowledge of the solution. I'm working to be certified myself right now.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI while using this product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not aware of the exact costs of the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at VxRail from Dell and Nutanix. We chose Cisco as we use Cisco a lot in our company.
What other advice do I have?
I would suggest new users read the documentation very well and prepare an action plan based on their design. They have to address all the possibilities and have a rollback plan in case something goes wrong. These points must be addressed. For beginners or some people who don't have this knowledge, they must consult a third party who has this knowledge to ensure they have done it correctly to avoid lengthy troubleshooting or any other issues.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-11-24T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1333923 from
Easy to implement and set up but is expensive
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for our customers.
What is most valuable?
The implementation process is okay.
What needs improvement?
HyperFlex, compared to other competitors like VxRail or Nutanix, has stability issues.
The utilization needs to be better. It needs more options.
For HX, we need to install a specific virtual machine on each node as a controller. For VxRail, we don't have to do this since it's a built-in feature on VMware.
For the solution to work, we need to buy specific switches from Cisco. It's not flexible, actually. I wouldn't recommend using it.
The cost is pretty high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the product for three or four years.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm also familiar with VxRail and Nutanix. They are working with other platforms, and other techniques. Therefore they are more stable. They also have more storage options.
How was the initial setup?
It is pretty easy to set up. It's not overly complex. The implementation is simple.
We can implement the cluster within one hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is more expensive since switches are one of the things that add cost to the solution. The service is a little bit more costly as well. They cost more than other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
We are partners and resellers.
I wouldn't recommend HyperFlex.
If a company has options, I would say they should look at VxRail or Nutanix as the first option.
I'd rate the solution six out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-11-12T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Esraa Abdallah from
A fully contained, virtual server platform with a valuable Cisco Intersight feature
What is our primary use case?
We are consultants, and we set up this product for our customers.
What is most valuable?
I like Cisco Intersight.
What needs improvement?
The price could be better. I think it's more expensive than VxRail. In the next release, I would like to see a better level of protection and availability with six clients.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for about two months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is a scalable solution. We have five or six people working on this solution.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used to work with traditional solutions such as the UCS-C220 product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is expensive. It's a standard license, and we pay for it yearly. I think we pay about 700.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
VxRail is cheaper, more flexible than HyperFlex, and easy to back up. Most customers see that VxRail is more affordable, so why should I go with HyperFlex?
What other advice do I have?
I will tell potential users that I think it's a good product.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-10-12T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Nuno Mendes from
High performance solution that makes it easy to efficiently manage VM resources
What is our primary use case?
We are a state-affiliated financial company that performs credit recovery from bad banking and we bought four Cisco HyperFlex HX hosts five years ago which came as all-in-one solutions with processor, memory, and disk. These hosts are all situated on-premises.
Within the next ten years, when all credits have been recovered, our mission will end. Unfortunately, our current edition of HyperFlex will end sooner than that, because it will be end-of-life in 2024.
What is most valuable?
With our four HyperFlex HX hosts (consisting of processor, memory, and disk), the performance is very fast and we have no problems at all. In all of the five years that we have been using HyperFlex, we haven't needed to increase our budget to buy additional hosts. In my opinion, it's a pity that we will have to change it out for something else in 2024 due to it being end-of-life.
What needs improvement?
In our case as a credit recovery company working with the state, our infrastructure is fixed and stable as we don't have the same need for growth as other types of companies.
That said, one of the biggest problems with HyperFlex HX is that if you want to adjust your solution in terms of processing power, memory, or disk capacity, you have to buy completely new hosts. From a financial perspective, it can be very expensive to do so, and from a legal perspective, there are all kinds of compliance issues we would have to sort out before buying any new solution or application.
Since we as a company will only be operating for perhaps the next ten years, when our HyperFlex solution comes to its end-of-life in 2024 our next step will likely not be with HyperFlex or any other solution from Cisco. Instead, from a financial point of view, we will likely turn toward a cloud solution because, that way, we won't have to spend so much money on physical infrastructure. We are, after all, only a small company and HyperFlex can be very expensive for other companies of our size, whether in Portugal or elsewhere like the United States.
One other area for improvement is in regard to HyperFlex's integration with VMware. HyperFlex integrates with a specific version of VMware in such a way that HyperFlex doesn't always resolve security issues with VMware at the same pace as what you see in native implementations of VMware. This has happened in one or two situations in the past. On the other hand, the integration is otherwise adequate, especially in terms of availability and virtualization features (such as being able to split up each of our four hosts within VMware).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have servicing contracts with all parts of our infrastructure, but with HyperFlex you typically only need one person to manage aspects such as implementation and configuration. It does not need much in the way of maintenance, which makes working with it very easy.
The one problem we have, though, is that when you have 20-50 VMs and you want to do updates for either HyperFlex or VMware, there's usually a bit of extra work to do in this process, not knowing whether your interventions or updates will cause problems. But overall, it's easy, and I would rate HyperFlex's stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex HX may be expensive, but this is offset by the fact that it is a highly scalable solution, even though we're only a small team at the moment. Our admin team is only four people, but there are about 200 employees who make use of its resources throughout our company. I would give it a ten out of ten for scalability in this regard.
On the other hand, the scalability is somewhat reduced when you consider that our physical HyperFlex infrastructure will be end-of-life in 2024. Because of this, we are considering changing to a cloud solution, or perhaps another kind of physical solution, once our term with HyperFlex is complete.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco's technical support is knowledgeable and they understand the criticality of the solution. We have used their support about three times and each time they were quick enough to solve the problems we've had until now. This is a plus because we have to do frequent maintenance when it comes to applying security updates for all of our hardware and software.
In the last five years, the only major incident that I can recall was when we struggled to integrate HyperFlex HX with our fiber optic switch redundancy system.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before Cisco HyperFlex HX, we used a physical server provided by HP. The reason we switched to Cisco's solution is because it was one of the first implementations in Portugal and Cisco made us a good offer to switch over.
The offer they gave us was, more or less, the same cost as any other standard infrastructure of its kind, and at the time we decided that it was a very good investment. In the first proposal we chose to purchase three hosts, but at the end of the negotiation we added a fourth host because we knew that if we needed the fourth host later, we would have to pay more than in the initial offer. I don't know what the cost of a new Cisco solution would be nowadays, but back then it was a great investment, especially as compared to the standard infrastructure we had with HP.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was difficult mainly because the product was entirely new to us. I believe we were the first, or possibly the second, company in Portugal to implement Cisco HyperFlex HX, so naturally it was tough in the beginning. Fortunately, we had help from Cisco and the deployment, which took place over the span of a few weeks, was a success.
After the setup, we thought everything would be easy, but still it was somewhat difficult for the reason that it was all new to everyone at my organization. After a bit more hands-on experience with it, however, it wasn't too difficult.
The biggest challenge of our deployment was the integration of HyperFlex with our fiber optic switch as well as with our backup switch (for redundancy). When we shut down the primary switch, the HyperFlex infrastructure would sometimes go offline, causing about 30 of our VMs to enter into an unworkable state.
We eventually resolved this situation by re-configuring the redundancy method for our switches, because they were originally acting as if we only had one switch and not two. This solution entailed splitting the switches into two types, one active and one passive, and after we implemented this change, the HyperFlex solution began working properly and we haven't had a similar problem since then.
In total, putting this implementation into production from our previous VMware infrastructure took about two to three weeks, and if I were to give a rating for the ease of setup, I would give it a five out of ten.
What was our ROI?
The standard physical hardware was, admittedly, very expensive in the beginning, but everything has been good in terms of ROI. We have seen perhaps a 20% return on our initial investment and if we were to go back in time we would do the same again.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
When we negotiated with Cisco for the HyperFlex solution, they gave us a good price because they wanted to break into the market in Portugal for the first time. However, in general, I think it's a very expensive solution. It's a huge amount of money to acquire this kind of infrastructure.
I would give the pricing a rating of eight out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
My main recommendation to others is to do the proper calculations in terms of processor, memory, and disk requirements. This will ensure that you have the correct number of hosts from the beginning, because adding a new host at a later stage may be expensive.
Overall, HyperFlex HX is an excellent solution and we like it a lot, not only because it's easy to apply its resources whenever you need to add extra VMs to your infrastructure, but also because it allows you to manage all these resources in an efficient manner.
I would rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-12-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1221432 from
A total solution that is responsive and reliable once set up
What is our primary use case?
We deployed HyperFlex for our website services, as well as we put our F5 on it. Basically, we use it for some applications, some better features.
What is most valuable?
The main value is it brings the total solution, so you don't need to worry about storage and also networking. It brings to you an all-in-one option. The good side is you don't need to worry about it.
Support is very responsive.
What needs improvement?
If you need to expand, scalability is an issue. Overall, you can just call Cisco and then they will help you to fix everything.
The storage could be better. If you want to expand the storage, sometimes you need to expand the memory at the same time. This could be cumbersome or pricey.
The initial setup can be complex.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution since 2019.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, during the setup, there are a lot of issues, however, it's not really related to HyperFlex. It might be hardware issues. However, once fixed, you don't need to do any maintenance except upgrades. Once it's fixed, it is very smooth.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability could be better. It doesn't have a big impact.
We have our customers using the solution. We have about one million customers.
How are customer service and support?
Support has been good.
Every time we raise a case to Cisco, whenever there's an upgrade, if there are some tricks or some stuff that we do not understand, then they will probably come and help us fix the issue.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
It's a little bit difficult to set up the solution. It's not exactly straightforward.
We've maintained it by ourselves. That said, for sure, if we need a support, then we would ask Cisco to help. In terms of maintenance, we have an external backup solution, so the backup is not quite related. For upgrades and updates, it's not quite frequent and it's not very complicated.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I do not handle any aspects of licensing.
I don't have a solid figure. For the production part, I pass it to our operation team to continue the license purchase. However, for the lab, I maintain it. For the lab, I spent around $70,000 to $100,000 CAD per year for licensing and maintaining it.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer.
If the system is going to be a scalable product or scalable application, I would not recommend it to others. However, if it's more scalable deployment, then HyperFlex is a good solution. If it's a large-scale deployment, it is better to go for another option that can separate the storage, et cetera.
For our environment, I'd rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-08-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Shahriar Rahman from
A robust solution with a workload that can handle anything, but it constantly needs to be updated
What is our primary use case?
We are one of the biggest cloud providers in Bangladesh, so we use this service and we are relaying the service to the end customer. We have many multinational companies, ODSMs providers, and banks as our customers, so it's pretty good, knowing that we have a kind of highly-loaded workload.
What is most valuable?
It's a very robust solution. There are a lot of products on the market you can access, but this is an end-to-end compact solution for the end customer. It's good, and it's a high-end type of product. The workload can handle anything and has an extended capacity.
What needs improvement?
The problem is that we always have to keep an eye out for new releases to make sure that the version we're running is up-to-date. The way their infrastructure is updated and evaluated, they are always updating their firmware structure. That is the only challenge we are experiencing, but you have to look for the updates all the time, which is a challenge and everyone's very frustrated at this point.
The cloud world is changing every day. It would be good if they added provisions for activities like micro-services and micro-segmentation.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for almost two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It isn't stable so far because the problem is that you have to update your version, and then also update your firmware to the latest development. If you're using an old version of any of them, it makes trouble. That is a challenge we are facing, but it is okay. The solution handled an enterprise where they switch the workload and run it every day, so it is stable in that way.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We are using so many clusters, including standard clusters, self-encryption device clusters, and accessories. It is definitely a scalable solution. As a service provider, we have over 80 people using the solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have reached out to technical support so many times. The team is definitely excellent. It's clear they want to be the biggest cloud company in the world, so they're very supportive people. They have a lot of knowledge to share, and I'm happy to work with them.
How was the initial setup?
There are a lot of constants and there's a lot to do on the infrastructure and stories part, so there are different segmentations. Integration of the stories part is okay if you have a knowledge of what the stories require. After the stories part, you also need to reach out to the Hyperflex center version for service to the cloud. If you're using EMC or maybe data updates or other things, it's the kind of thing where you need to understand those first.
For the later parts of the integration, you need to understand what you have because it really gets pretty complex. You have to integrate it with the gen network. It gets a little bit complex when there's micro-segmentation, or an application type of thing. You have to share that stuff with a lot of different segments, so I would say the network setup is pretty difficult and complex.
What about the implementation team?
Initially, we had a system integrator. They are from India and they initially helped us and guided us through it. They were here onsite and they worked with us and shared knowledge about how to do stuff and how to get the services. Initially it was definitely a challenge, but after getting the services and workload and testing so we knew what we needed, we moved into application. From that point we were able to do it on our own.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a yearly license.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this product, depending on the context. It depends on what kind of services you want to run and provide.
My company decided on this solution because of the stability, sustainability, and strength of the product. Also, they have so much support, and their people are knowledgeable. When you're having a problem, they will help you to find a solution. Whatever problem you are facing, you are able to solve.
I would rate this solution as an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner.
Date published: 2022-09-19T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Kalpesh Savaliya from
Easy to set up and support is fine, although installing the prerequisites takes a long time
What is our primary use case?
We are using this product for our on-premises terminal operating system.
What needs improvement?
The initial setup could be faster, due to the prerequisites.
Having a small infrastructure that includes Nexus and fabric interconnects is costly, which is something that should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for between two and three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable, although only the IT staff uses it. Normal users don't rely on this product. We are deploying it for all of the terminals but it is not clear whether we will expand our usage because we are using different products, as well.
How are customer service and support?
The Cisco technical support is fine. We haven't had any problems.
I would rate the technical support a three or four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have also used Cisco UCS. This product is okay; it is not much different but provides some automation functionality. For example, automatic deployment.
I have not used any other hyperconverged solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It takes a long time to install and configure the prerequisites but testing it is quick enough. That takes one or two hours.
I would rate this initial setup a three or four out of five.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed this product in-house.
We have a centralized team for technical support and the deployment of products, such as this one. The team is not dedicated to HyperFlex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a recurring cost for the VMware license and the HyperFlex licenses.
What other advice do I have?
As we are still evaluating this product, I am not at the stage where I can recommend it to others. We are evaluating and considering the impact of the recurring cost.
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Date published: 2022-09-04T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Ashok Braganza from
Helpful in hosting applications, but some features are missing, and the interface is not good
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution as Active-Active and to host some of our applications. Compared to Nutanix, it is not as good. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is not a matured HCI solution. If something goes wrong with Nutanix, we use Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series, so we at least have half of our systems running. It is helpful as a backup solution.
What needs improvement?
A lot needs to be improved. Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series does not support the stretch cluster, and the interface is not good. Features are missing, and it does not support VMware Seven.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about three years, and I believe we are using version 4.5. It is deployed on-premises.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is not a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about 10,000 users. Maintenance is okay, but the hardware failure is too much, and sometimes memory is lost.
How are customer service and support?
The support is okay but unprofessional.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complicated, and we had to struggle a lot. The switches, such as WAN switches, LAN switches, Nexus, and all those areas, are perfect. But when it comes to HCI, it is not a good solution. So we completed deployment with Cisco support.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution a four out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-09-26T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Devendra-Singh from
Robust, integrates well, and scalable
What is our primary use case?
We needed a complete solution with a software-defined data center. We use Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series, VMware, and Application Centric Infrastructure(ACI) with micro-segmentation and application latency.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is the integration with everything in a much smoother, such as in physical and virtual environments. VMware NSX is a simpler solution but, Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is more robust compared to VMware NSX.
What needs improvement?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series could improve by having the documents be more readily available and the support could be more flexible.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is stable. However, this solution has a lot of dependencies, and if there is a single point of failure the solution will be impacted.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of HyperFlex HX-Series is good. Once you implement the solution, the integration is smooth.
We have approximately 1,000 users using this solution in my organization.
How are customer service and support?
I have contacted the support for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series and whenever we log a call they were resolved. However, the time it took was long, it could be faster.
How was the initial setup?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is difficult to implement. It took us approximately 60 days to complete the setup.
What about the implementation team?
We documented what we were going to require for the setup and we had a partner do it for us. Internally we do not have the implementation skills required to complete the process for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series. However, we do have the skill set for managing all the applications.
The maintenance of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is minimal.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment has been good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a 30 percent additional premium that all the companies are charging for Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series because of the lack of chips and bottlenecks in the market. The cost of the solution is high right now.
We have a process to pick the five-year standard license which we do not have any additional costs.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others is if you have VMware, then you should choose Cisco or HP rather than going with Dell.
I choose Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series because of the seamless integration which I was interested in. It is a complete solution for proper software-defined data centers with hardware, software, and everything else.
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2022-07-17T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Md Shahnewaj Hossain from
Offers very good data protection and provides effective system uptime availability
What is our primary use case?
We are partners and integrators of HyperFlex and I am a company deputy director of IT.
How has it helped my organization?
HyperFlex has benefited us because there are no storage requirements and it requires less from the server and services in general.
What is most valuable?
This solution offers very good data protection and also provides system uptime availability more effectively than the majority of other servers. It can calculate the multiple failures that give better uptime on the nodes. It provides good performance.
What needs improvement?
Every node has a storage controller VM that checks identity and I think that should be eliminated in order to optimize the resource utilized. I'd like to see the ability to integrate with HPE because SimpliVity has some backup-live features which are useful for us. Finally, some improvement to the documentation would be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco HyperFlex is stable. We faced some issues because it has single dependency on the caching base, and when that goes down it all goes down. It has only happened once. That aside, it's a stellar solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation isn't too complex but there are some requirements, including pre-deployment which requires a lot of documentation and security such as security management, secured data, VM and the like. We used a local partner to assist with deployment. We have a team of six that were involved in the implementation and with data center maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a three-year license with Cisco and it's a reasonable price.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We had previously used converged networks and when we decided to move to a hyper-converged infrastructure we evaluated several solutions including Dell EMC and HPE SimpliVity. We checked several criteria including financial, features, technical issues, and availability. We found that the HyperFlex performance gave us added benefits so we went with that.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner/Integrator
Date published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
KalpeshDave from
Effective deduplication feature, but lacks a unified architecture
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case is for non-production purposes like development, testing, etc.
What is most valuable?
The database and deduplication features are what I like the most. On a storage level, the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series is managed well. These features can be used for specific applications, such as the Oracle database, or general purposes.
What needs improvement?
Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series could be improved by reducing the number of nodes. Currently, the architecture separates data, computing, memory, and storage into different parts. For example, if I need around 200 servers with a requirement of TB of storage, I would need 200 clusters, which can be quite cumbersome.
Other solutions like Dell and Nutanix have a single combined unit that includes computing, memory, and storage, which can reduce the number of nodes required and also reduce licensing and power consumption.
Therefore, I suggest improving the architecture of the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series by combining computing, memory, and storage into a single unit, making it more efficient and easier to manage. It will also reduce the number of nodes required and licensing costs and help to reduce power consumption.
I would like to see improved internal integration capabilities in the next release. Currently, it is constrained only to VMware only. So, there is no integration part of the RAC or IEL or anything, and it isn't easy to manage it. If I want to hold another partner, then that part will not be possible. So, you have to manage that particular integration.
Another feature could be in terms of memory usage.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for the last five years. We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate scalability a six out of ten. It has some issues with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service guy supported me well.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had a physical environment with Cisco, and virtualization began in that environment. We were using a Dell environment where all the personal data was standalone with the servers.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was straightforward and took around a month due to the 58 nodes. Once the drive was implemented, the deployment was completed. While they are not direct users of the solution, the infrastructure supports over 1000 users in our IT department. However, maintenance requires a team because hardware issues might need to be addressed. There are four to five people responsible for maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have a yearly subscription.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it a seven out of ten. It may require a significant initial investment to set up the infrastructure.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-03-30T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
AshwaniRana from
Very scalable, very secure, and good performance, but needs better pricing and a SaaS-based version
What is most valuable?
It is very scalable. It is also very secure. Cisco's security portfolio is integrated with it, which makes it secure.
It is a platform-based device. Its performance is also fairly good in comparison to any other solution.
What needs improvement?
If we compare it with VMware, the VMware product is basically very open, and it can be easily integrated with any platform. VMware product is also available on the cloud and is not an appliance-based product, whereas Cisco HyperFlex is an appliance-based product. Companies that want to use HCI as a platform or as a service would prefer something without an appliance. A SaaS-based product is better for a customer who is using the cloud and has multiple resources, workflows, and devices on the cloud and wants to go for a hyper-converged solution. This is where improvement is needed. In addition to an appliance-based product, Cisco should provide a SaaS-based product.
Its price should be lower. Cisco needs to work on the pricing model for this product. Its price is a big road blocker when competing against Nutanix and VMware, which are its main competitors.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for the last two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How was the initial setup?
I don't set it up, but based on the information that I have from my customers, it is not difficult to set it up. It is easy to set up, but it is not easier than a SaaS-based product. Our customers buy only its latest version.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price is high. Cisco needs to work on the pricing model for this product. Nutanix or VMware are cheaper products, and they provide almost the same functionality. Its price is a big road blocker when we are working with an end customer, and Nutanix and VMware are in competition. If they can reduce its price, it is actually a better choice for customers.
What other advice do I have?
The OEMs from Nutanix, VMware, and Cisco have more or less the same features and functionality. The only thing that is missing in this solution is that it doesn't have a SaaS-based version. I would definitely recommend this solution for customers who are looking for an appliance-based product. Cisco HyperFlex is the best appliance-based product. It is better than Nutanix, even though Nutanix is more cost-effective than Cisco.
I would rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-03-31T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1461453 from
Quite scalable, stable, and offers good technical support
What is our primary use case?
A client typically uses the solution for the VDI critical application and for the containerization as well. It's a critical application and he X location and the hybrid or multi cloud.
What is most valuable?
The solution is easy to deploy as they're based on ECS. We buy an ECS Manager so that we can scale out easily. We can also integrate with external storage. We can also scale for computing or storage only.
The product is quite stable.
It's very easy to use and quite a mature product.
What needs improvement?
As a fairly mature product, I can't think of any features that are lacking per se.
The pricing is pretty expensive.
Right now they are coming into the public cloud, we want to be seeing HyperFlex integration with public clouds such as AWS, Azure or Google.
I need to see the feature more use cases for the backup and restore functionalities or how we can expand the cluster to the public cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution since about 2018. It's been about two years or so. It hasn't been too long.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. It doesn't have bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We do plan to continue using the product and expanding it as needed.
Cisco is better for enterprise-level organizations.
How are customer service and technical support?
Cisco has great technical support. We're quite satisfied with their level of service. Cisco does offer full support for the product, which is quite helpful. They have a good amount of knowledge on their product and they are very good at sharing the information and insights they have.
However, in comparison, Nutanix technical support is better in that they are not only knowledgeable but responsive as well.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As partners, we use a variety of solutions such as Nutanix, Cisco HyperFlex, and NetApp HCI. We don't for example, have partnerships with HPE or SimpliVity.
If you were comparing Cisco, to, for example, Nutanix, Cisco is more expensive.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not too complex. The installation is pretty easy as the HyperFlex has a deployment engine. We can just follow the wizard and go over everything step-by-step. Cisco has guidelines about the installation in the portal which makes it very convenient to get the insights you need.
The deployment is very fast and takes typically under one hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution can be pretty expensive. It's not the cheapest option on the market.
What other advice do I have?
My role in the company is pre-sales. We offer this solution to our clients. As a partner, we don't use Cisco HyperFlex, but we propose HyperFlex for the customer.
For the deployment, we can deploy for the DC and DRC side, for the synchronous replication, and also for the stress cluster, we can also deploy for the X location as the HyperFlex has a HyperFex extraction for the X location.
I'm in Indonesia, and in this particular country/region, this solution isn't really used very widely. Nutanix is more famous in Indonesia, as it can be used by the SMB customer or small customers up to enterprises. Most hyper-converged solutions that are used in Indonesia are Nutanix.
I would recommend the solution to other organizations, however, only if it made sense and fit their company's needs.
Overall, I would rate the product eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-12-21T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
MichaelZhang from
Flexible solution with some stability issues
What is our primary use case?
Typically we use this Cisco HyperFlex cluster as our local server virtualization platform. We have all our services running in this cluster. In other words, we could say this is our local data center for all our business systems as well the core components of our IT infrastructure.
At this moment, we haven't upgraded to the latest version although Cisco has been encouraging us to upgrade, since they recently published a new version. We will schedule this change maybe next month.
What is most valuable?
I think its most valuable feature is its flexibility.
What needs improvement?
There are a lot of features that could be improved. We sorted out one critical issue left by the initial deployment team, our external partners. They made a mistake, a wrong configuration regarding the network settings. That left us a very, very painful troubleshooting process. Eventually, after four years, we sorted it out. After fixing that the system was stable. We even thought that maybe this is the root cause of those hardware failures.
In the next release, I would like to see them able to connect to the public cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
The first time that I started using the Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series platform was in 2016 and I'm still using it today.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Before I got the second group of this system, I would have said it was quite stable. However, with the second cluster that I received, I experienced lots of hardware issues, and almost all with the RAM stick. The memory stick had been replaced by Cisco due to some hardware failure. It was really painful, and we couldn't sort out the reason. Also we experienced some hard drive failures for which Cisco provided a replacement. So I would say it's not quite stable.
It has very high rate of hardware failure.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have nine people using it in my department, IT. We are the key users. They rely on us for running the system. So far, it is the only system I have to run. And in recent years, it is running more stably.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their customer service is very efficient. Usually if we experience some technical issue, we open a case and Cisco Global Support will be on within one hour. So that's very efficient.
How was the initial setup?
We have our external partners to help us with the installation and configuration, and generally speaking, it's quite straightforward.
At the beginning of our project, I remember that it took about one week to set up.
What about the implementation team?
There were three people involved in the system configuration and set up. One guy was in my team and another two from the external partners. They were responsible for the hands on configuration and my guy was responsible for the acceptance test and the communication between the university and the supplier.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of their license, they don't actually call it a license, it's called technical support. We have to renew that after certain periods. And it's not cheap.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series only in a certain situation.
Right now, considering many other external constraints, it is very hard to recommend it to people, especially if they are based in mainland China.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series a seven.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-12-09T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1141047 from
Well integrated, easy learning curve, highly dependable
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution as a host environment for applications and also for VDI.
What is most valuable?
The solution is easy to use and to learn. It is well integrated with VMware.
Additionally, the solution is flexible, we have projects in a few sectors such as the environmental and oil industries. It has been working well overall.
What needs improvement?
This solution is lacking in replication and backup abilities that I would like to see in a future release similar to HPE SimpliVity.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable, it has been able to perform all the tasks we have used it for. It is very reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable and it is easy to expand in storage and other areas, such as if you want to increase the nodes it is very simple. We currently have approximately 3000 users using the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have never had an issue that would need their support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used HPE SimpliVity previously and it had some other features that this solution does not have that are useful.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward, the solution does a lot of the configuration by itself. The installation should take approximately a few hours if you have all the prerequisites in place.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation ourselves and we have two network engineers doing the deployments and maintenance of the solution.
What other advice do I have?
We have plans to keep using the solution in the future. We have one standard traditional environment and also hyper-converged with Cisco. We are planning to add more hardware to increase capacity because we are almost at full capacity now. We are going to increase the infrastructure due to the ramping up of operations.
If you want a reliable solution then I would advise choosing this one.
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-04-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Hoang Quan Nguyen from
Provides flexibility, scalability, performance and availability; prevents need for disaster recovery
What is our primary use case?
Our primary goal is to have a solution that enables us to have 100% uptime between two sites. That's why we're using HyperFlex. It has a very critical application. We are a government organization with around 15,000 users although that can go up to 25,000 in peak times. I'm an infrastructure integration analyst.
What is most valuable?
I like the stretch cluster, it's a feature that allows us to warranty a service for the customer that has to be 100% uptime. That aside, the solution also has flexibility, scalability, performance and availability. The main objective for us is DRA, Disaster Recovery Avoidance. We don't want to go into disaster recovery so our aim is for 100% avoidance. The hardware might not be perfect but Cisco is very proactive with their support.
What needs improvement?
There are sometimes issues with memory failure. I'd also like to be notified when new documentation comes out, it would make things easier. I think the cost is an issue given that it's so much cheaper to use cloud based solutions these days. I don't know whether HyperFlex can compete with that. There can sometimes be issues if you change your mind on something and want to move things around.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable product.
How are customer service and technical support?
Every time I have a problem I contact the HyperFlex team and they solve it.
How was the initial setup?
Implementation requires having a roadmap and steps in place. If you have that, it's pretty straightforward because you know exactly where you need to input your specific information from your own environment. Maintenance is not very demanding, we have five people who can deal with that, but it wouldn't take up more than 10% of their time on any one day. Once it's up and running, it's stable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are evaluating VMware Hybrid Solution and HPE SV signatures. HPE has very good hardware, but they don't have a good software defined solution. There are so many screens and sometimes it's a burden for us on the tech side.
What other advice do I have?
I think any business could use HyperFlex, it's a good solution for big or small business.
I rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-03-01T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
MinaMagdy from
Straightforward to set up and you can manage everything from one place, but it only supports one cache drive per node
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and Cisco HyperFlex is one of the products that we propose to our customers. This product is used for hyper-convergence in IT transformation and can be used for very heavy workloads such as VDIs or HAP HANA.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that you can manage the whole cluster from the fabric interconnect.
The physical switches are more reliable than the virtual machines.
using a virtual machine to manage the cluster, needs lots of pre-configuration & validation steps, as well may lead to cluster fail in case of the fail / corruption of the VM (unless you manage to have a valid backup to restore, with a valid cluster restoration plan),
despite the managing of the Cisco Hyperflex, it comes almost preloaded & stand ready for deploying, as well in redundant architecture, which reflect a solid base for managing & reliability deployment.
What needs improvement?
They need to make many improvements to this solution but the most important area is the compression. Most customers are concerned with the compression for a specific workload, and then maintaining it. The performance and compression vary depending on the type of workload; for example with SAS HANA, Cisco forces compression and that affects performance very badly. At the least, the customer should have the option to choose what types of workload should be affected by the data reduction functionality.
The second point is that they need to work on the erasure code. Cisco doesn't support erasure code, even over flash. If they fix this then they will only waste 25%. With replication and mirroring, it uses 100% of the allocated capacity. This means that Cisco needs to work on the architecture. I have conducted many PoCs and it is a problem that they need to work on.
Cisco offers a single cache drive cluster, whereas VxRail offers up to four cache disks per drive. When the cache disk fails in Cisco, the whole node fails, and the workload goes down. But when it comes to VxRail, if a cache disk files then only the node fails and the workload remains up and running. This is an area that Cisco needs to work on. Essentially, they have to raise the number of cache disks that can be included in a single node.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with Cisco HyperFlex for the past four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a reliable solution
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is quite scalable.
Our usage of this product may increase but it is up to the customer. For example, when a customer is loyal to Cisco, they will implement HyperFlex. On the other hand, if it's a customer with a hyper-converged infrastructure then they will definitely implement VxRail.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support from Cisco is responsive and depending on the problem, a hardware replacement is offered 24/7, which is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with similar products from other vendors.
HyperFlex is a very good solution, although not compared to Dell EMC VxRail. Both of them have many good features, although VxRail is better and yet, Cisco is more expensive.
If you consider my customers to be a community, 70% of them have VxRail and 30% of them have HyperFlex.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. The length of deployment depends on the number of channels but for between four and five nodes, it takes approximately two weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
This is an expensive solution, although Cisco will offer it free of charge when there is a large networking opportunity that arises. The licensing is perpetual and the only thing that you may need to pay for on a monthly basis is if you're going to use their cloud-based management features. This requires a subscription.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco offers the on-cloud management system for HyperFlex but most of our customers that are using a hyper-converged infrastructure prefer to build their own, private cloud. In most cases, they have this solution installed on-premises.
Cisco HyperFlex is a product that I can recommend, although VxRail is my first choice. Depending on the customer, their environment, and history with Cisco, I will recommend one of these products over the other.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-05-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Abdelhadi El Ghanioui from
An easy, flexible and secure solution, but the pricing can be better
What is our primary use case?
We are implementing the solution for Hyper-converged systems.
What is most valuable?
I find the Hyperflex most valuable. It compares well with Nutanix.
What needs improvement?
The minimum for running involves three nodes, which is the number I use for running the patch. The solution is not very good when it comes to a single node. 64 is the maximum number of nodes.
As I work with Hypervisor or VMware, the solution usually is easy when it comes to monitoring and backup. I rely on backup and monitoring capabilities. I use Veeam, for example, as a backup solution and SolarWinds for my monitoring needs.
I am a gold partner of Cisco and am entitled to a discounted price. When it comes to customer needs, the licensing price could be better. By comparison, Nutanix is more affordable. The choice of Cisco varies with the needs of the client.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is extremely stable. I work in Hyperflex. The customer can simply send.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is extendable and flexible for administrative purposes. I will normally deploy and cluster the containment in six nodes, with another in four, in three and in five.
Overall, the solution is extremely easy, flexible and secure.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is okay, although I have never opened a ticket with them.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup and deployment of the solution is extremely easy. All that must be done is to prepare the infrastructure and IP, at which point it can be deployed with ease.
What other advice do I have?
There are five or six customers who make use of the solution.
Hyperflex developed its first platform in 2015, while Simplivity and Nutanix did so in 2009.
The solution centralizes everything in a single IP. It is extremely simple, secure and good for deployment.
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series as a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2021-07-11T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1539879 from
Responsive technical support , reliable, and scalable
What is our primary use case?
I have many clients using this solution for a number of reasons, such as unified communications and collaboration.
What needs improvement?
There could be an increase in performance to improve the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have had no problems with the scalability of the solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The technical support has been very good for this solution.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the installation of Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series an eight out of ten. However, it can be complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are on an annual subscription and the price is fair.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-SeriesRev an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-05-12T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Aws Al-Dabbagh from
An all-in-one option that is stable and offers good management
What is our primary use case?
HyperFlex is a hyper-converged infrastructure system that is a cluster of servers that provide compute and storage at the same time. Most other networking systems provide either computation separately from storage and networking. However, HyperFlex is a combined system that provides compute, networking, and storage in the same solution. That is, it gives you a single point of management for everything instead of separately for different components.
How has it helped my organization?
We've adopted Hyperflex as the new Virtualization solution for our network. all new workloads will be created on Hyperflex, and all existing workloads will be migrated to Hyperflex over the next few years.
What is most valuable?
The product makes management much easier since there's a single pane of glass to use to monitor, manage and upgrade the system.
You can achieve similar performance for your system by buying separate components, however, HyperFlex allows you to achieve the same performance using one system. It's basically one integrated system. That's the most powerful aspect of it.
The solution is quite stable.
The scalability of the product is quite good overall - as long as you plan correctly from the outset.
What needs improvement?
A disadvantage is the higher costs involved in using this product. If it were more affordable, it would be easier to recommend and HCI adoption rate would increase. Unlike other options, you need to pay a subscription to Cisco yearly instead of paying for the hardware outright, which makes it more expensive in the long run.
The initial setup could be easier. Right now, it's a bit difficult.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used the solution over the last 12 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's been stable since we set it up. It's been very stable and providing good service.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are considering expansion at the moment. The solution is easily scalable if it is planned correctly from the beginning.
Our previous generation is going to end support in two years. We're planning to migrate our whole virtualization infrastructure from the old generation solution to the Cisco solution. Basically, within one or two years, we'll be moving all our instrumentation and all our workloads will be moving to this solution.
A minimum of three servers is needed. If these servers have good specifications from the beginning, it's as easy as adding another node. You can expand the solution with more and more nodes. That said, if the node isn't configured properly in the amount of CPU, RAM, and storage, then when you try to expand, you must either expand with more than one node to add more and more scalability, or you must upgrade the existing nodes.
HyperFlex is hosting our financial systems. In terms of users, for management, it's just the ITT and we're managing the solution. However, if you consider people who are using the servers as infrastructure, then you can say more than 50 people technically are on the solution. Basically, the whole company uses the PBX system as an exchange for phone calls, for example.
How are customer service and technical support?
We haven't reached out to Cisco in terms of needing technical support. We've reached out for other reasons, however, and they were very quick to respond. For this solution, in particular, we've been working with Cisco's partners - and since our partner provides good support, then we haven't needed to reach out to Cisco directly.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used to have a non-converged solution before Hyperflex that had separate components, however, when we chose to go with a hyper-converged solution for our network, we chose HyperFlex.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not exactly straightforward or simple. It's a bit difficult, a bit complex.
Luckily, we had the support of the Cisco partner to install and integrate the solution. However, it would have been much easier if we could do it in a shorter time.
It is a complicated process for integration and it takes time. It can take several hours to install and configure the solution. If the setup process was faster, it could have been done in a shorter time. Basically, it took about two or three days to finish the whole setup. From unpacking to going online, it took us a few days. While the installation is a part of the process, the most time-consuming point was the initial setup.
What about the implementation team?
We had a Cisco partner that assisted us in the initial implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution comes at a higher cost than if you had separate integrations grouped together.
There are licenses included with the hardware, and then there are annual subscriptions that you need to pay. You need to pay an annual subscription service to Cisco for operating the solution. There are other solutions that are purely hardware and whatever licenses you pay, you pay one time along with the purchase, or if you need to expand. This solution has an annual subscription payment.
What other advice do I have?
We are customers and end-users.
The HyperFlex is on-premise the hardware infrastructure. You can set it up with VMware ESXi or with Microsoft Hyper-V. We chose to go with VMware ESXi. It was a requirement of the other systems that we depended on. We could have gone with Hyper-V, however, VMware turned out to be the right solution. The system is hardware and it's compatible with both software solutions or hypervisor solutions. We chose VMware ESXi and turned out to be a better solution than Hyper-V.
I would recommend the product to other users, as long as it's affordable for the company. The cost is high. It is about 150% more costly than a comparable older generation solution. However, if you can afford it, then by all means go for it.
I'd also advise new users to choose a higher-end specification for the servers. This is also important. That would make extending it easier. For example, the fiber interconnected component the solution sells is like a switch. It's sold per port. If you buy exactly what you need now, you have to replace the hardware when you want to expand. Therefore, plan for the needs of the future, not the present.
Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-06-03T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Serhii Sheinych from
A good price for complex network solutions
What needs improvement?
There should be the opportunity to create more than one div group. The solution has only a gigabyte boot device, boot drive of only 240 gigabytes, but 480 would be better.
It is possible to create two or more div groups, for example: having two test drives and five capacity drives for each div group.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I am not in a position to discuss the solution's stability, as I do not work too closely with Hyperflex.
How are customer service and technical support?
I am not in a position to discuss technical support, as I do not work too closely with Hyperflex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is good, especially when it comes to complex network solutions, such as UCS and Connect.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series as an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Lennis Garrido from
Works faster and is flexible to use
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to combine and migrate regular servers to a hyper-converged infrastructure.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution works faster and is easy to use than any regular system. Also, its fabric interconnect provides flexibility for the system to scale up.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable feature is the high availability of the system.
What needs improvement?
The solution's price could be affordable.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for around two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution's stability as a ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 1000 users of the solution in our organization. We plan to increase the usage as well.
I rate its scalability as an eight.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is excellent.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is straightforward. You have to follow the configuration guide.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is highly priced compared to other vendors.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend it to others and rate it as a ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00-04:00