Cisco FlexPod vs. Dell VxBlock System 1000

• Scenarios where downtime isn't possible.
• Being able to move a physical server config to another physical server within the FlexPod is a god send.
• Hardware fails, we all know that.
• It happens, by being able to move a profile from one blade to another, it allows you to quickly and easily restore service while waiting for hardware to arrive onsite to repair/replace the failed component.

Incentivized

VBlock is extremely well-suited for reliable delivery of virtualized mixed workloads. VBlock provides necessary hardware abstraction that allows for, uninterrupted by hardware failures, continuous delivery of critical services that otherwise do not provide hardware failure resiliency. VBlock is not the best solution from a financial standpoint for cost-sensitive solutions that are programmed for software resiliency.

Incentivized

• Single Pane of Glass Server Administration.
• Ease of firmware upgrades.
• Incredible support when you have an issue. The Cisco/NetApp/VMware FlexPod support teams work together and drive your issues down to the root cause.

Incentivized

• Ease of Implementation
• Local Support and Expertise
• Minimum disruption to Architect

Incentivized

• KVM control of the blades still requires Java. Avocent is using HTML5 now, and it would be nice if the KVM console for these UCS blades could too.
• Price - Like any Cisco product, there are cheaper options. They aren't nearly as fully featured, but at times, it would be nice if UCS could be a bit cheaper.

Incentivized

• Even tighter integration between components, with single pane of management dashboard to manage and deploy solutions.
• Automation - as of right now there is no single administrative interface provided to script solution provisioning.

Incentivized

I have made use of Smartstack, vBlock and Flashstack, as well as other mixes of storage and virtualization hosts, and FlexPod is probably still my favorite. While something like a Nimble Smartstack or Pure Flashstack is easier to maintain, I love the in depth information and control that a SAN such as Netapp offers us. There is more knowledge and skill required to manage it, but the maturity of the product helps make up for that.

Incentivized

vce vBlock is considered a converged solution wherein 3 vendors namely cisco, vmware and emc combined in a single rack/solution. Compared to Nutanix which is tightly integrated, vblock does not provide the ease of use, support and management. The solution does not offer that much if you buy it separately.

Incentivized

• FlexPod has allowed our team to be extremely quick to resopnd to new VM build requests. The amount of RAM, CPU and backplane offered by B series blades allows us to go with very high VM density. The quick deployment of service profile templates also means that when we have to add new hosts, it is done quicker.
• FlexPod and the service profile portability (along with VMware) has allowed for full upgrades and migrations from M1/M2 series hardware to M4 hardware without any downtime or outages to the clients. Blades can be moved into new chassis, or service profiles moved to new generation blades, with no impact to the customers' ability to work.

Incentivized

• Single contact for vendor support & fully tested and integrated.

Incentivized