Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Options Worth Evaluating

Hyper-converged infrastructure is no longer a novel category. It's mainstream, the buying patterns have settled, and the vendors have largely shaken out into a handful of serious contenders. If you're evaluating HCI in 2024, the question is no longer "should we go HCI?" — it's "which HCI, and why?" Here's my honest take on the options worth putting on a shortlist and what each one is actually good at.

Quick context: we've deployed and operated HCI clusters for customers across multiple vendors for a decade now. I'm not on any vendor's payroll, and I'm going to tell you where each platform hurts along with what it does well.

Nutanix — The Mature Incumbent

Nutanix pioneered the modern HCI category and it shows in the polish of the product. The management UI (Prism) is the best in the industry. The operational experience is smooth. Upgrades are one-click and genuinely work. The AHV hypervisor, Nutanix's own KVM-based stack, eliminates the VMware license dependency entirely and gives you a legitimately capable hypervisor without paying Broadcom for it.

Where Nutanix shines: operational simplicity, genuinely good day-2 experience, strong support organization, and a clean migration story off VMware if you're trying to escape the Broadcom pricing situation (which, in 2024, a lot of organizations are). The Prism Central dashboard is the nicest infrastructure UI I use regularly.

Where it hurts: list pricing is high. You will negotiate, and you will feel it. Some of the advanced features (Files, Objects, disaster recovery) are add-on licenses that add up quickly. If you want the full Nutanix experience, budget for it. If you want a minimalist deployment, you can stick with the core HCI license and still get a very capable platform.

Best fit: organizations that want to escape VMware, value operational simplicity above raw cost, and have the budget to buy a polished product.

VMware vSAN — The Default for Existing VMware Shops

VMware vSAN is the HCI option that's already in the box if you're running vSphere. It integrates seamlessly with the rest of the VMware stack, which means your existing admin skills, existing automation, and existing tooling all transfer directly. For a VMware shop, the path of least resistance is almost always "turn on vSAN on your next hardware refresh."

Where vSAN shines: zero learning curve for VMware admins, tight integration with NSX and vCenter, and a genuinely capable storage stack. The NVMe performance on current generation vSAN is excellent.

Where it hurts: the Broadcom acquisition has made vSAN licensing a moving target, and not in a good direction. Customers are reporting significant price increases at renewal. The bundling strategy under Broadcom pushes you toward the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack whether you want it or not. If you're happy with VMware and have a renewal coming up, price it carefully and get your pricing in writing for the full term.

Best fit: existing VMware shops with a renewal coming up that have negotiated favorable pricing, and organizations that genuinely need the full VMware feature set.

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI — The Hybrid Cloud Story

Azure Stack HCI is Microsoft's on-premises HCI platform, tightly integrated with Azure services like Azure Arc, Azure Monitor, and Azure Backup. If your organization is already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem — Windows Server workloads, Active Directory, System Center, Azure subscriptions — Azure Stack HCI gives you an on-prem footprint that behaves like an extension of your Azure tenant.

Where it shines: native Azure integration, sensible licensing for Windows workloads (you're already paying for Windows Server anyway), and a billing model that's subscription-based and predictable. Windows Server 2022 and 2025 workloads feel at home, and Hyper-V is a mature, production-grade hypervisor that doesn't get enough credit.

Where it hurts: Linux workloads are supported but are not the first-class citizen they are on other platforms. The product is tightly coupled to Azure, so if you're not otherwise invested in Azure, you're inheriting an ecosystem you may not want. Some operations still require System Center or Windows Admin Center, which means more moving parts than a single-pane platform.

Best fit: Microsoft-first organizations that want hybrid cloud integration and run predominantly Windows workloads.

Dell VxRail — Integrated but Locked-In

VxRail is Dell's integrated vSAN appliance. It's essentially vSAN running on Dell hardware with Dell's integration and support layer on top. The value proposition is a single support call, validated hardware and software stacks, and lifecycle management handled by Dell rather than requiring you to coordinate between VMware and your hardware vendor.

Where it shines: the operational experience is good, the lifecycle management (VxRail Manager) handles firmware and software updates together in a way that straight vSAN doesn't, and Dell's support is generally responsive for customers of their size.

Where it hurts: you're locked into Dell hardware at Dell prices, and you've got the same Broadcom/VMware pricing risk as any vSAN deployment. The "one throat to choke" story is valuable until you want to use a feature that's caught between the vendors, at which point you get a slower resolution than you'd get with direct relationships.

Best fit: existing Dell shops that want an integrated appliance experience and are willing to pay a premium for single-vendor support.

Proxmox VE — The Open Source Option

Proxmox has quietly become a serious contender, especially in 2024 as organizations look for alternatives to the Broadcom VMware pricing. It's open source, based on KVM and Ceph (or ZFS for local storage), and the operational experience has improved dramatically in the last few releases. It's not as polished as Nutanix, but it's genuinely capable for a broad range of workloads.

Where it shines: cost. There is no per-socket licensing; you pay for optional support subscriptions. Ceph integration gives you distributed storage without buying a separate vendor's product. Migration tools for moving workloads off VMware are surprisingly good and improving rapidly.

Where it hurts: polish. The UI is functional but not beautiful. Enterprise support is available through Proxmox Server Solutions, but the support ecosystem is smaller than the commercial alternatives. You will rely more on community forums and your own team's Linux expertise than you would on a commercial HCI platform. If your team doesn't have strong Linux skills, the savings will evaporate in operational friction.

Best fit: organizations with strong in-house Linux skills that want to cut licensing costs meaningfully and are willing to trade some polish for a significantly lower TCO.

How to Actually Pick

The decision tree I use with customers:

• Escaping VMware because of Broadcom pricing, willing to buy a polished replacement: Nutanix.
• Escaping VMware because of Broadcom pricing, willing to trade polish for cost: Proxmox.
• Happy with VMware, renewal locked in at reasonable pricing: stay on vSAN.
• Microsoft-first shop with Azure integration goals: Azure Stack HCI.
• Dell shop that wants integrated appliance experience: VxRail.

There is no universally best HCI platform. There's the right one for your workload mix, your team's skills, your vendor relationships, and your budget. Don't let a single vendor's sales cycle drive the decision — pilot two of them if you can, run your actual workloads on the pilots, and pick based on what the evaluation tells you instead of what the slide deck promised. The operational reality of HCI is better experienced than projected, and every platform has quirks you won't see until you run it.