Azure Stack HCI vs VMware vSAN comparison

Microsoft and VMware are both solutions in the HCI category. Microsoft is ranked #17 with an average rating of 8.3, while VMware is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of VMware users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

VMware vSAN and Azure Stack HCI are competing products in the hyper-converged infrastructure category. VMware vSAN holds an edge due to its robust integration within VMware's ecosystem and comprehensive scalability, while Azure Stack HCI is favored for its Azure service integration and hybrid cloud capabilities.

Features: VMware vSAN offers robust scalability, seamless integration with VMware environments, and policy-based management to enhance virtualized workloads. It provides a cohesive virtual environment through integration with VMware solutions like vSphere and vCenter, enabling efficient management. Azure Stack HCI allows for easy hybrid cloud deployment, integrates with Azure services for optimized management, and supports Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) for convenient microservice deployments within data centers.

Room for Improvement: VMware vSAN could improve its cost-effectiveness and licensing structure, which might be challenging for smaller enterprises. Additionally, its reliance on VMware-specific solutions might limit cross-platform flexibility. Azure Stack HCI can enhance its initial setup complexity, better streamline integration with legacy systems, and expand its ecosystem compatibility to rival other solutions more effectively.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware vSAN provides seamless deployment within existing VMware environments, with comprehensive support aimed at VMware clients, enhancing user experience. Azure Stack HCI benefits from straightforward deployment aided by Azure's supportive resources and infrastructure, proving advantageous for businesses already utilizing Azure services and may enhance support mechanisms for non-Azure users.

Pricing and ROI: VMware vSAN’s pricing might involve higher initial costs but offers significant ROI due to performance optimizations in VMware-centric setups. Azure Stack HCI provides competitive pricing and delivers attractive return prospects, especially for enterprises leveraging Azure cloud efficiencies, impacting long-term strategic planning in diverse financial contexts.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Stack HCI vs. VMware vSAN Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Stack HCI vs. VMware vSAN

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni

Senior System Engineer at Giza Systems

Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor

You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.

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Sushil MIshra

AG at SIS.

Performs well, provides good features, and has the latest processor

We were looking for a solution with high computing features and IOPS. We also have high network requirements. We have a production environment that runs on Kubernetes The solution has the latest processor. It provides the new SSD and a 25 GB network. The Kubernetes environment is better than that…

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Lipaz Hessel

Integration Manager at Gilat Satellite Networks

Expensive solution that requires professional services for installation and implementation

I'm still using a different solution. I only took two servers with vSAN to support one application that needs one feature that only VMware has. If not for that feature, I wouldn't touch VMware. Now, I'm looking at products like Nutanix, Silver Peak, Flexione, and FortiGate. For products that I choose, I don't need a specialist of that vendor. In VMware, I need a specialist in VMware. That's the issue I have with VMware. It's not like I can take any IT person, and they will know what to do. I need to make sure he will do the call, get the certificate and time to practice.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"StarWind vSAN is easy to deploy and administer."

"StarWind is very easy to use, even if you have had no experience using a SAN before."

"We have been able to use more on-prem hardware to reduce cost and also use old disks that we do not trust enough for ordinary RAID or usage."

"StarWind Virtual SAN is a highly flexible solution, as it can be deployed on physical servers or on top of virtual machines running on hypervisors such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V."

"The instant failover, with vSAN copying data to the second node, allowed for the continuous availability of our applications."

"The performance of the solution is accurate and concise."

"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."

"It has allowed me to effectively and confidently manage the maintenance of hosts where I can power off a host and have its VMs migrate to another one."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

"The features of Azure Stack HCI that have proven to be the most beneficial for optimizing our company's data center operations revolve around its performance."

"In my hybrid cloud setup, there are three features I've found very efficient. The first is software-defined networking. Similar to Azure where you create virtual networks and software load balancing, Azure Stack HCI lets you configure them with a drag-and-drop experience on the on-premises cluster. That's one of the good feature."

"The solution has the latest processor."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its ability to manage VMs."

"The most valuable feature is the simplicity of its scalability: being able to grow it without having to make sure you get the right disks and the right nodes. The solution is also easy to manage. It's all right there in the vSphere Client. You're not going through multiple things. You don't have to know, once you've created the vSAN node. You add storage, it sees it, and you create your data storage from there. Everything is right there for you."

"Technical support has been fantastic. We always get answers quickly whenever we call."

"We are finding that vSAN is a lot more scalable and adaptable, because we can go in with hybrid arrays for our lower-end storage needs or with all-flash versions of vSAN for places where we need more performance, and it's coming in at a lower cost point than an actual traditional array."

"The flexibility is most valuable. Being able to manage things quickly if something goes wrong is also valuable. Very recently, we had one node that went down due to a power problem, but there was really no major impact on the systems running on top of it."

"The feature we have found most valuable is the compatibility of VMware products with VCF and VMware Cloud Foundation."

"The scalability of the solution is most valuable."

"The implementation is simple, it was very straightforward. It took us approximately three weeks because it was installed in four locations."

"The solution fits well with my requirements."

More VMware vSAN pros

Cons

"This solution should be more self-sufficient, running without creating domains or failover clusters."

"I would like to see improvements in the documentation area."

"There is a general lack of documentation, especially up-to-date documentation to get started."

"I would like to see more monitoring and alert tools."

"Other vendors such as VMware vSAN have a bigger community of users, so it is easier to find more pre-sale or post-sale information from users."

"One point for improvement is to increase the performance capabilities of the Windows-based executable as compared to its Linux Controller Virtual Machine (CVM) equivalent."

"I would like to see an extensive set of cmdlets that could allow for easier automation as well as status management."

"They need to improve the speed of the interfaces, thus allowing for better traffic on the network."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

"There are a lot of areas for improvement. Since I've been working very closely with this product, there are many areas, especially in software-defined networking. We had to improve multiple areas because we depended on the service fabric cluster to manage the software-defined network. That means we're already running a hypervisor inside a VM, and we're managing the control plane of the software-defined network. That's another cluster. So, multiple layers make the complexity more. So, from an operational perspective, it's very difficult to manage."

"The biggest challenge with the tool is not being able to manage everything from Microsoft Azure Portal."

"We faced multiple problems with the product’s stability."

"The product's initial setup phase can be a bit complex, making it an area where improvements are required."

"The server files are larger than before."

"The solution must provide better customization."

"It would be ideal if the solution offered some intelligent monitoring."

"When you upgrade the vSAN, there are some issues like lost data and problems with the log. The log disappears. When you upgrade the solution, you must have several logs, so if you have some problems, you can check the log server to find them."

"The solution could maybe improve failure protection."

"The quality of the customer service and support depends on the vSAN case. For example, if I open ten cases, maybe two or three get resolved quickly. But the other cases have a slow response."

"I would like more integration with the hardware when it comes to disc types and supporting the newer types of storage."

"It would be ideal if clients didn't need to monitor the solution on a daily basis."

More VMware vSAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is more than reasonable."

"The premium support from StarWinds is a must have. The ability to have access to a storage engineer 24/7 is a must for a production environment."

"This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."

"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."

"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."

"The free version is great to use for labs or test environments."

"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."

"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is high compared to other tools."

"The main licenses are the OS licenses, the OEM licenses, and so on. They are very much aligned with the cost of expectations. We never had any challenges with the licensing at all."

"It is cheap. It is $0.02 a gig."

"It is slightly expensive. They can be more competitive in terms of pricing."

"Cost-wise, the Nutanix licenses were cheaper, but in terms of the hardware, there was some contention around it. So, in terms of implementation, the way Nutanix was projecting the implementation on their end was that there were a lot of open-source admin platforms. vSAN is a licensed product in VMware, and Nutanix was proposing a KVM solution, which is open source. That's why their pricing was a bit cheaper, but when we were trying to compare it with an enterprise version of their management platform, it boiled down to the VMware vSAN being most effective in the long run."

"I have been told that if I used VxRail it would be cheaper than the system we are using now with buying the products separately. The solution is expensive overall."

"The price of vSAN could be lower."

"The cost is expensive. I purchased two servers. The hardware cost was $19,000. The software cost for these two servers, including the vSAN, was $30,000, which is $11,000 more than the hardware. Then I had to pay another $5,000 for installation and implementation for professional services. In total, it was $54,000 for two vSAN Servers."

"Users may also start off with the demo version of the tool. After you learn to use the solution, you can buy it if it is beneficial."

"The price is okay."

More VMware vSAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Educational Organization

51%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about StarWind Virtual SAN?

It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combin...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

Choose StarWind Virtual SAN, it is the most flexible, reliable and cheap solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

While using StarWind Virtual SAN so far, I have not found anything missing. It is true that we are using it in a very...

See all answers

What do you like most about Azure Stack HCI?

The solution has the latest processor.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack HCI?

The pricing is high compared to other tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Stack HCI?

Speaking about the tool's challenges, I would say that if you know the product, you probably know why there are chall...

See all answers

What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?

While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an e...

See all answers

Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?

We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...

See all answers

How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?

HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We resea...

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Comparisons

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 17% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 13% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 7% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 6% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Azure Stack HCI

Compared 14% of the time

VxRail vs Azure Stack HCI

Compared 13% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs Azure Stack HCI

Compared 6% of the time

Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure vs Azure Stack HCI

Compared 6% of the time

HPE Alletra dHCI vs Azure Stack HCI

Compared 4% of the time

More Azure Stack HCI Competitors

VxRail vs VMware vSAN

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs VMware vSAN

Compared 15% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs VMware vSAN

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs VMware vSAN

Compared 8% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs VMware vSAN

Compared 3% of the time

More VMware vSAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

November 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Buyer's Guide

Azure Stack HCI

November 2024

Download Azure Stack HCI product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN

November 2024

Download VMware vSAN product report

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS

No data available

vSAN

Learn More

StarWind

Microsoft

VMware

Overview

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

Azure Stack HCI is used by government organizations to maintain local data center operations while accessing cloud services, offering efficient management of VMs through a single console.

Azure Stack HCI effectively supports environments with high computing and network demands, such as Kubernetes. IT professionals advocate its use for managing functional areas and KPIs. Key features include software-defined networking and integration with Azure Kubernetes Service, enabling efficient microservices deployment. Organizations benefit from enhanced performance with the latest processors, SSDs, and robust network capabilities. Challenges include simplifying its deployment process and improving stability, especially in multi-cluster management.

What are the important features of Azure Stack HCI?

Software-defined networking: Efficient management with a drag-and-drop interface.
Azure Kubernetes Service integration: Seamless deployment of microservices.
Virtual machine management: Robust management of numerous VMs under one host.
Enhanced hardware support: Utilization of latest processors and high-speed SSDs.

What benefits should be considered in reviews?

Single console management: Ease in monitoring and managing VMs.
High performance: Supports up to five million applications.
Resource optimization: Efficient use of computing and networking resources.

Azure Stack HCI is implemented in industries with heavy data processing needs, such as government entities requiring local control of data centers while integrating cloud capabilities. It offers specialized support for demanding environments like Kubernetes, significantly benefiting IT operations.

VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage product that is used in collaboration with VMware ESXi hypervisor and that provisions and manages storage based on policies, regardless of the underlying hardware. The solution enables you to prime your business for growth through its seamless evolution (it is integrated with vSphere and requires no new tools), its flexibility, and its multi-cloud capabilities. As an industry-leading software, VMware vSAN provides high levels of performance with minimal impact on CPU and memory.

VMware vSAN Features

VMware vSAN has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Storage policy-based management (SPBM): VMware vSAN supports storage policy-based management for automated management of storage profiles.

Software-defined data-at-rest encryption: With this VMware vSAN feature, you can prevent unauthorized access of data at rest.

Multiple nodes: VMware vSAN provides clusters that can include as few as 2 nodes or as many as 64 nodes.

High security and availability: VMware vSAN offers stretched clusters, allowing more than one virtualization host server to be used in the same setup, promoting higher security as well as availability.

Deduplication: VMware vSAN’s deduplication compresses data to ensure efficient storage management and security.

HCI mesh updates: VMware vSAN clusters can share storage capacity with non-HCI Sphere clusters and can adopt HCI without having to scale computing resources and storage or replace existing servers.

Simplified file services: With VMware vSAN’s file services, backup of file shares is simplified. You can use APIs that allow backup and recovery software vendors to integrate with your VMware vSAN file services, which enables backup software to track new data and add scalability enhancements to files.

VMware vSAN Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing VMware vSAN. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO): VMware vSAN helps you reduce upfront costs for businesses because it can be easily deployed on inexpensive x86 servers. In addition, its highly scalable infrastructure and quick deployment also save organizations time and money, making it an efficient storage solution.

Good manageability: VMWare vSAN is easy to set up, manage, and provision, without sacrificing performance.

Scalability: VMware vSAN is agile and allows administrators to scale storage on demand, quickly, and efficiently via policies and rules.

Simplicity: VMWare vSAN is simple to configure since it is embedded in the vSphere hypervisor. Installing it using the vSphere Web Client can be done quickly.

Reduced risk: VMWare vSAN reduces the risk associated with digital transformations by utilizing existing tools, skill sets, and solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the VMware vSAN solution.

PeerSpot user Yves S., CEO, Cloud Evangelist at Comdivision Consulting GmbH, says, “vSAN gives us a lot of advantages when we need to expand resources. We have an overall larger host infrastructure, and we split that up for specific customer test and use cases. In that specific scenario, we can easily add more hosts or reduce the number of hosts in the environment.”

A reviewer who works in Infrastructure Security explains, “The ease of use is great. The initial setup and upgrade process was pretty straightforward. And, technical support is great.”

Laurent N., Director at Softlogic, comments, "The feature that I have found most valuable is that it is easy to deploy. It is easy to create and delete virtual servers. It is easy to create the load balancing and the clustering."

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

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Buyer's Guide

Azure Stack HCI vs. VMware vSAN

October 2024

Free Report: Azure Stack HCI vs. VMware vSAN

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Stack HCI vs. VMware vSAN and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

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