DataCore SANsymphony vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct comparison

DataCore and Microsoft are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. DataCore is ranked #4 with an average rating of 9.4, while Microsoft is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.0. DataCore holds a 6.9% mindshare in SDS, compared to Microsoft’s 7.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of DataCore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 77% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

DataCore SANsymphony and Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct compete in the storage solutions market. DataCore SANsymphony is considered more flexible due to its compatibility with various hardware platforms and robust disaster recovery features, making it preferable for diverse environments.

Features: DataCore SANsymphony offers flexible integration with various storage platforms, enhancing performance with auto-tiering and parallel I/O. Its disaster recovery and continuous data protection features are well-suited for high-performance needs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct benefits from native Windows integration, utilizing existing infrastructure for scalable and cost-effective deployments. It includes advanced storage functions like three-way mirroring and efficient auto-tiering.

Room for Improvement: DataCore SANsymphony users suggest improving its support for iSCSI configurations and simplifying its pricing model. A more user-friendly web management console could enhance usability. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct could improve RDMA documentation and streamline integration processes. A more streamlined management interface would also be beneficial.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DataCore SANsymphony is praised for its strong customer service support, though initial deployment may require expert guidance. It supports various hardware platforms effectively. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is easy to deploy, particularly in Windows environments, but RDMA setup may need advanced expertise. Its native Windows integration simplifies use within existing ecosystems.

Pricing and ROI: DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is considered high, influenced by hardware requirements, and its subscription model may pose budgeting challenges. However, its long-term value is appreciated due to its flexibility and performance. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is perceived as more economical within Windows settings, with built-in functionalities reducing ongoing costs. Both solutions prioritize high availability, though initial setup expenses should be considered.

To learn more, read our detailed DataCore SANsymphony vs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.2%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 6.9%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is 7.6%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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OliverPalz

Senior Consultant at SJT SOLUTIONS GMBH

Provides efficient synchronous mirroring capability and dynamic data management functionality

The initial setup is relatively easy but requires a certified DataCore implementation engineer to deploy the solution in a production environment. The deployment following the qualified procedure, typically takes about a week, depending on the amount of storage and the specific environment. With my experience, I can set up the system within two to four hours; however, the qualification process, which includes detailed planning and testing, adds additional time. It involves gathering the customer's requirements, preparing comprehensive documentation for validation, and conducting tests in collaboration with the customer. This documentation includes a site planning checklist, a pre-installation checklist, and a functional test plan to ensure everything is in order before deployment. Overall, I rate the process an eight.

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Stanislaw Mielicki

Solution architect at Netland

Achieve cost-effectiveness with superior performance while needing to address cluster support

I am working with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct for applications, SQL, and VRS. I am an integrator for this solution The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. They introduced the All-Flash array using SSD or NVMe drives without cache drives. It is…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Approximately 40% to 50% of my time is saved using Pure Storage FlashBlade compared to different products."

"The initial setup is pretty quick."

"Using this solution has made our backups more reliable."

"It's very easy-to-use."

"We have seen a reduction in the total cost of ownership by around 20%."

"FlashBlade offers low latency, high throughput, and seamless scalability."

"The ease of deployment and management has helped us simplify our storage. We also do not have to worry about capacity management as much. A lot of these things are native to Pure Storage."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is user-friendly. It's replication feature is great because it has active replication and active DR. That's the beauty of the product. It's a perfect solution for block storage."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"The documentation repository is really useful and kept updated."

"The interface is user-friendly."

"CDP is an important feature for avoiding data loss in the event of ransomware attacks. You need more storage capacity, however, you get the possibility to return at any time and use the data saved up to that point. The recovery is much faster than with a classic restore."

"The support is excellent."

"The most valuable feature for us is that we can adjust the size of the storage very easily, without stopping production."

"It is a well-proven, automated management tool in all dynamic provisioning, auto-tiering, great performance, parallel I/O, cache speed mechanism, etc."

"The DataCore system has been rock solid since we have been using it - from 2007 on."

"The synchronous mirror allows us to operate a fully redundant storage solution that is distributed across two sites."

More DataCore SANsymphony pros

"The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing"

"It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions."

"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."

"The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable."

"Its technical support is excellent."

"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."

"The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct pros

Cons

"An area for improvement in Pure Storage FlashBlade is its price. It could be reduced. The technical support for Pure Storage FlashBlade also needs improvement. It used to be good, with more experienced engineers. Nowadays, it isn't, and it takes longer for support to solve problems."

"I have not seen ROI."

"Recently, while upgrading the version code, one of the controllers failed. Replacing the controller took between 14 to 20 days."

"Its configuration should be easier."

"It would be nice if you could store file-based in the same box with the same technology."

"The documentational aspect of FlashBlade needs improvement."

"I would like to see more deduplication."

"File storage needs a lot of improvement. Mainframe connectivity also needs improvement because it requires additional components to be integrated with Pure Storage FlashBlade. If you want to keep your backup data, then this becomes an even more expensive solution because Pure Storage FlashBlade will not be able to meet your backup needs."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"One limitation of this solution is that it's Windows-based, e.g. one requirement to install DataCore SANsymphony SDS is putting it on a Windows server machine. It relies on Windows and that is a limitation because there are some customers who are looking for non Windows systems."

"Management could be improved. The management console sometimes reacts very slowly."

"There is no way of quickly matching the exact size of a vDisk to a disk pool."

"It would be ideal if they were providing archive licensing with the ability to create a second pool on existing storage nodes."

"Problem detection could be easier. It should help customers identify problems very quickly because it's not easy to analyze on the platform today."

"I would like to see reporting added, such as a monthly connectivity report."

"DataCore needs a more efficient and better way to keep track of metrics and counters so that we can do baseline analysis to measure performance."

"I found it a little unnecessary to have to rename the configurations within the graphics console in order to have unique names."

More DataCore SANsymphony cons

"More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring."

"Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution."

"It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution."

"The integration is not difficult because there is no GUI, but we need to use a PowerShell command. This makes it difficult to monitor and to see the components' statuses."

"I think the online documentation needs a lot of work and so do the sizing tools."

"Documentation management could be improved"

"It is scalable, but only beyond two nodes. If I go for two nodes it's not scalable. I need to build a complete cluster from the beginning if I'm going for two nodes."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be cheaper."

"Support is a separate line item. Support is a different cost, but whatever your support is now, that's what you're going to pay forever. If your support's $100 today, six years from now it's $100. It doesn't fluctuate unless you upgrade it, or change it, etc."

"Licensing fees are paid yearly."

"I have seen ROI. It has allowed me to increase the density of my VMs without having to purchase anything additional."

"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."

"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."

"It's a costly solution, but Pure Storage FlashBlade doesn't require additional licenses. All of the software is combined into one bundle."

"The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"The cost is at the same level as other storage solutions and it is easy to understand the licensing."

"It is relatively expensive, and the additional costs for hardware and storage can make it a significant investment for customers."

"The pricing and licensing are better with DataCore."

"In my case, the licensing per terabytes is very high and it must be licensed for each extra functionality."

"Make sure you are made aware of the annual subscription cost when purchasing."

"DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper."

"Pricing has improved but it is still expensive."

"This solution allows the use of off-the-shelf hardware and charges by the TB of storage."

More DataCore SANsymphony pricing and cost advice

"With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."

"The solution is expensive."

"Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The pricing of Pure Storage FlashBlade is expensive compared to other products I used from other companies in the pas...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

I believe there is not much improvement needed because they have everything we need, but the interface is a little bi...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataCore SANsymphony SDS?

The cost changed from a perpetual license to a subscription model, and it seems reasonable. I am technical personnel ...

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What do you like most about DataCore SANsymphony?

The dashboard is very intuitive, and there are a lot of counters to diagnose what happens during a short period (like...

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What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony?

In my opinion, there should be improvements in how to get and filter logs. However, this is not a frequent need becau...

See all answers

How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is bes...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Pricing is an advantage of Storage Spaces Direct. Licenses can be on a monthly or yearly basis, depending on the addi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution. At the moment, the new version does...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 20% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 9% of the time

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StarWind Virtual SAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 12% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 11% of the time

VMware vSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 11% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 9% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 4% of the time

More DataCore SANsymphony Competitors

VMware vSAN vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 62% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 15% of the time

StarWind Virtual SAN vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 7% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 6% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Compared 3% of the time

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

June 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony

July 2025

Download DataCore SANsymphony product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

June 2025

Download Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct product report

Also Known As

No data available

DataCore Virtual SAN

MS Storage Spaces Direct

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Experience peace of mind with DataCore SANsymphony, the ultimate software-defined storage solution alleviating storage management challenges. Say goodbye to the complexities of managing different storage tiers and disruptions with SANsymphony's block-level storage virtualization technology, empowering you to automate capacity provisioning and data placement across diverse storage environments including SAN, DAS, HCI, and JBOD. Break down silos, control data placement, meet business continuity objectives, boost performance, and seamlessly expand or refresh hardware with SANsymphony. Benefit from features like asynchronous replication for disaster recovery, minimizing data loss, accelerating application responsiveness, and integrating new technology non-disruptively. Trusted by industry leaders like NASA, Thorntons, Inc., and TUI Cruises, DataCore SANsymphony guarantees unparalleled flexibility, scalability, and reliability, ensuring uninterrupted data access and application availability while reducing storage costs and inefficiencies.

DataCore

Storage Spaces Direct uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture radically simplifies procurement and deployment, while features like caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, together with the latest hardware innovation like RDMA networking and NVMe drives, deliver unrivaled efficiency and performance.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

Volkswagen , Maimonides Medical Center, NASA, Thorntons, Inc., TUI, ISCO Industries, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, United Financial Credit Union, Derby Supply Chain Solutions, Mission Community Hospital, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Colby-Sawyer College, Mount Sinai Health System, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Quorn Foods, Bitburger, University of Birmingham, Stadtverwaltung Heidelberg, NetEnt to name a few.

Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

July 2025

Free Report: DataCore SANsymphony vs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct

Find out what your peers are saying about DataCore SANsymphony vs. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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