DataCore SANsymphony vs VMware Software Defined Storage comparison

DataCore and VMware are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. DataCore is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.5, while VMware is ranked #13 with an average rating of 9.0. DataCore holds a 7.7% mindshare in SDS, compared to VMware’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of DataCore users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

DataCore SANsymphony

Read 55 DataCore SANsymphony reviews

1,716 Views
923 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

VMware Software Defined Sto...

Read 6 VMware Software Defined Storage reviews

256 Views
157 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

DataCore SANsymphony

VMware Software Defined Sto...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

DataCore SANsymphony and VMware Software Defined Storage compete in the storage virtualization category. DataCore is favored for its pricing and support, whereas VMware is recognized for extensive features.

Features: DataCore SANsymphony provides easy manageability of disk pools, synchronous mirroring, and auto-tiering, which allows a mix of storage types for optimized efficiency. VMware Software Defined Storage offers high availability, scalability, and seamless integration within VMware environments.

Room for Improvement: DataCore SANsymphony users mention the need for better performance reporting and more intuitive management features, along with reducing Windows dependency. VMware Software Defined Storage users seek cost reduction, improved hardware compatibility, and enhanced executive-level reporting and replication features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DataCore SANsymphony receives praise for its comprehensive on-premises deployment and superior customer support. VMware Software Defined Storage also excels in deployment capabilities but falls short in customer service compared to DataCore.

Pricing and ROI: DataCore SANsymphony is considered more cost-effective with its flexible licensing model, despite perceptions of high pricing by some users. VMware Software Defined Storage, known for being expensive, often drives users to more affordable alternatives due to the high initial investment.

To learn more, read our detailed DataCore SANsymphony vs. VMware Software Defined Storage Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

January 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

DataCore SANsymphony

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

5th

Average Rating

9.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Storage Software (2nd), HCI (7th), Storage Performance (1st)

VMware Software Defined Sto...

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

13th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 7.7%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Software Defined Storage is 0.9%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

TempreviewerD

Architecte Principal at Orange

Robust with good replication and access protection

The solution is constantly evolving. Recently, deduplication and compression have been further improved to meet customer needs, and updates are easily implemented without stopping production. The update assistant checks the state of health before using good practices, during checks that the data is still presented for service continuity, and afterward, if the actions carried out are indeed active. Technical support is truly available even without a production incident. This is really essential right now.

Read full review

RashidAnwar

Senior Project Lead at Tetra Pak

A stable solution that can be used for database applications and virtualization for multiple locations

VMware Software Defined Storage is used for database applications and virtualization for multiple locations VMware Software Defined Storage gives higher availability against data corruption. Redundancy and scalability are the other valuable features of the solution. You can scale it on the go,…

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

"The interface is user-friendly."

"Auto-tiering to obtain performance at a lower cost without the customer having to purchase ultra-fast storage is great."

"Our system is designed to be scalable and flexible, so it can grow and adapt to meet the changing needs of our clients."

"SANsymphony is flexible, with many potential options for implementation. SANsymphony's can be used with VMware, Hyper-V, or even with a hypervisor agnostic approach. It can also be used for strictly physical non-virtualized solutions."

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

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

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

"For us, fault tolerance is the most important feature of DataCore."

More DataCore SANsymphony pros

"The solution is simple to configure and provides good performance and less footprint."

"The most valuable features of the solution are that it is easy to deploy and the support is really good."

"This is an easy-to-use product for adding flexibility to your storage solution."

"VMware Software Defined Storage gives higher availability against data corruption."

"The single management panel is the main feature that is wonderful for the customer."

"The best part of the solution is that you can actually scale up to a large number of operating systems without additional hardware."

Cons

"The cost is becoming prohibitive since they moved to a subscription model."

"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."

"I would like to see SMPA (Shared Multi-Port Array) technology developed with the aim of allowing a configuration identical to other storage arrays."

"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."

"When I sometimes reboot for maintenance, the connectivity from the iSCSI initiator host could be improved."

"The cloud reporting interface is quite poor compared to other vendors."

"Right now, the version used is run on Microsoft Windows Server. Having a Linux version or even an appliance would be better as it would eliminate the use of additional licensing for another piece of hardware."

"There is room for improvement in the graphical interface."

More DataCore SANsymphony cons

"VMware Software Defined Storage should include a shared database on a standard version."

"The license model of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The performance is not as good as some competing products and reporting can be improved."

"I'd like to see improved hardware compatibility"

"It doesn't have the ability to be deployed on any kind of hardware and network connectors."

"The solution has some limitations in terms of replication to remote sites or cloud infrastructure, which need improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Pricing has improved but it is still expensive."

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

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

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

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

"The solution is cost effective."

"This product has a good ratio between quality and price. In many cases, it's less expensive to work with DataCore than other storage systems."

More DataCore SANsymphony pricing and cost advice

"I believe there is a yearly licensing fee of around $2000 - $5000. I don't think there are additional costs above that but it depends on the type of infrastructure you're booting."

"A single socket costs you around US $6,000 for three years. At a minimum, you have a three load cluster for a medium or enterprise-scale company. It can get quite expensive because you're likely to need four to six sockets on the other side. It comes to around $30,000."

"The solution is very expensive."

"VMware Software Defined Storage is a slightly expensive solution."

"The product is quite expensive and is among the most expensive for this type of solution."

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838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Government

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

I rate the pricing of this solution as an eight. It is relatively expensive, and the additional costs for hardware and storage can make it a significant investment for customers.

See all answers

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 when a backup is in progress).

See all answers

What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony?

One area where the solution could improve is its software platform. Many customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the software running on Microsoft Windows. Although an attempt was made to dev...

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What do you like most about VMware Software Defined Storage?

VMware Software Defined Storage gives higher availability against data corruption.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Software Defined Storage?

The solution is very expensive. We can buy a full hardware solution with the money we spend on the software.

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Software Defined Storage?

The license model of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required. The tool's licensing model has been changed to a new license scheme, and the price has almost gone up by fort...

See all answers

Comparisons

VMware vSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 14% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 14% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 10% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs DataCore SANsymphony

Compared 10% of the time

More DataCore SANsymphony Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs VMware Software Defined Storage

Compared 50% of the time

More VMware Software Defined Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony

February 2025

Download DataCore SANsymphony product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Software Defined Storage

February 2025

Download VMware Software Defined Storage product report

Also Known As

DataCore Virtual SAN

VMware SDS

Overview

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

VMware software-defined storage is a simple, yet intelligent, storage data center architecture that aligns with business and application demands—eliminating static, purpose-built and inefficient hardware with dynamic, agile and automated solutions.

VMware

Sample Customers

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.

Helse Nord, Sky

Buyer's Guide

DataCore SANsymphony vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

January 2025

Free Report: DataCore SANsymphony vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

Find out what your peers are saying about DataCore SANsymphony vs. VMware Software Defined Storage and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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