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HPE Alletra dHCI vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

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

HPE Alletra dHCI
Ranking in HCI
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
191
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of HPE Alletra dHCI is 4.4%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.1%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

Antonin Pavlik - PeerSpot reviewer
Effortless upgrades with one-click feature while new server deployment needs a smoother process
I have a data center, and all the servers are connected to HPE Alletra dHCI. I use it for data management with VMware running on the servers The most valuable feature of HPE Alletra dHCI is the one-click upgrade function, which allows all drivers and services to be downloaded to all servers…
WJHG - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless integrations, high availability, and offers a free version
Although I am generally satisfied with VSAN and its performance, there are some areas that could be improved to enhance its effectiveness even further. One area that could benefit from improvement is scalability. While the tool works well in its current configuration, allowing for greater ease and flexibility in adding new nodes to the cluster without complications would be very beneficial, especially in growing environments. Additionally, I would like to see additional features in the next version, such as better support for automated resource management. This could include proactive suggestions for optimizing storage and memory usage, as well as preventive alerts about the health status of the servers. A more intuitive interface or an improved dashboard for monitoring the cluster would also be helpful, as it would facilitate performance tracking and help identify potential issues before they affect services.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The latency is very low."
"With regards to performance, configuration, and longevity it is upgradeable, which means it has a good TCO rate. These are valuable aspects to me."
"The product has cut down a lot of service tickets. Earlier, people complained about slowness."
"Simply being able to move objects and the duplication feature have been quite effective."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The product provides zero downtime."
"It's helpful as you stand on high-end storage. Alletra offers up to 99% availability, providing excellent stability. You also get the benefits of an HCI solution with a template and upgradability at any time."
"The nice thing about it is that it truly integrates with the cloud, so I can move my volumes bi-directionally in and out of the cloud."
"Integration with virtualization platforms helped us to resolve many issues we were facing while using the physical storage."
"You can turn your local disk storage into high-availability iSCSI storage."
"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run."
"The ROI is great on this product."
"We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment."
"I like StarWind's high availability. The failover is almost immediate, so the end users have no idea the guest VM moved at all. We can failover all guest VMs onto a single hypervisor, place it into maintenance mode, install updates, and reboot a hypervisor all during the daytime and remotely, with confidence the process will be successful."
"I save both physical and virtual space."
"The installation of StarWind Virtual SAN was pretty easy, and the configuration was done in no time."
 

Cons

"The initial setup is a little bit complicated."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI only works with a hypervisor like VMware. There are plenty of other hypervisors that HP doesn't support. This is an area for improvement."
"Nimble Storage's integration with the management software could be better."
"Cost-wise, this solution is slightly more expensive than other hyperconverged solutions."
"I'm not sure if there are features lacking."
"I rate Nimble one out of 10 for ease of setup. Setting up Nimble Storage was a nightmare. It took us three months to deal with all the kinks and bugs. We had two people from HPE assisting us and two from our team."
"The solution must be hypervisor-agnostic."
"Lacking integration to the cloud."
"The platform needs to improve user management and the web console."
"Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items."
"I struggled when bit figuring out how to go about doing the evaluation."
"If there was one thing we could request, it would be the ability to shrink volumes. For example, we want to be able to decrease in the size of the volume."
"When you will cease your contract with StarWind (for support) your product won't be updated and that is a big selling point, especially for us, as we have loads of products from StarWind."
"I did not see any indication that StarWinds vSAN is a usable solution with non-GUI instances of Hyper-V."
"They require more media visibility."
"The logs can also become very noisy when there is an issue, which is very infrequent."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is expensive."
"HPE Nimble Storage dHCI is much cheaper than the competition and has value proposition. Customers can see an ROI in three months. There are no additional costs, and VMware licenses can be reutilized."
"The customers have found the solution to be expensive. However, when compared to the competition the price is reasonable."
"I would rate the licensing model a three out of ten, where one is extremely expensive, and ten is cheap."
"The prices are very high."
"With the features that HPE Nimble Storage dHCI provides, I cannot say its pricing is more."
"I think it's priced right and it's extremely intelligent."
"The product is costly."
"The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."
"Licensing is easy and the whole package is cost-effective."
"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."
"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."
"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."
"The setup cost, pricing, and licensing are very straightforward. They are exactly what you expect."
"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."
"Cost is affordable and licensing is smooth."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
The price of HPE Alletra dHCI is considered expensive for small businesses, however, it is suitable for medium to large companies.
What needs improvement with HPE Nimble Storage dHCI?
The deployment of a new server could be improved. I would like to add servers to the existing stack more easily, and there should be a function to reinstall servers with a one-click installation pr...
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) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
I can't give a sincere opinion on the installation and licensing costs because, as I have mentioned repeatedly, I am currently using the free version. However, I can say that I have submitted a req...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
Although I am generally satisfied with VSAN and its performance, there are some areas that could be improved to enhance its effectiveness even further. One area that could benefit from improvement ...
 

Also Known As

HPE Nimble Storage dHCI
StarWind SAN & NAS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Find out what your peers are saying about HPE Alletra dHCI vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.