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Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 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

Pure Storage FlashBlade
Sponsored
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
8th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (16th), File and Object Storage (8th)
Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
114
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (5th), Public Cloud Storage Services (5th), File and Object Storage (3rd), NVMe All-Flash Storage Arrays (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 3.8%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is 7.0%, down from 7.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is 4.7%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Storage (SDS) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)4.7%
Pure Storage FlashBlade3.8%
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct7.0%
Other84.5%
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
 

Featured Reviews

MikaelHellström - PeerSpot reviewer
Has handled backup storage needs reliably and supports seamless upgrades
In environments requiring high throughput and low latency, Pure Storage FlashBlade provides high throughput and normal latency, but we do not have any application that requires low latency right now, so the latency of three to five milliseconds is considered kind of high. Pure Storage FlashBlade's ability to integrate with enterprise applications is not important for us, as we only want to present an S3 bucket for our backup, which we have done, and it works very fast. We use the Purity software's data reduction techniques; we have a backup software that compresses everything before sending it to the S3 bucket, achieving a data reduction of 1.1 to one. I would recommend Pure Storage FlashBlade to other companies because it's a very fast and scalable solution for anyone who needs it. On a scale of 1-10, I rate this solution an 8.
Stanislaw Mielicki - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Amarnath Charugundla - PeerSpot reviewer
Unified management and cost-effectiveness lead to positive experiences and future savings
Improvement is necessary wherein the memory or storage should not breach 90%, because if breached, it becomes unmanageable. We have to set alerts or CPU triggering for 95% for the first warning. Other activities on nodes or file systems should be properly maintained. We must monitor the dashboard for P1, P2 alerts in the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) file share system including SMB, NFS, objects, and blocks. Attention should be maintained for any alerts such as CPU, memory, and RAM alerts, as exceeding these creates issues within teams. If triggered to 95% and forgotten, it crosses the SLA breach, causing disturbances to application, web, and platform teams. Continuous monitoring on the Nutanix dashboard is essential. Even a highly experienced person in Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) cannot provide a 10 rating out of 10 because it is a vast system. I would rate it eight from my perspective.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's most valuable features are data warehousing, speedy recovery, and analytics. Its latest release is cost-effective."
"The performance of FlashBlade is excellent. It does not necessarily leverage the SOS API that some of the newer products leverage, but I found its speed pretty much on par and comparable. It is fast, and it does what it is supposed to do."
"The solution is able to handle workloads and is easy to use. It allows us to actually manage the boxes in less time."
"I would rate Pure Storage FlashBlade a ten out of ten."
"Approximately 40% to 50% of my time is saved using Pure Storage FlashBlade compared to different products."
"We can capacity plan at a greater level than we used to."
"It is very easy to use, and it is very fast."
"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct."
"The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure."
"The main positive impact that Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct has had on my company over the years is increasing performance; our checks show it is three times faster than VMware, making us extremely happy and motivated to keep using it."
"The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."
"Its technical support is excellent."
"The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable."
"It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions."
"The benefit that our clients see is the security of the whole Nutanix platform where they have simplified usage."
"It is unified. This is the best thing that Nutanix gave to the world. You can do everything from one point."
"The aspect of the product that I like the most is its simplicity."
"The most valuable features of the solution are replication and backup and our company needs a tool to help us with disaster recovery and the security of our data."
"The solution is very easy to manage."
"The management interface is great and you have handy access to several details about your file shares."
"We have virtually zero downtime with Nutanix. It updates itself, and we can easily move machines from one cluster to another."
"Regarding downtime issues, we haven't had downtime in generations, and everything is going very well."
 

Cons

"I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."
"Its configuration should be easier."
"I would like to see more deduplication."
"We haven't been able to use much of the cloud area of Pure Storage. We have a storage server and it would be better if it could integrate with other cloud features of this solution."
"They need better integration with public clouds along with a better hybrid solution."
"In my opinion, one way Pure Storage FlashBlade can be improved is by having more compatibility between the FlashArray and FlashBlade, allowing for synchronized data between both platforms."
"The features provided for SMB customers are limited."
"It's on the expensive side, as expected for a niche product."
"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."
"On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the customer service and technical support of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct a three, as there were issues that the Microsoft team could not pinpoint, leading to delays in finding solutions."
"More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring."
"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."
"Documentation management could be improved"
"There is a lot of room for improvement. I would like to have more tools to monitor the function and problems."
"Microsoft closed the shared cluster support, which is important for the solution."
"The management tool within this solution could be improved. We would also like to be able to access services like Azure when using this solution."
"I would them to have more communication with other platforms, and it appears they are already doing that."
"There is an occasional language barrier between some of the technicians, which can be challenging; however, that doesn't prevent us from being assisted, as they can remote in and use Pulse to view our cluster and gather logs and reports."
"For improvement, the memory or storage should not exceed 90% capacity, as it becomes difficult to manage beyond this threshold."
"In summary for improvements, I would say stay on the integration path, keep those integrations heavy, and let us use the software and technologies with everybody."
"The dashboard can have more details and be more useful."
"We would love to see the analytics and ransomware protection extended beyond just file servers to virtual machines, but they have a different product that covers that."
"It is challenging to configure access control settings."
"The solution should increase its storage capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price could be cheaper."
"In my opinion, we have paid the right price for the product. I don't think that it is too much or too little."
"The price is a little high."
"The pricing is relatively expensive due to the FlashBlade technology. However, for companies needing quick and reliable data access, the cost is justified."
"The product is very expensive."
"I understand that it is competitively priced compared to other brands."
"We used a reseller for the purchase."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."
"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."
"The licensing model the tool has is cheaper than an HCI storage solution."
"The solution's pricing is better compared to other products."
"The pricing of Nutanix is generally higher compared to other vendors, which is a common observation, but it provides value through its support and features offered to customers."
"The solution's pricing is fair."
"Nutanix Unified Storage isn't expensive."
"Compared to other solutions, NUS is cost-effective and efficient. It also has good performance."
"The product is pricey."
"The price of the license is expensive when comparing it to traditional storage."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
27%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise63
 

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...
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...
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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, b...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
Microsoft should improve the management aspect of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, as we have raised multiple recomme...
What do you like most about Nutanix Unified Storage?
Nutanix has excellent product documentation available on their portals, written in simple, easy-to-understand language.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Unified Storage?
It is very cost-effective compared to the traditional environment. With new hardware, it's a long-term investment but...
What needs improvement with Nutanix Unified Storage?
To improve Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS), cost is always an issue for every company, especially when we talk about la...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MS Storage Spaces Direct
Nutanix Files Storage, Nutanix Volumes Block Storage, Nutanix Objects Storage
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL
Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt
JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
873,085 professionals have used our research since 2012.