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Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StorMagic SvSAN comparison

 

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

Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
8th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
StorMagic SvSAN
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
6th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
HCI (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is 8.2%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StorMagic SvSAN is 7.4%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
 

Featured Reviews

Lawrence Tse - PeerSpot reviewer
A great solution for fostering the natural expansion of the traditional hybrid culture
Most of the VMware customers I have been engaging with say they have experienced engagement problems. VMware is trying to sell off the VMware enterprise cost and the whole solution is being sold down to a customer, whereas, usually they would try to intentionally avoid talking about the related Windows license. It's not very eye-catching but it's still sizable and we have implemented several Storage Spaces Direct projects for our customers. Currently, we're working hard to replace some of the special storage and hopefully even replace the harder converged storage, etc. Documentation management could be improved. The reason why this product is not being widely accepted by the public is that it doesn't include intuitive streamline, which makes it far from complete. Storage Spaces Direct is powerful and the performance is amazing, but if you need to deliver a high price-performance ratio and visible performance, you need to have expertise in tuning. Many people will not be able to enjoy this opportunity because it's not included in the training. In this case, you need to have a system integrator. A Complete management UI using a web-based interface would be a beneficial feature. They should also use a direct API — currently, they are only using partial API. Often, our customers need to work with other web-based solutions, so they require full API. I am writing my own API for this reason, and our customers are ok with that, but full API would be a very helpful feature that would lead to much more customer satisfaction. Microsoft should provide support for other channels. Microsoft OS supports other channels, but when they become the S2D storage solution, it's very easy to customize the quality. Technically, you can switch channels and replace your storage, but you will need to store away all of the fiber channel equipment, the hardware, and the cables, which can be very expensive.
Dhanraj Garbou - PeerSpot reviewer
Significantly improved the organization by providing reliable support and straightforward configuration procedures
StorMagic SvSAN is more user-friendly than other software-defined virtual SAN solutions, especially for smaller businesses. It is capable of working on any hardware, making it cost-effective. StorMagic SvSAN allows the use of any storage type. The Witness feature, which can handle over 1,000 clusters, is helpful for our clients. StorMagic SvSAN offers a distinct advantage over its competitors by including the stretch cluster feature. This functionality, not commonly found in rival products at cost, enhances data availability and disaster recovery capabilities. It is not difficult to administer all of our storage clusters using Edge control. StorMagic SvSAN is the right management tool for StorMagic and enterprise customers, providing a cost-effective solution. It reduces downtime by about 40 percent. StorMagic SvSAN offers cost savings compared to other software-defined virtual SAN solutions. It has significantly improved the organization by providing reliable support and straightforward configuration procedures, benefiting both my enterprise and SMB customers. StorMagic SvSAN is a hyperconverged, high-availability solution with enterprise-grade functionality. Its vendor—and hardware-agnostic design makes it a cost-effective choice for businesses seeking high availability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions."
"Its technical support is excellent."
"The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."
"The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable."
"The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing"
"The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure."
"The most valuable feature is customer support, which is available 24/7."
"StorMagic as a company provides exactly what you are looking for."
"StorMagic SvSAN significantly reduces downtime in our environment by allowing us to perform maintenance or system updates without disrupting user access."
"The solution is cost-effective and user-friendly."
"I would rate them a ten out of ten because they are responsive and technically rich."
"StorMagic SvSAN has significantly enhanced our organization's ability to manage big data."
"StorMagic SvSAN helped us save around sixty percent on previous costs."
"StorMagic SvSAN offers cost savings compared to other software-defined virtual SAN solutions."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"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."
"More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring."
"Documentation management could be improved"
"In terms of what could be improved in StorMagic SvSAN, I don't have a major issue with it, but its user interface should be more customer-oriented."
"They have a feature called PowerShell Script Generation, which is useful when we want to deploy over many locations. However, generating a custom PowerShell script sometimes takes longer to complete. They need to ensure the PowerShell script generation is faster so that deploying on multiple locations becomes straightforward."
"The StorMagic console needs embedded monitoring capabilities to improve interoperability with other platforms. While StorMagic offers open APIs, direct integration with popular monitoring tools like GearOps or Grafana is lacking."
"StorMagic SvSAN can improve by simplifying the implementation and training."
"They should enable data compression deduplication features for the platform."
"To enhance competitiveness, StorMagic SvSAN could benefit from improved enterprise modelling and increased scalability to cater to larger organizations."
"StorMagic does not have extensive scalability capabilities as it is tailored for SMBs. If catering to a bigger enterprise customer, scalability might be a concern."
"I would like to see improvements in the virtual networking module as it is not straightforward and sometimes time-consuming."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."
"Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."
"The solution is expensive."
"While not the cheapest option, it offers comparable functionality for 20 to 30 percent lower than its competitors."
"The price is okay. It is affordable. Its cost here is fair because you only pay for what you use. There are no add-ons."
"While it is not very cheap, StorMagic SvSAN is affordable for me. The cost depends on the size and scale of the company."
"The product has good pricing."
"The pricing for StorMagic is okay, but as a distributor, I suggest some reduction."
"I would rate the cost a one out of ten with ten being the most costly."
"While it is less than other solutions, such as vSAN, for instance, it is still significant. However, it is well worth it in terms of the quality of the product and the support that it allows me to have. We are buying the flagship product from them. We are always buying premium support and all the features that we need, so it is a little bit steep upfront, but it is less than other solutions and comes with excellent support."
"It's fairly cheap when compared to other options. But it can be improved as some features may not be available in the standard license. The vendor positions it as an edge product, so it isn't suitable to compare with VMware vSAN or Nutanix because that's another product altogether."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Retailer
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load bal...
What do you like most about StorMagic SvSAN?
It helps us prevent any data loss while working with the failover clusters.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StorMagic SvSAN?
I don't handle pricing directly, but based on information from white papers, the solution appears to provide cost benefits.
What needs improvement with StorMagic SvSAN?
Areas for improvement include adding more sensors, compression and deduplication capabilities, increasing the supported nodes for enterprise customers, and enhancing network security. The solution ...
 

Also Known As

MS Storage Spaces Direct
StorMagic
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt
Sheetz Inc., Giant Eagle, RWE Renewables, Keiser Corp., TDK, Oxford University, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rommelsbacher, Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort, Eugen Forschner GmbH
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StorMagic SvSAN and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.