Nexenta vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Nexenta by DDN and StarWind are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Nexenta by DDN is ranked #15 with an average rating of 9.0, while StarWind is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.6. Nexenta by DDN holds a 0.9% mindshare in SDS, compared to StarWind’s 8.8% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of Nexenta by DDN users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of StarWind users who would recommend it.

Nexenta

Read 2 Nexenta reviews

122 Views
95 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN

Read 190 StarWind Virtual SAN reviews

3,276 Views
1,185 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nexenta

StarWind Virtual SAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Nexenta and StarWind Virtual SAN compete in the software-defined storage market. StarWind Virtual SAN may have the upper hand due to its advanced features, making it a worthy investment despite higher costs.

Features: Nexenta offers robust data management capabilities concentrated on scalability and enterprise compatibility, alongside flexible deployment options. StarWind Virtual SAN provides advanced data protection, seamless integration, and focuses on high availability, making it suitable for businesses emphasizing reliability and manageability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nexenta allows flexible deployment with various hardware configurations, aiding in integration. It offers responsive customer service for efficient setup. StarWind Virtual SAN simplifies its installation process to minimize downtime and provides comprehensive support, highlighting its streamlined approach.

Pricing and ROI: Nexenta is known for being cost-effective, offering lower setup costs and satisfactory ROI. StarWind Virtual SAN requires a higher initial investment yet justifies the expense with a broad feature set and reliability, often delivering a substantial ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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

Nexenta

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

15th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

StarWind Virtual SAN

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

1st

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

190

Ranking in other categories

HCI (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Nexenta is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 8.8%, up from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Anil Rahulwar

Storage Engineer at Movate

Offers good features like Fusion and stable product with better customer service

Fusion is the only best feature, but it's a very good feature. Nexenta is a very old product. Nexenta is a well-established product used in the UK, US, India, Dubai, Qatar, and other countries. It is very good. The interface is up to date. Everything is up to date. The OS version was recently upgraded to 5.5 FP3. AI features: DataDirect Networks owns Nexenta and has won awards for AI. They continuously work on AI features. DDN also has a product called Tintri Infinia with AI features. And NVIDIA product also has AI features. I look forward to working on those products.

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WJHG

Soporte IT at Sildan Security

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.

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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

"It has a feature called Fusion that makes it more secure and productive."

"This solution enables us to make better cost-effective use of our existing hardware and leverage the current infrastructure at a higher level than we could before."

"The most valuable feature for us is having the ability to configure our local storage using a limited number of disks and using the StarWind VSAN software to keep the cluster nodes in perfect sync."

"This product now allows us to migrate virtual machines between nodes as if we had a dedicated $100,000 SAN in the mix without the additional cost and management of the SAN."

"Integration with virtualization platforms helped us to resolve many issues we were facing while using the physical storage."

"In the three years that we have been using StarWind, the product has yet to cause us any problems."

"In our case, the cost and high availability are the two most important factors which we were looking for in a solution."

"The solution is also quite flexible. As an example, other vSAN solutions that we looked at had more stringent requirements regarding mixed HDD/SSD storage which wouldn't have worked in our environment."

"The most valuable feature is the fact that the nodes are Active/Active, and allow us to do upgrades on any node without any downtime."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

"There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved."

"An extended trial period would serve as a way to get clean insights into the technology's adaptability and alignment with their specific needs before committing to long-term integration."

"Maybe in the future, the replication will be supported in more cloud providers."

"For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper."

"It would be helpful to have a little more insight into what kind of performance the VSAN cluster is utilizing; something that would be more proactive on our side, versus their ProActive Support."

"The only thing that I have any difficulty with is that in order to perform upgrades, it is required that the SANs be detached from the Hosts before that can happen."

"It runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear."

"StarWind Virtual SAN could benefit from better integration with other tools and technologies, such as backup and disaster recovery solutions."

"If there was a way to automatically put disks in maintenance mode when shutting the host down and exit maintenance mode automatically, that would simplify things."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"I would suggest that you download the free version, deploy in your lab, and play with it."

"Their pricing seems pretty good, and their licensing structure is pretty straightforward."

"Licensing is based on nodes rather than TBs, which means that the users are free to increase storage capacity without putting thought into licensing."

"StarWind is best price/performance for SMB."

"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."

"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."

"For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."

"The support contract is well worth it. The price for it was very reasonable and their team has been very engaged whenever we reach out."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Nexenta?

There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved in the latest version. Four to five customers faced intermittent issues with the SMBs. So, it got resolved in version 5.5 FP3. In future releases,...

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What is your primary use case for Nexenta?

It's for file systems. It's a NAS solution, and it has flexibility. There shouldn't be any outages because if one node goes down, the other nodes take over and take care of everything. It has a fea...

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What advice do you have for others considering Nexenta?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. I would recommend using it.

See all answers

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...

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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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 100% of the time

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Compared 26% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 16% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 13% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 8% of the time

More StarWind Virtual SAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

February 2025

Download Nexenta product report

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

January 2025

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

StarWind SAN & NAS

Overview

Nexenta is the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage - what we call Open Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS).We uniquely integrate software-only "Open Source" collaboration with commodity hardware-centric "Software-Defined Storage" (SDS) innovation.

Nexenta by DDN

StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

StarWind

Sample Customers

GMO, Northern Backup, Cox Communications, University of Toronto, ScaleMatrix, Wipro, Ruhr University, Drillinginfo, George Washington University, Walton Electric, Faculty of Physics, NAU, ServerCentral

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

January 2025

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