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 #14 with an average rating of 9.0, while StarWind is ranked #1 with an average rating of 9.6. Nexenta by DDN holds a 0.7% mindshare in SDS, compared to StarWind’s 9.1% 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

119 Views
99 Comparison Views

66% willing to recommend

StarWind Virtual SAN

Read 189 StarWind Virtual SAN reviews

3,758 Views
1,288 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Nexenta

StarWind Virtual SAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nexenta and StarWind Virtual SAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

October 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Nexenta

Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)

14th

Average Rating

7.0

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

8.1

Number of Reviews

189

Ranking in other categories

HCI (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Nexenta is 0.7%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 9.1%, up from 7.5% 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

Jul 24, 2024

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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Ahmed Hosni

Senior System Engineer at Giza Systems

Feb 24, 2024

Provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor

You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point. Having used Starwind Virtual SAN for many years both for clients and for internal systems, it has always done exactly what it set out to do. It provides a cost-effective way to run an HCI storage platform for almost any hypervisor, but it is most effective with Hyper-V. It's simple and easy to use, The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation.

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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."

"The StarWind products have enabled our organization to modernize stations where larger and more expensive equipment was not an option."

"We have been able to use more on-prem hardware to reduce cost and also use old disks that we do not trust enough for ordinary RAID or usage."

"Integration with Microsoft clustering has been perfect, allowing us to leverage our investment in MS server licensing to the fullest."

"Starwind made it easy to deploy fully redundant, highly available storage at a low cost."

"We test live failovers every week, and so far, everything has been running smoothly without anything unexpected."

"The access to our data is quicker and cheaper than it used to be in a traditional storage system."

"It has great free trials that allow end users to test a large variety of their products before deciding to buy the full product."

"Before VSAN, hypervisor configuration changes and updates resulted in VM outages. Now, downtime is dramatically reduced."

More StarWind Virtual SAN pros

Cons

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

"One main thing this product needs to work on is reporting."

"The software monitoring should be web-based to be reachable from any VLAN workstation."

"Diagnostics information or alerts on the state of systems could also be implemented to give more visibility."

"It would be great if it provided thin provisioned virtual disks."

"Though I have learned some of the nuances with the upgrading of firmware/windows/etc., it would be nice to have a more efficient method of doing so."

"This is a great product."

"The system failovers properly on its own without too much worry."

"This solution should be more self-sufficient, running without creating domains or failover clusters."

More StarWind Virtual SAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We evaluated other options and this one was the most cost-effective."

"The cost takes into account the number of nodes, so the size of the storage is not important."

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

"The licensing is a bit weird. If you license the standard version of StarWind, it allows you four terabytes. Then, they have a pro version, but with the pro version, the only difference is it doubles the terabytes to eight."

"The pricing is more than reasonable."

"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 free version is great to use for labs or test environments."

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%

Government

Financial Services Firm

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...

See all answers

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?

If you are comfortable with the solution and you feel that you don't need support, you can begin with the free licences for three nodes.

See all answers

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limited vSphere expertise. Future releases could benefit from an enhanced configuratio...

See all answers

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DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

November 2024

Download Nexenta product report

Buyer's Guide

StarWind Virtual SAN

October 2024

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

Also Known As

No data available

StarWind SAN & NAS

Learn More

Nexenta by DDN

StarWind

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.

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.

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

October 2024

Free Report: Nexenta vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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