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Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs StorMagic SvSAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
1st
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
3rd
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
196
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)
StorMagic SvSAN
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
7th
Ranking in HCI
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 9.1%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 5.9%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StorMagic SvSAN is 7.4%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Hosni - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sisir Ghosh - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 17, 2023
Scales easily, helps with consolidation, and enables us to clone a VM
Usually, there are separate administration teams that take care of servers, but in our organization, servers are usually looked after by the application owner. However, the application owners cannot reinstall the software, OS, and other things. That only aligns with the role of the HCI administrator. If these rights can be provided, it will be very easy. Previously, it was there, but after certain updates, we found that they have withdrawn those services. For example, you requested a VM, and based on the business use case, I approved it and gave you a bare-metal server. Now you are the owner of that particular VM, so whatever you need, you should be able to do over there, but currently, you have to request me for the installation of the OS that you need, and I have to do it. It is an overhead for the HCI administrator. If that can be offloaded to the VM owners, that will be much easier for us. I have already shared this feedback with Nutanix.
Levent Ozdayi - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 28, 2022
The best choice for performance and price
The primary use case for StorMagic SvSAN is providing availability to different sites. You can have multiple sites, all of which will replicate the data to each other StorMagic SvSAN's best feature is that it is platform agnostic. It also provides configuration flexibility as it's fully…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are high availability and real-time replication between two servers."
"Recovery and maintenance are now less stressful and most importantly, it allows our users to keep working."
"StarWind Virtual SAN is a very mature software that supersedes its capabilities with my use cases."
"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run."
"The best feature is its ease of installation and integration within a current infrastructure."
"Active-active HA provides top performance and redundancy."
"We are able to execute maintenance on one server while the other is still running."
"The management was very easy and I was able to find all that I need in the software dashboard."
"We really love the Lifecycle manager and one-click upgrades."
"The snapshots, cloning, and replication are all effective in helping to reduce downtime. It can replicate cluster data for disaster recovery and it provides high availability in case a node or a disk fails."
"There are a lot of things I really like. Perhaps the best part is taking a snapshot of a virtual machine. It's very quick. Another useful part is replication and creating a protection domain: using the protection feature to replicate a machine to a remote site for DR purposes."
"The most valuable features are the RBAC, role-based access control, and the reporting. NCI also provides a single platform, a single pane with a dashboard, to manage the entire infrastructure. We have complete information about overall utilization, performance, and a forecast for our platform in that single pane."
"The product is easy to manage."
"The administration console, automation, and the first cluster are all valuable features."
"You can be sure that whatever you patch is already compatible with the current firmware and the current version of the Acropolis that you're using."
"In general, being able to patch and not having to pay for SanDisk is the best thing about hyper-converged."
"The most valuable feature of StorMagic SvSAN is its high availability. We have not had any downtime or data loss. Business continuity is highly important."
"StorMagic SvSAN is a very effective solution and the interface is good."
"It helps us prevent any data loss while working with the failover clusters."
"The part I like most about it is just that it does not require a lot of touch. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it is straightforward."
"StorMagic SvSAN's best feature is that it is platform agnostic."
"It gives zero downtime and it works with two nodes rather than three nodes, unlike other solutions."
"This synchronization is easy with StorMagic, and we can establish availability between servers."
"We compared two solutions for this use case, but we went with StorMagic because it had more capabilities than the others. It's also more reliable, especially in production environments that require availability and sustainability."
 

Cons

"The initial setup got a little confusing at a few points with differences between the VMware version in documentation vs the latest, etc."
"A central management console may be nice to see all nodes."
"If there was one feature I would like to see it would be a built-in subsystem for managing UPS backups shutdown procedures providing a way to initiate VM shutdown on all host servers, shut down the host servers, then put the fault-tolerant mirroring in standby, and finally shut down the StarWind SANs."
"Some of the documentation seems to be a bit older and refers to deprecated items."
"There is one issue as far as licensing goes and that is a lack of documentation online for users when transitioning from the free version to the paid version, or vice versa."
"Improvements in documentation and support resources could enhance the user experience."
"I would like to see more monitoring and alert tools."
"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."
"One disadvantage of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is it doesn't support external storage. Connecting external SAN storage to Nutanix, it's not supported."
"As Nutanix Acropolis AOS is on the expensive side, one of its areas for improvement is the price. It would also be better if it can be integrated with other cloud providers, because currently, it's only for private cloud deployment."
"We have a team that does the implementation of the solution for our customers, it is better to have professionals handle the process."
"The storage and back-up facilities could be improved. We need day-to-day encrypting of the database."
"Notifications could be improved as they're not currently very useful."
"In terms of automation, I know there are ways to do it, but it's not very user-friendly. I've been working for the last three years with Nutanix and I've managed to automate certain things, but it's a somewhat more complex job than it should be. I would like to see more documentation or knowledge base articles."
"The solution doesn't support older systems, which can be a problem for some organizations who wish to implement it. It became a problem for us due to the fact that some of our systems are older."
"It was not a great fit for really large databases that required high-end or lots of compute. They might already have addressed this concern around very high-end databases that require high-end compute. In the past, it wasn't a great fit for them."
"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."
"In the next release, StorMagic SvSAN should include multi-node clusters, which would allow storage spaces to be used more efficiently."
"The only improvement area I can see is their licensing. For example, the memory caching feature is only available in an advanced license. Normally, it's in a standard license. It would be better if they had memory caching features in the product. Some backup features should also be in the product"
"The deployment of StorMagic SvSAN is very small. However, you need some time to do it. It's important to make a test deployment before the real deployment."
"If we want to want to replicate the VM to the cloud, or off-site, it does not allow it because of asynchronous. There is no option available."
"They should enable data compression deduplication features for the platform."
"There are two features missing: there's no REST API functionality, and there is no date duplication in it."
"It could be a little bit more intuitive in terms of the way you set it up initially."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is fine for the work that it does."
"When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
"The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."
"The cost seems a bit steep, and I wish it was less expensive."
"The licensing is straightforward, with free and trial versions available."
"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."
"We are happy with the price."
"I think that purchasing StarWind Virtual SAN Professional Edition would be optimal for most."
"We have a three-year license for the use of this solution."
"I don't feel that I am receiving the performance which I am paying for."
"When we purchase a new physical server or a couple of physical servers into our cluster, we always purchase it with Nutanix licensing. We are receiving the license from Nutanix directly and not from the vendor. In the way we're dealing, with the licenses it is a bit costly for us but as the company is getting larger, day by day or year by year, those licensing costs become lower each time for us. We are purchasing the licenses for three years for some of our clusters and for some others for five-year licenses and the licenses are still costly. We have good discounts for the licenses, but it is still expensive."
"Its licensing is fine. They provide the flexibility to choose from different options. You can go with the standard plan. You can go with the pro or platinum plan. Generally, our clients go with the pro licenses, but if you go for the platinum license, you get even more capabilities. Their starter license is also quite good."
"The cost of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is reasonable."
"AHV is free! This is a great feature that should be taken advantage of."
"Its price is fine. I can't really complain about that."
"It's a cost-effective solution"
"The price of the solution is reasonable. Our budget was two terabytes and the price met our use case well."
"70% cheaper than competitors and provides all the enterprise feature requirements at low cost."
"The pricing of StorMagic SvSAN is fairly good because if you compare it with VMware, it's at a better price. This is an important thing to remember."
"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."
"The product has good pricing."
"The licensing cost is $7,000 per two nodes for two terabytes."
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Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Retailer
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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) combin...
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 licenc...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
Areas for improvement in StarWind Virtual SAN include simplifying the setup process, especially for users with limite...
What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from ...
Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interfa...
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?
It is a fair trade. It is a little bit expensive at first blush just in terms of the initial licensing cost. I have b...
What needs improvement with StorMagic SvSAN?
It could be a little bit more intuitive in terms of the way you set it up initially. The interface has recently under...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
StorMagic
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
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 Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. StorMagic SvSAN and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.