- Easy to set up
- Very Fast
- Good investment
- Surprised at beta ration
- Works very well
Senior Advisor IT Architecture for Cloud Computing Solutions at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
We didn't need a special network or any hardware -- just add a new NIC. Backups are not easy, however, as it's distributed storage and you must be careful not to make a host unavailable.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
- Price
- We don’t need special network or hardware, just add a new network card
- If you have 10GB, you can just go with vSAN
- All-flash gives improved performance over hybrid, and competes with other solutions
- If combined with Horizon, it lowers the price of solution
What needs improvement?
- Better integration with VMware DOS
- vBackup with vSAN is not so easy, because it's distributed storage so must be careful not to make host unavailable.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I tried to install it on one cluster and the host got stuck.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Awesome stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
- Awesome scalability, especially when combined with vSphere 6
- With vSphere 5.5, limited scalability
How are customer service and support?
- In beta, no technical support
- Great fourm support
How was the initial setup?
Very easy, just a few clicks. You don’t need special knowledge of storage .because it can be fully automated or you can set it manually if you want
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There are a few products on the market. vSAN has lots of competitors, but if you want to play with a single software provider, go with vSAN. However, if you want more hardware, maybe go with Nutanix.
What other advice do I have?
They lose points because its tricky to fully understand.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We're a partner

System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Simple to set up and manage without the need for configuration
Pros and Cons
- "The simplicity, as well as the integration with virtualization."
- "Based on my testing, I would like to expand deduplication to include hybrid deployments and not just for all-flash deployments."
What is our primary use case?
I am a system integrator, and this is one of the products that we implement for our customers.
VMware vSAN is used in the deployment of OpenShift Containers.
What is most valuable?
It is simple to manage without the need for configuration which is the feature that I like the most. The simplicity, as well as the integration with virtualization.
What needs improvement?
On the troubleshooting front, it was occasionally difficult for me to perform some troubleshooting. We are currently working in a demo environment, so we are not encountering many issues. However, when you reach production with a heavy load, troubleshooting the vSAN may become difficult.
Troubleshooting with vSAN is an area that needs improvement.
Based on my testing, I would like to expand deduplication to include hybrid deployments and not just for all-flash deployments.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with VMware vSAN for four years.
I use version 6.7 ESXi with vSAN
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far the stability has been good. We have not had any problems with the stability of VMware vSAN.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability appears to be good. I have not tested it that much, but it seems fine similar to clusters in VMware.
At the moment, we have approximately 300 users who use this solution.
How are customer service and support?
In reality, we haven't used technical support yet. I don't have an opinion on the support at this time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have experience with Cisco HyperFlex solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. We did not have any problems with it at all.
The deployment did not take more than two or three days. It was very fast.
We have two people to deploy this solution.
What about the implementation team?
We completed the deployment ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As an architect, I am not involved in the negotiating process and don't have many details about the cost and licensing.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate VMware vSAN an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Extremely reliable, provides good performance and agility
Pros and Cons
- "Good performance, reliable and agile."
- "Licensing costs are a little too high for smaller sized companies."
What is our primary use case?
We sell and deploy this solution for our customers in a variety of settings from small data centers to big data analytics clusters. Most recently, we have deployed vSAN for VDI solution. We are VMware partners and I'm a solutions architect.
What is most valuable?
I like the reliability of this product because we can lose more than one host, more than one disk, and everything still works okay. It's also good on performance and agility. You can change and add things without any issues.
What needs improvement?
It would help if the cost of the solution was reduced for smaller sized companies.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good. We had a customer who bought five hosts a year ago and this year they expanded their infrastructure to 12 hosts, and everything was fine.
How are customer service and technical support?
I think the support is very good. They figured out what the issue was and responded very quickly. The problems we had were from a network perspective, nothing to do with the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very simple and doesn't take long, perhaps two to five days.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The license is perpetual and there is an additional payment for technical support which is an annual subscription fee. I think it could be cheaper, especially for smaller companies. It's okay for big deployments with a lot of servers and high level of input-output IOPS.
What other advice do I have?
I like this solution very much and I would recommend it.
I would rate this solution a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Server Administrator at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
As an architecting company, we require a lot of IOPS for our clients
Pros and Cons
- "We want see a better monitoring tool in vSAN. Monitoring is not that great as of now because it shows us false alarms in the Health status. We would like that to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Because our company is an architecting company, we require a lot of IOPS going from the server side to the clients who are using the models. They require faster transactions and that's the reason we thought of having a type of HCI solution. That's why we went with the vSAN solution.
How has it helped my organization?
Previously, we were going to use traditional systems, so when vSAN was launched it gave us a lot of value. The admins have been able to relax a bit, they don't have as many outages to deal with.
What needs improvement?
We want see a better monitoring tool in vSAN. Monitoring is not that great as of now because it shows us false alarms in the Health status. We would like that to be improved.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's pretty much stable for us now, apart from some of the issues which can be tackled. But 80 percent of the time it's stable. The issues are probably on our end, network issues. That's what we have figure out.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We don't scale that much because we have a three-year refresh time. We tend to acquire for how much we predict we will scale up in the next three years.
How is customer service and technical support?
We have used technical support quite a few times but not frequently. We have had a good experience with them. We usually get good engineers on our calls.
How was the initial setup?
Initially, it was quite difficult to understand the solution because we tend to do a PoC. Later on we got used to it. Now it's quite easy for us, but at first it was not easy. We now have about 48 locations where we have deployed vSAN.
What other advice do I have?
When vSAN was introduced we were quite excited about it. We were looking for something that was not traditional and we wanted something hyperconverged. vSAN was a perfect fit for us.
I rate the solution an eight out of ten. To get to a ten it would need improvement in the Health status checkup.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Application Support Specialist at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
The solution is easy to deploy and manage.
What is most valuable?
The solution is easy to deploy and manage. It offers stable performance.
What needs improvement?
Deduplication and compression usage data display is not real-time and is not that accurate.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have used this solution for more than three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There were no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There were no issues with scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is not very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use a different solution before this one.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy, if you’ve got such experience. It is a little tricky the first time.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are partners.
Virtualization Management at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
With this solution, there is no need for FC switches. When our SSDs became full, performance went down.
What is most valuable?
The valuable features are:
How has it helped my organization?
It is less costly than typical storage and faster to set up than a typical SAN. It does not require “storage competency.”
What needs improvement?
During some intensive I/O workloads, and on a configuration that had SSDs sub-sized, we reached the limit of the system. When our SSDs became full (due to having too much I/O to manage), performance went down.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution since March, 2015.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been no stability issues.
How is customer service and technical support?
I have never asked anything from technical support. It’s handled by VMware.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is really easy and straightforward. vSAN is built in vSphere, and you have a dashboard to manage the system.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing and licensing models are quite simple. Be careful with the sizing of the SSDs.
What other advice do I have?
Be careful with the sizing of the SSDs, as they’re a big part of the infrastructure. Don’t hesitate to go to 10Gb for the network, even if it can work with 1Gb.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a VMware partner.
Technology Architect at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
With it, we're now able to roll out new solutions in less time, although it needs to allow for enough customization and individualization for specific user requirements.
Valuable Features
- It's consistent in that our team is able to stand it up on a regular basis.
- Our system now has continuity.
- It provides uniform performance.
Improvements to My Organization
We've decreased the time it takes for us to roll out new solutions. It's sped up that process for us.
Room for Improvement
It needs to allow for more customizations and individualization specific to each user.
It needs to be more malleable and adjustable to changing requirements. There are too many hard-set limitations.
Use of Solution
We've used it for two months.
Scalability Issues
It's not a consideration, because in my impression VSAN is deployed in set-sizing and is not customizable.
Customer Service and Technical Support
Zero issues with tech support. Our TAM answers after some time, but it's not a negative because they're dedicated just to our company.
Initial Setup
It's not difficult, but there are still limitations even in in-depth white papers because it's so new.
Other Advice
It's not enterprise class yet because it's a new iteration and a work in progress. Just make sure it fits and meets your requirements.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The most valuable feature is its simplicity of implementation.
What is most valuable?
The feature that is most valuable is the simplicity of implementation, as you only have to enable the feature on the already existing cluster(s).
How has it helped my organization?
For a PaaS platform which I’ve developed, the scalability of VMware vSAN was a necessary feature enabling us to grow with the onboard customers.
What needs improvement?
Although the product is very scalable, it is not scalable in a way that the different host sizes can effectively be added to an existing cluster. All the hosts/disk configuration have to be consistent, for a consistent performance experience.
For how long have I used the solution?
I’ve been using VMware vSAN for about two years, i.e., since VMware vSAN 6.0 was released.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of VMware vSAN 6.0 is good. You sometimes have to resynchronize the data over the cluster (which is a single button task).
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
As stated earlier, all the hosts have to be exactly the same for a consistent performance experience, which limits the scalability of the product. Also, the computer and storage components within the HCI solution are linked to each other, it’s not possible to add only storage nodes.
How are customer service and technical support?
The documentation of VMware vSAN is good. I’ve had no experience with VMware support regarding vSAN.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I haven’t used a different HCI solution before.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is really straightforward, you only have to enable it on the VMware cluster. But, before the initial setup you will have to check the HCL of vSAN for the compatibility of the different components. With VMware vSAN-ready nodes, this process is made simple, but it still is something you have to take into consideration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
VMware vSAN is licensed per CPU and the cost is to the other VMware (and Microsoft) products. VMware vSAN is reasonably priced, but with the addition of more nodes to the cluster, the needed CPU licenses (for VMware/Microsoft/etc.) are increasing rapidly, which makes it an expensive solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I’ve looked at HPE SimpliVity, but it has a special hardware requirement whereby it failed in terms of the project requirements.
What other advice do I have?
Use VMware vSAN for special use-cases only and don’t use it as an all-purpose storage solution.
Use VMware vSAN for VDI, small VSI, and dev-test environments. Don’t use it for messaging/database solutions as the licensing costs are huge.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Product Categories
HCIPopular Comparisons
VxRail
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
StarWind Virtual SAN
Dell PowerFlex
HPE SimpliVity
Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure
HPE Alletra dHCI
DataCore SANsymphony
HPE Hyper Converged
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
StorMagic SvSAN
Scale Computing Platform
Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series
Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
Azure Stack HCI
Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- I am looking to compare Nutanix and VMware vSAN. Which one is better in terms of functionality and management?
- Nutanix and vSAN: Which is best for cloud services?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?
- Do you think VMware’s HCI solution is a good alternative to AWS?
- What Is The Biggest Difference Between Nutanix And VMware vSAN?
- Which is your recommended HCI solution in 2022: Nutanix Acropolis AOS, VMware vSAN or anything else?
- What is the biggest difference between HPE SimpliVity and VMware vSAN?
- Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
- Which solution performs better: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure or VMware vSAN?
- How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?