DataCore SANsymphony vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between DataCore SANsymphony and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Report (Updated: September 2023).
734,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution offers easy one-click PowerShell scripts that are ready to run.""The product has improved the ability to mimic physical SAN environments to demo scenarios and troubleshoot problems.""This software lets us maintain storage redundancy across both of our Hyper-V hosts, so if one goes down the environment fails over to the other and we have minimal to no downtime.""The available GUI is excellent for monitoring and operating the system in an easy and direct way.""The support has been amazing and quick to reply.""The price was right.""Besides being 80% cheaper than the other alternatives, the simplicity makes reconfiguration and support much easier.""It enables us to provide more solution options for our clients, with the reassurance that, when implemented, they will be efficient and stable."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Pros →

"Storage is always available.""The most useful feature of SANsymphony is that it's able to manage any brand of block storage.""CDP is an important feature for avoiding data loss in the event of ransomware attacks. You need more storage capacity, however, you get the possibility to return at any time and use the data saved up to that point. The recovery is much faster than with a classic restore.""SANsymphony is flexible, with many potential options for implementation. SANsymphony's can be used with VMware, Hyper-V, or even with a hypervisor agnostic approach. It can also be used for strictly physical non-virtualized solutions.""Active-active is the most valuable aspect for us.""The DataCore system has been rock solid since we have been using it - from 2007 on.""I am very happy with this product's ability to adapt, increase, and modify existing infrastructures.""It is a stable solution."

More DataCore SANsymphony Pros →

"We find the initial implementation process simple and straightforward.""The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is file sharing.""I have found the most important features of Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are the capacity to manage the storage because the storage is built in the servers. The type of profiles you can attribute to the storage is a benefit. You can manage the storage by profiles. Overall the solution is a good speed and performance.""The solution immediately expands storage area when you add nodes.""The product is useful for DR and other things.""The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is the flexibility of the nodes. Additionally, if there are any critical issues they update us through emails. The issues are taken care of remotely on the system.""Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is scalable"

More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Pros →

Cons
"The only way I can see this product needing improvement is the consultation level of the StarWind sales and engineers.""A central management console may be nice to see all nodes.""Feature-wise we are only waiting for the release of a "planned disaster" feature that would allow us to patch a hypervisor node without having to take the full storage offline.""Proper training sessions should be included with the licensing.""While we had little to no issues in setting up StarWind and received excellent support from the StarWind technicians, we would have appreciated a clearer guideline for a setup with the free version of StarWind Management Console or, in other words - for the setup with the PowerShell.""I had to buy upgraded support, which was not a problem, but it wasn't a prorated amount, so I paid for the support, the full upgrade, but I only got a couple of months out of it because it was only good until renewal time.""The Command Center, a free guest VM for management and monitoring, leaves something to be desired. It could have more accurate real-time information and better reporting visuals, which seem to be an afterthought.""The configuration can a bit cumbersome."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"One limitation of this solution is that it's Windows-based, e.g. one requirement to install DataCore SANsymphony SDS is putting it on a Windows server machine. It relies on Windows and that is a limitation because there are some customers who are looking for non Windows systems.""There is room for improvement in the graphical interface.""NVMeoF should be implemented. This protocol will play a major role in storage infrastructure in the future.""It would be ideal if they were providing archive licensing with the ability to create a second pool on existing storage nodes.""Its interface could be better.""If it could integrate to a cloud gateway, then we could carry it directly to storage, instead of having middleware in between the storage and the cloud.""If you're dealing with big databases or transactional databases, it might not be the best-suited solution. The design of DataCore's solution isn't oriented towards this type of data.""We'd like to manage the raid on the disk directly in SanSymphony."

More DataCore SANsymphony Cons →

"The solution doesn't scale.""The power switch on the hardware is located in a poor location where it can accidentally be pushed. In an update, they should solve this issue so people do not push it accidentally to have their service go down. A possible solution is the switch should be inside.""The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster.""The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified.""This product is not sufficiently scalable.""The solution should provide daily task alerts for data recovery maintenance, usage, and other instructions to ensure the systems are in a good status.""Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is a great hyper-converged system that is a perfect platform for supporting any kind of workload. The only workload that it's not designed to support is big data."

More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."
  • "If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The solution is cost effective."
  • "We have licensing costs on a yearly basis. They charge per terabyte, so in terms of cost, it can be very costly. They have three different features, and you have to pay extra for those."
  • "DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper."
  • More DataCore SANsymphony Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price of the solution was reasonable."
  • "We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."
  • "Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."
  • More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which HCI solutions are best for your needs.
    734,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:We like their high availability. It reduces the downtime for our entire organization's environment.
    Top Answer:The Premium ProActive service price is a little high, yet worth the price.
    Top Answer:It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website. However, they have a fantastic technical… more »
    Top Answer:DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper. You buy a license of DataCore SANsymphony, and… more »
    Top Answer:It's difficult to say if something is missing in this solution. Maybe we'd like to manage the raid on the disk directly… more »
    Top Answer:The product is useful for DR and other things.
    Top Answer:I'm not involved in licensing but I believe the cost is reasonable.
    Top Answer:The main weakness we have with this solution relates to storage expansion. It's not sufficiently scalable in the sense… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    DataCore SANsymphony SDS, DataCore, SANsymphony-V, Hyperconverged Virtual SAN
    vSAN Ready Nodes
    Learn More
    Overview

    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.

    DataCore SANsymphony is a very powerful software-defined storage (SDS) solution that makes it easy for organizations to take control of their data storage operations. It makes it so that users can choose the way that their data storage infrastructure is built and operates. Businesses that choose DataCore SANsymphony find that potential threats to their data are either removed completely or mitigated.

    DataCore SANsymphony Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy DataCore SANsymphony include:

    • Low operation costs. DataCore SANsymphony is designed so that users can take full advantage of its many features and capabilities without having to pay large sums of money and allocate similarly large blocks of time. The solution enables organizations to leverage whatever storage hardware they are already using to store their data. DataCore SANsymphony is hardware agnostic and, as a result, users can easily integrate it with the physical infrastructure that is most convenient for them. Furthermore, businesses can manage all of their storage devices from a single management console. This cuts down on the costs associated with the administration of an organization’s storage operations.
    • Flexibility. Users of DataCore SANsymphony can conduct their storage operations with a high level of flexibility. They can gather all of their storage capabilities in one place and deliver them uniformly across all of their devices, regardless of the physical infrastructure. Organizations can deploy their storage operations in multiple ways and use many different types of architecture They can easily and seamlessly move between them as their business needs demand it. Should they desire to, they can stick with whatever system they had been using up until that point.
    • Continuous, uninterrupted operation. DataCore SANsymphony keeps the data that users store with it in a state where it can be accessed at any time. It comes with autonomous safeguards that save a user from experiencing a loss of data when their architecture experiences some sort of system failure. Data is saved beforehand and stored remotely so that it can be retrieved if necessary. It also enables users to recover lost digital architecture so that a business can continue running smoothly even if a disaster wipes out a part of or the entirety of their architecture.

    DataCore SANsymphony Features

    Some of the many features DataCore SANsymphony offers include:

    • Data security. DataCore SANsymphony provides users with a high level of data protection. Users can leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to scan for and analyze potential threats to their data. They can then receive recommendations that enable them to avoid or at least mitigate potential issues.
    • Auto-tiering. An organization’s data can be automatically assigned a hierarchical storage value. Users do not need to classify and create tiers to hold their data. This solution has a feature that classifies and hierarchically stores data without requiring users to intervene.
    • Automatic load balancing. DataCore SANsymphony is built with the ability to automatically balance workloads. The solution will bypass channels that are slow or that fail to ensure that operations run as smoothly as possible. This will take place without the intervention of system administrators.

    Reviews from Real Users

    DataCore SANsymphony is a solution that stands out even when compared to its top competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its synchronous mirroring capability and the high level of reliability that it provides.

    A Systems and Network Engineer at a computer software company writes, “The synchronous mirroring is great. Storage is always available. This is the main feature of DataCore SANsymphony SDS which allows very high storage availability and better protection against environmental incidents (electrical, flooding, etc.).”

    Fernando V., a LAN Engineer at Maimonides Medical Center, says, “The software just works and is reliable. Downtime due to storage maintenance or upgrades is long gone. We have multiple types of software running to differentiate our applications. This gives us more value due to the fact that we can use the application to segment workloads if needed. The bottom line is that the software runs our applications on whatever storage vendor we choose - and it does so reliably.”

    Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are pre-configured building blocks that reduce deployment
    risks with certified configurations, improve storage efficiency by up to 50%1
    , and can help
    you build or scale your vSAN cluster faster.14 Whether you're just getting started, and/or
    expanding your existing VMware environment, Dell EMC is here for you every step of the
    way with consulting, education, deployment and support services for the entire solution.

    Offer
    30-days for free

    Try it today

    Learn more about DataCore SANsymphony
    Learn more about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
    Sample Customers
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    Volkswagen, Maimonides Medical Center, The Biodesign Institute, ISCO Industries, Pee Dee Electric Cooperative, United Financial Credit Union, Derby Supply Chain Solutions, Mission Community Hospital, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Colby-Sawyer College, Mount Sinai Health System, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Quorn Foods, Bitburger, University of Birmingham, Stadtverwaltung Heidelberg, NetEnt to name a few.
    Rackspace
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Construction Company9%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Non Profit30%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    Government6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company25%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Financial Services Firm6%
    Healthcare Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Government10%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise15%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business49%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise37%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise47%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise60%
    Buyer's Guide
    DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    734,678 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    DataCore SANsymphony is ranked 8th in HCI with 14 reviews while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked 11th in HCI with 7 reviews. DataCore SANsymphony is rated 9.2, while Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of DataCore SANsymphony writes "Easily scalable with great technical support and very good snapshot capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes writes "Useful file sharing, simple setup, and scalable". DataCore SANsymphony is most compared with VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, StorMagic SvSAN, Pure Storage FlashArray and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure, whereas Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, HPE Hyper Converged and Huawei FusionCube Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. See our DataCore SANsymphony vs. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report.

    See our list of best HCI vendors.

    We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.