DataCore SANsymphony vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

StarWind Virtual SAN
Sponsored
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
1st
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Number of Reviews
185
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DataCore SANsymphony
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
4th
Ranking in HCI
6th
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Storage Software (2nd), Storage Performance (1st)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
2nd
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
195
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (3rd), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the HCI category, the mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 2.1%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DataCore SANsymphony is 1.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 8.4%, down from 9.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
Unique Categories:
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
9.2%
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC)
44.4%
 

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.
Joé Biava - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 22, 2024
Intuitive dashboard with excellent support and good rollback capabilities
I'm working on a San Symphony Infrastructure. I use it for my company, and this is also what we install for our clients.  All of the clients have to do maintenance operations during business hours, and they have to schedule it never to disturb their users. Thanks to San Symphony, they can do…
Nagendra Nekkala. - PeerSpot reviewer
Dec 15, 2023
Resilient platform with impressive capabilities in networking, storage, data protection, and disaster recovery
It is a universal public cloud. It caters to our current usage of a private cloud. It ensures performance and security, whether on-premises or in a hybrid setup, offering us a cost-effective solution. It has enterprise data services with consolidated storage data protection and disaster recovery…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Starwind made it easy to deploy fully redundant, highly available storage at a low cost."
"Besides being 80% cheaper than the other alternatives, the simplicity makes reconfiguration and support much easier."
"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free."
"High Availability is the best feature of product."
"The ability for us to manage all of our nodes from the same console makes systems administration very easy."
"StarWind support has been great in helping resolve other issues not caused by their software."
"StarWind allows us to move virtual machines from one physical host to another, which greatly reduces the downtime required for maintenance."
"Integration with virtualization platforms helped us to resolve many issues we were facing while using the physical storage."
"DataCore has helped provide flexible, highly available, high-performance storage that otherwise would have been outside our price range."
"It is a well-proven, automated management tool in all dynamic provisioning, auto-tiering, great performance, parallel I/O​, cache speed mechanism, etc."
"Auto-tiering to obtain performance at a lower cost without the customer having to purchase ultra-fast storage is great."
"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."
"Continuous data protection (CDP), can be used to "protect" again ransomware by recording all write on disk in a log. You can recover your data with incredible time granularity."
"It allows data to be available from two DataCore servers."
"I found the solution to be very stable."
"The most valuable feature of DataCore SANsymphony SDS is its high availability. This solution also exhibits good performance and has high stability."
"The features that I have found most valuable include its HA facility, viability, robustness, flexibility, it's time to go live is very short, and it has a friendly user interface."
"We like that the size of the box is 1U or 2U only, and all the servers are fit into that box. The ease of operation is there. All the servers and the SAN storage are inside the box."
"The initial setup was quite straightforward."
"This is a very flexible solution that you are able to run however you want."
"Nutanix does a superb job with technical support."
"Acropolis' main advantages are high performance and availability."
"The configuration is easy, and it's flexible."
"The most valuable feature would be the ease of deployment. That is the most significant feature for me because I've worked with multiple vendors and it's always been very complicated to install the software and get everything running."
 

Cons

"The initial setup got a little confusing at a few points with differences between the VMware version in documentation vs the latest, etc."
"The main thing I would like to see improved is the level of documentation."
"Our company was hoping for deduplication and encryption across HCI. That is currently not supported."
"There is no IPv6 support. That is our only issue at this time."
"It is hard to find adequate technical documentation on their support website."
"It runs until it does not - and disaster recovery documentation is sparse and mostly unclear."
"The console is something that I feel could be improved. There is nothing technically wrong with it, but it can be jazzed up and/or made to be a little more intuitive."
"Ongoing improvements in read and write performance would help meet increasingly demanding workloads."
"I think an easier way to open a service call, right through the DataCore GUI, would be an improvement, especially when there is an urgent issue."
"Management could be improved. The management console sometimes reacts very slowly."
"I still see room for improvement with DataCore SANsymphony in the area of alarm and task management."
"Right now, the version used is run on Microsoft Windows Server. Having a Linux version or even an appliance would be better as it would eliminate the use of additional licensing for another piece of hardware."
"When I sometimes reboot for maintenance, the connectivity from the iSCSI initiator host could be improved."
"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."
"Problem detection could be easier. It should help customers identify problems very quickly because it's not easy to analyze on the platform today."
"I would like to see reporting added, such as a monthly connectivity report."
"One thing to keep in mind is that only experts can use it. It has to be in the proper hands, instead of going to XYZ people just for some cost savings. So lift-and-shift and migrations might be tricky, because it is not like a VMware."
"They need to improve the look and feel of the interface. The functionality is fine, but the appearance could be better."
"Our client had some old Citrix Xen servers for which there is no direct migration. Nutanix has a move utility for Microsoft Hyper-V clusters or VMware clusters. You can easily migrate them using the move utility, but the Xen clusters cannot be migrated in a simple way. That is the only thing that is lacking, but nowadays, no one uses the Citrix Xen server for their clusters. Everything else is already there. Nutanix keeps on upgrading its hardware's or hypervisor's capability to be able to support new technologies."
"The reporting section of the dashboard could be improved to include more detailed reporting about the servers."
"If we can have certified compatibility with other companies, such as Oracle, then it would let us know that they function correctly together."
"The productivity and work efficiency of Nutanix Acropolis AOS could improve."
"Lacks sufficient integration with other vendors and public clouds."
"If they can simplify the software slightly for the installation, that would make all the difference."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are two tiers of support and in my opinion, support is worth the cost."
"The licensing is straightforward, with free and trial versions available."
"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."
"This is the best priced solution for an SMB."
"This solution has a great price for the functionality."
"I think the bang for the buck is much better with StarWind Virtual SAN."
"The pricing is more than reasonable."
"Pricing has improved but it is still expensive."
"This solution allows the use of off-the-shelf hardware and charges by the TB of storage."
"Make sure you are made aware of the annual subscription cost when purchasing."
"The solution is cost effective."
"DataCore SANsymphony's pricing is very high and should be much cheaper."
"The pricing and licensing are better with DataCore."
"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."
"In my case, the licensing per terabytes is very high and it must be licensed for each extra functionality."
"The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses."
"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."
"They offer multiple tier licensing which means that lower level licensing will have less features."
"Its price is fine. I can't really complain about that."
"The pricing is fair for the package."
"The product’s licensing fee is moderately expensive."
"It is slightly more expensive compared to a standard, on-prem, bare-metal configuration. There is about a 30 percent overhead there."
"Our customers are on three years license to use Nutanix Acropolis AOS. The price of the solution includes all features and support."
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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
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
26%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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?
Make the most of your 30-day trial license, and if needed, you should contact the sales department of StarWind to ext...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
The dashboard is functional, but it could benefit from a more modern and visually appealing design. A facelift would ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DataCore SANsymphony SDS?
Good sizing is the basis for a stable and high-performance environment. It is important to plan in sufficient reserve...
What needs improvement with DataCore SANsymphony SDS?
It's difficult to say if something is missing in this solution. Maybe we'd like to manage the raid on the disk direct...
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...
 

Also Known As

StarWind SAN & NAS
DataCore Virtual SAN
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Volkswagen , Maimonides Medical Center, NASA, Thorntons, Inc., TUI, 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.
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about DataCore SANsymphony vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.