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Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs VMware vSAN comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.6
Users faced issues with cloud integration; Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offered 30-40% savings and positive support despite higher costs.
Sentiment score
4.7
VMware vSAN offers cost-saving infrastructure consolidation, though returns vary with high initial costs and difficult ROI measurement for some.
The OPEX benefits are around 30 to 40% because the same engineer who manages vSphere can handle Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, eliminating the need for additional support engineers.
I have seen a return on investment; it's satisfactory in the long run.
Starting with a smaller infrastructure and scaling as required allows us to save costs initially.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.0
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes support is mixed; strong enterprise assistance contrasts with slower response times for smaller rollouts.
Sentiment score
5.1
VMware vSAN customer support excels, particularly through technical account managers and experts, despite occasional initial slow responses.
Whether we have pro support plus or just the basic level, they are helpful and reliable as long as we provide the necessary details.
There is always room for improvement in terms of response time and reaching knowledgeable staff quickly.
I would rate their support nine points.
I am not satisfied with VMware support, particularly with the reaction times, SLAs, and those kinds of issues.
Sometimes the issue is that you don't get the best experience, whether it's the response time or first-level support quality.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.0
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer scalable solutions for enterprises, though costs and automation improvements are noted by some organizations.
Sentiment score
5.7
VMware vSAN offers scalable expansion and adaptability, though it faces some limitations compared to competitor solutions like Nutanix.
For large environments with frequent scalability actions, we propose the Terraform solution that builds ESXi, does necessary configuration, and automatically starts up for associating with the existing environment.
I would rate scalability around seven because when customers want to expand capacity but all the drive slots are full, they are forced to buy new servers or nodes which adds more costs with licenses and hardware.
It supports up to 64 nodes in a cluster, allowing us to add nodes and expand the cluster as needed.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
5.8
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer high stability with minimal issues, especially after adding nodes, ensuring reliable performance and no downtime.
Sentiment score
5.1
VMware vSAN is praised for stability and performance, with proper configuration essential to avoid hardware compatibility issues.
A disk group for five disks can be problematic, and customers need to tolerate downtime if the disk is not available.
In terms of stability, I give VMware vSAN nine points.
 

Room For Improvement

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes need improved automation, support, and cost-effectiveness, with better cloud integration and enhanced technical features.
VMware vSAN users seek enhanced management, stability, compatibility, performance, and features, including deduplication, resync speed, licensing, and backup options.
A faster firmware lifecycle with the release of validated firmware catalogs more quickly would be a desired improvement.
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are useful as a product, but the lack of expansion with VMware has led customers to refrain from further upgrades.
In some cases, we have seen hardware failures and performance issues where performance suddenly deteriorates.
A proper monitoring tool that encompasses both applications and infrastructure would help in quickly resolving issues.
Maybe incorporation of automation to build clusters in a more automated way would be beneficial.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users find Dell vSAN Ready Nodes' costs high initially, but potentially more economical long-term, despite competition.
VMware vSAN's competitive pricing, while complex, offers cost savings and value, especially over traditional SANs, despite perceived high costs.
As a group under Comcast, we receive very good pricing from Dell due to our considerable business dealings.
This has resulted in a slight cost increase.
 

Valuable Features

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer compact size, easy integration, single-vendor support, scalability, user-friendly management, and robust technical assistance.
VMware vSAN offers scalable, cost-efficient storage with high performance, centralized management, and strong data protection for evolving infrastructure needs.
The ability for single-team management without requiring a separate storage team for managing arrays and fiber channel switches is also a valuable feature.
Dell's technical support is generally very good.
I would say in-house management, administration, and storage policies are the three key differentiators compared to normal non-Dell vSAN Ready Nodes where we are leveraging external storage.
Hot add features are available by default in vSphere, allowing us to immediately increase memory, CPU, and hard drive without any downtime.
The VMware vSAN feature that has had the greatest impact on operational efficiency is the basic software-defined storage functionality.
A one-stack solution from one vendor is the main benefit here.
 

Categories and Ranking

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes
Ranking in HCI
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
VMware vSAN
Ranking in HCI
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
232
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is 2.8%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSAN is 14.4%, down from 17.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
HCI
 

Featured Reviews

KuldeepSingh4 - PeerSpot reviewer
Experience improved efficiency and customer satisfaction with enhanced integration and management capabilities
Scalability involves two types of environments: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and non-VCF environment where we use VMware Validated Foundation. With VCF we have significant automation built-in within the VCF console within SDDC manager as the primary management console. For non-VCF environments, it depends on customer choice. For small environments, we do manual scalability and sometimes use Terraform scripts to keep the host ready and add in the cluster automatically. For large environments with frequent scalability actions, we propose the Terraform solution that builds ESXi, does necessary configuration, and automatically starts up for associating with the existing environment. If scaling is infrequent, with one or two hosts per month, it is a manual job. From a challenge perspective, it seems easier, with just a few pre-checks regarding make and model compatibility, disks, and server health on the hardware level.
Pramod-Talekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables efficient multi-environment cluster deployment and resource management with versatile features
While VMware vSAN is quite comprehensive, if we are running multiple infrastructures, applications, databases, and other elements, having a diagnostic tool to identify the actual problem area, whether application-side or infrastructure-side, would be beneficial. A proper monitoring tool that encompasses both applications and infrastructure would help in quickly resolving issues.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
University
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
There is no specific licensing model for vSAN ReadyNodes as it is linked with Broadcom VMware's solutions rather than Dell's. As a group under Comcast, we receive very good pricing from Dell due to...
What needs improvement with Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?
The Dell vSAN Ready Nodes can be improved if Broadcom reverts to VMware's previous licensing approach because they've made it difficult for smaller environments to consume the product. Most of our ...
What Is The Biggest Difference Between vSAN And VxRail?
While both run on the vSAN technology from VMware, vSAN needs to be deployed on vSAN ready nodes while VxRail is an engineered system. The choice to choose which technology depends on two major fac...
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 interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We fou...
How does HPE Simplivity compare with VMware vSAN?
HPE SimpliVity is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that is primarily geared to mid-sized companies. We researched VMware vSAN but found HPE was a better option for us. HPE SimpliVity has ...
 

Also Known As

vSAN Ready Nodes
vSAN
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rackspace
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Find out what your peers are saying about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. VMware vSAN and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
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