Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs VMware vSAN comparison

Dell Technologies and Broadcom are both solutions in the HCI category. Dell Technologies is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.6, while Broadcom is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.9. Dell Technologies holds a 3.0% mindshare in HCI, compared to Broadcom’s 11.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Dell Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Read 21 Dell vSAN Ready Nodes reviews

1,856 Views
1,856 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

VMware vSAN

Read 234 VMware vSAN reviews

14,300 Views
9,009 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

VMware vSAN

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 31, 2024

VMware vSAN and Dell vSAN Ready Nodes compete in the virtual SAN technology space. VMware vSAN appears to have the upper hand in terms of integration with VMware products, which is crucial for environments heavily invested in VMware.

Features: VMware vSAN offers strong orchestration and flexibility in expanding resources, seamless integration into the VMware ecosystem, and high scalability ideal for consolidated management. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes excel in reliable performance, impressive storage management, and flexibility, crucial for a range of workloads.

Room for Improvement: VMware vSAN needs enhanced integration with hybrid clouds, improved monitoring tools, and better scalability options. Addressing compatibility issues and streamlining troubleshooting and upgrades is also necessary. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes could benefit from simpler deployment, improved integration with public cloud platforms, and more automated upgrade processes.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: VMware vSAN is favored for ease of integration with existing VMware environments, with extensive support for smooth deployment. However, response times vary. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are known for stable support but need more user-friendly setup processes. Both solutions are valued for supportive customer services, but demand faster response times.

Pricing and ROI: VMware vSAN is considered expensive, but its stability and feature set offer high ROI for larger businesses. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes, though potentially more costly initially versus alternatives like Lenovo or HPE, provide competitive pricing models and long-term savings through effective resource management. Both require significant investment but deliver positive ROI through decreased maintenance and operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. VMware vSAN Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. VMware vSAN

December 2025

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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

3.7

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer 30-40% savings despite integration issues, leveraging existing staff to reduce operating expenses.

Sentiment score

3.2

VMware vSAN reduces hardware costs, increases efficiency, and boosts ROI despite high operational expenses and upfront costs.

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.

KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

Starting with a smaller infrastructure and scaling as required allows us to save costs initially.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I have seen a return on investment; it's satisfactory in the long run.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

4.0

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes support is rated positively, though response times can be slow, with varying service quality.

Sentiment score

4.9

VMware vSAN support is knowledgeable but response times vary, with resources helping reduce direct contact needs for clients.

There is always room for improvement in terms of response time and reaching knowledgeable staff quickly.

reviewer2598528

Senior Engineering Manager at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Whether we have pro support plus or just the basic level, they are helpful and reliable as long as we provide the necessary details.

reviewer1046019

Technical Support at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

If we require a replacement part, the engagement is usually within four hours

Humphrey Hlatshwayo

Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

I would rate their support nine points.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I am not satisfied with VMware support, particularly with the reaction times, SLAs, and those kinds of issues.

reviewer1687299

private cloud team at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Sometimes the issue is that you don't get the best experience, whether it's the response time or first-level support quality.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.2

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer scalability and flexibility, though costs and resource needs pose challenges for larger deployments.

Sentiment score

4.8

VMware vSAN offers seamless scalability, enabling efficient node addition and storage expansion to meet evolving business capacity demands.

With VCF we have significant automation built-in within the VCF console within SDDC manager as the primary management console.

KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

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.

reviewer1046019

Technical Support at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

It supports up to 64 nodes in a cluster, allowing us to add nodes and expand the cluster as needed.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

If you have already bought it, you need specific servers, and it is easier with a SAN.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

5.1

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are stable and reliable, with high stability ratings, though performance and disk issues require management.

Sentiment score

5.9

VMware vSAN reliability improves with updates, strong support, and adherence to hardware compatibility lists, ensuring stable performance.

A disk group for five disks can be problematic, and customers need to tolerate downtime if the disk is not available.

KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

In terms of stability, I give VMware vSAN nine points.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

From my perspective, I would rate VMware vSAN's stability as extremely high, perhaps a nine.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Room For Improvement

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes need better scalability, automation, cost-efficiency, integration, support, and updates to address current customer challenges.

VMware vSAN requires better management tools, integration, and hardware support, with improved stability, scalability, and enhanced disaster recovery features.

A faster firmware lifecycle with the release of validated firmware catalogs more quickly would be a desired improvement.

reviewer2598528

Senior Engineering Manager at a media company with 10,001+ employees

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are useful as a product, but the lack of expansion with VMware has led customers to refrain from further upgrades.

reviewer1046019

Technical Support at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees

I would want VMware to ensure that when there's a hardware failure on a host, it should gracefully migrate the VMs to another host available in the cluster without restarting, which would be a great improvement.

Humphrey Hlatshwayo

Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

A proper monitoring tool that encompasses both applications and infrastructure would help in quickly resolving issues.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features.

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

Discussing the pricing model is significant as Broadcom creates many discussions worldwide regarding pricing.

UlfWernersson

Senior Infrastructure Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Setup Cost

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes are initially costly but cost-effective long-term, with competitive pricing and annual licensing considerations.

VMware vSAN offers long-term savings, but initial costs and licensing complexity concern small businesses, especially post-Broadcom acquisition.

As a group under Comcast, we receive very good pricing from Dell due to our considerable business dealings.

reviewer2598528

Senior Engineering Manager at a media company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

This has resulted in a slight cost increase.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Valuable Features

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes offer compact design, scalability, and robust security, enhancing performance and user experience with single-vendor support.

VMware vSAN provides high-performance, scalable storage with cost-effective integration, using existing hardware and offering advanced features.

The ability for single-team management without requiring a separate storage team for managing arrays and fiber channel switches is also a valuable feature.

reviewer2598528

Senior Engineering Manager at a media company with 10,001+ employees

It is stable, and similar to any issues on a standalone machine, there's resilience; if we lose one host, data will not be lost because of the technology on vSAN that allows us to free up that host into maintenance mode without issues.

Humphrey Hlatshwayo

Systems Engineer at First Rand Bank Ltd.

Second is the storage policies, with different flavors available all within a single management console when we want to configure different sets of policies as per workload requirements.

KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes report

Hot add features are available by default in vSphere, allowing us to immediately increase memory, CPU, and hard drive without any downtime.

Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The performance is excellent, handling workloads better than direct-attached or legacy storage solutions.

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

The VMware vSAN feature that has had the greatest impact on operational efficiency is the basic software-defined storage functionality.

Ajith Varghese

Deputy Manager at Mannai

For more quotes and insights, download the VMware vSAN report

Categories and Ranking

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Ranking in HCI

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

VMware vSAN

Ranking in HCI

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

234

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is 3.0%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware vSAN is 11.4%, down from 16.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
VMware vSAN	11.4%
Dell vSAN Ready Nodes	3.0%
Other	85.6%

HCI

Featured Reviews

KuldeepSingh4

Technical Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

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.

Read full review

ShyamikaThamel

Associate Tech Specialists at Seatrium

Managing mixed RAID workloads has improved data protection and delivers strong performance

VMware vSAN can be improved in certain areas. In cases involving our large data stores with large VMs, we experience some latency, not during normal operation, but during database backup operations. We observed latency due to buffer issues from the top-of-the-rack switches. These issues are mostly network-related because all storage data traffic travels through the network. I have recently used Nutanix, and I observed that Nutanix provides better performance than VMware vSAN due to its data locality features. VMware vSAN is now providing data locality, but we did not use that option. If VMware vSAN provides additional features in the next release, such as the VM balancing feature called DRS on the cluster that VMware previously had, it would be beneficial. With DRS, VMs can move easily from one node to another within the same cluster. Nutanix does not provide that flexibility. When placing a VM on a cluster in Nutanix, the placement uses a balancing component. After that, the VM remains on the same host. If any contention occurs on the CPU or memory side, the VM stays in place until contention happens. If issues occur, the VM migrates to another host while transferring all objects to the same host. This is how their data locality is maintained. When a VM moves to any host, it moves with all VM objects. VMware vSAN does not currently offer this option. If a VM moves to another host, it accesses the disk object through the network, which increases latency. VMware vSAN now offers an option to select data locality, but it does not function like Nutanix. This is why some latency remains. If VMware vSAN can improve this feature, it would be very helpful and VMware would regain its top position.

Read full review

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	100
Midsize Enterprise	58
Large Enterprise	129

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Dell vSAN Ready Nodes?

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?

We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load bal...

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Comparisons

VxRail vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 20% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile MX Certified Node vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 9% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 8% of the time

Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 8% of the time

HPE SimpliVity vs Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

Compared 7% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes

January 2026

Download Dell vSAN Ready Nodes product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware vSAN

December 2025

Download VMware vSAN product report

Also Known As

vSAN Ready Nodes

vSAN

Overview

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.

Dell Technologies

VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage product that is used in collaboration with VMware ESXi hypervisor and that provisions and manages storage based on policies, regardless of the underlying hardware. The solution enables you to prime your business for growth through its seamless evolution (it is integrated with vSphere and requires no new tools), its flexibility, and its multi-cloud capabilities. As an industry-leading software, VMware vSAN provides high levels of performance with minimal impact on CPU and memory.

VMware vSAN Features

VMware vSAN has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Storage policy-based management (SPBM): VMware vSAN supports storage policy-based management for automated management of storage profiles.

Software-defined data-at-rest encryption: With this VMware vSAN feature, you can prevent unauthorized access of data at rest.

Multiple nodes: VMware vSAN provides clusters that can include as few as 2 nodes or as many as 64 nodes.

High security and availability: VMware vSAN offers stretched clusters, allowing more than one virtualization host server to be used in the same setup, promoting higher security as well as availability.

Deduplication: VMware vSAN’s deduplication compresses data to ensure efficient storage management and security.

HCI mesh updates: VMware vSAN clusters can share storage capacity with non-HCI Sphere clusters and can adopt HCI without having to scale computing resources and storage or replace existing servers.

Simplified file services: With VMware vSAN’s file services, backup of file shares is simplified. You can use APIs that allow backup and recovery software vendors to integrate with your VMware vSAN file services, which enables backup software to track new data and add scalability enhancements to files.

VMware vSAN Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing VMware vSAN. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Reduced total cost of ownership (TCO): VMware vSAN helps you reduce upfront costs for businesses because it can be easily deployed on inexpensive x86 servers. In addition, its highly scalable infrastructure and quick deployment also save organizations time and money, making it an efficient storage solution.

Good manageability: VMWare vSAN is easy to set up, manage, and provision, without sacrificing performance.

Scalability: VMware vSAN is agile and allows administrators to scale storage on demand, quickly, and efficiently via policies and rules.

Simplicity: VMWare vSAN is simple to configure since it is embedded in the vSphere hypervisor. Installing it using the vSphere Web Client can be done quickly.

Reduced risk: VMWare vSAN reduces the risk associated with digital transformations by utilizing existing tools, skill sets, and solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the VMware vSAN solution.

PeerSpot user Yves S., CEO, Cloud Evangelist at Comdivision Consulting GmbH, says, “vSAN gives us a lot of advantages when we need to expand resources. We have an overall larger host infrastructure, and we split that up for specific customer test and use cases. In that specific scenario, we can easily add more hosts or reduce the number of hosts in the environment.”

A reviewer who works in Infrastructure Security explains, “The ease of use is great. The initial setup and upgrade process was pretty straightforward. And, technical support is great.”

Laurent N., Director at Softlogic, comments, "The feature that I have found most valuable is that it is easy to deploy. It is easy to create and delete virtual servers. It is easy to create the load balancing and the clustering."

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Rackspace

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Buyer's Guide

Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. VMware vSAN

December 2025

Free Report: Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. VMware vSAN

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

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