Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and StarWind Virtual SAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 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 most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory.""The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing""The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable.""It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions.""Its technical support is excellent.""The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure."

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"The instant failover, with vSAN copying data to the second node, allowed for the continuous availability of our applications.""A great feature is that I basically set it and forget it, as everything is automatic.""The most useful aspect is the hyper-converged SD SAN and the ease to expand it by just adding cheap SSD or NVME disks.""The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem.""Starwind support is excellent. They are very fast and have very good knowledge of Starwind and Hyper-V Cluster software.""The ability to run a two-node cluster without a dedicated witness has made this an excellent product for small deployments, which is right on target for our needs in regional offices.""It has a nice, simple control panel. You can clearly see the state and health of storage along with the synchronization.""StarWind SANs come with outstanding support."

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Cons
"The management tool within this solution could be improved. We would also like to be able to access services like Azure when using this solution.""It is scalable, but only beyond two nodes. If I go for two nodes it's not scalable. I need to build a complete cluster from the beginning if I'm going for two nodes.""More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring.""I think the online documentation needs a lot of work and so do the sizing tools.""Documentation management could be improved""It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution."

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"Security on the ISCSI protocol could be improved by adding features like OS-type control access, especially for the data center environment.""The management console of StarWind Virtual SAN is pretty complex.""The interface of the management console of the StarWind Virtual SAN is complex, and it's difficult for the novice user to interact with the management having less knowledge or training in the product.""It would be helpful to have a little more insight into what kind of performance the VSAN cluster is utilizing; something that would be more proactive on our side, versus their ProActive Support.""StarWind doesn't really have any performance reporting, especially compared with other vSAN products we've used.""For me, the product could be improved by it being made cheaper.""It is not very clear within the StarWind Management Console or the StarWind support documentation how to perform maintenance on a single node in a two-node HA cluster.""I wish there was online support because email return takes a long time and a faster solution should be found."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."
  • "Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."
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  • "The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
  • "We are happy with the price."
  • "The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."
  • "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."
  • "The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."
  • "The pricing is excellent. It will run on anything. You don't have to buy a $100,000 server, with hardware you don't need. You just pay for the license and you're good to go."
  • "The licensing is a bit weird. If you license the standard version of StarWind, it allows you four terabytes. Then, they have a pro version, but with the pro version, the only difference is it doubles the terabytes to eight."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution. In comparison, the process is easy for VMware and VSAN.
    Top Answer:We test live failovers every week, and so far, everything has been running smoothly without anything unexpected.
    Top Answer:The cost of this is less than you expect. Since they're selling a software stack, you do need to consider your own hardware costs.
    Top Answer:Pricing is a bit high. That said, the support is worth it. It's really hard to point out any other negatives. The licensing and support pricing structure could have been laid out a little simpler, and… more »
    Ranking
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    Average Words per Review
    241
    Rating
    7.0
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    4,798
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    Average Words per Review
    596
    Rating
    9.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Storage Spaces Direct
    StarWind SAN & NAS
    Learn More
    Overview

    Storage Spaces Direct uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture radically simplifies procurement and deployment, while features like caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, together with the latest hardware innovation like RDMA networking and NVMe drives, deliver unrivaled efficiency and performance.

    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.

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    Sample Customers
    Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Construction Company8%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business71%
    Large Enterprise29%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise55%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business64%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is ranked 8th in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 2 reviews while StarWind Virtual SAN is ranked 1st in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 105 reviews. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is rated 7.6, while StarWind Virtual SAN is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct writes "Stable software storage solution that offers performance, reliability, and affordability". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind Virtual SAN writes "Easy to set up and maintain with good performance capabilities". Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is most compared with VMware vSAN, Red Hat Ceph Storage, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), DataCore SANsymphony and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, whereas StarWind Virtual SAN is most compared with VMware vSAN, StorMagic SvSAN, Red Hat Ceph Storage, DataCore SANsymphony and HPE SimpliVity. See our Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. StarWind Virtual SAN report.

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    We monitor all Software Defined Storage (SDS) 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.