Nexenta vs VMware Software Defined Storage comparison

Nexenta by DDN and VMware are both solutions in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category. Nexenta by DDN is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0, while VMware is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.5. Nexenta by DDN holds a 1.1% mindshare in SDS, compared to VMware’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of Nexenta by DDN users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of VMware users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Nexenta and VMware Software Defined Storage are competing products in the realm of storage solutions. VMware appears superior due to its comprehensive feature set, while Nexenta attracts cost-conscious organizations with its pricing and support.

Features: Nexenta provides scalable and flexible solutions with an open-source foundation, offering cost-efficient customization. VMware Software Defined Storage offers strong integration with virtual environments, a wide range of features, and built-in automation, making it ideal for virtualization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Nexenta is recognized for its simple deployment process and proactive customer support. VMware may present a steeper learning curve but benefits from extensive documentation and a robust support network, making it reliable though potentially more complex to deploy.

Pricing and ROI: Nexenta's competitive setup cost is attractive for enterprises leaning towards open-source solutions, providing a significant ROI over time due to lower licensing fees. VMware incurs higher initial costs, but its extensive features and long-term advantages in virtual environments justify the investment, offering enhanced functionality and integration benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Nexenta vs. VMware Software Defined Storage Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

June 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:

Categories and Ranking

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 4.2%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nexenta is 1.1%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VMware Software Defined Storage is 0.9%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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Anil Rahulwar

Storage Engineer at Movate

Offers good features like Fusion and stable product with better customer service

Fusion is the only best feature, but it's a very good feature. Nexenta is a very old product. Nexenta is a well-established product used in the UK, US, India, Dubai, Qatar, and other countries. It is very good. The interface is up to date. Everything is up to date. The OS version was recently upgraded to 5.5 FP3. AI features: DataDirect Networks owns Nexenta and has won awards for AI. They continuously work on AI features. DDN also has a product called Tintri Infinia with AI features. And NVIDIA product also has AI features. I look forward to working on those products.

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Achilles Lobo

Infrastructure Architect at Grupo Protege

Simple to configure and provides good performance

The solution is simple to configure and provides good performance and less footprint. Dell deployed the solution, and it's very simple to use. VMware software is widely used by IT administrators VMware Software Defined Storage can be improved in the replication area. The solution has some…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup is pretty quick."

"We have integrated it with VMware. The integration process is pretty good. Especially with VMware, it helps with the capacity of it."

"The tool's most valuable features are data warehousing, speedy recovery, and analytics. Its latest release is cost-effective."

"The snapshots, replication, and the ability to have immutable blades are the most valuable features. You're putting data snapshots out in those blades, and they cannot be touched. Its performance is great."

"Speed and ease of use are the two most valuable features."

"What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware. Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features."

"It performs well and it is also very fast."

"I like its size. It is smaller than the other competitors. We can plug in many blades, and we can have data up to one terabyte."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"It has a feature called Fusion that makes it more secure and productive."

"The solution is simple to configure and provides good performance and less footprint."

"This is an easy-to-use product for adding flexibility to your storage solution."

"The most valuable features of VMware Software Defined Storage are scalability, high availability, and performance."

"The single management panel is the main feature that is wonderful for the customer."

"The most valuable features of the solution are that it is easy to deploy and the support is really good."

"The most valuable features of VMware Software Defined Storage are scalability, high availability, and performance."

"The best part of the solution is that you can actually scale up to a large number of operating systems without additional hardware."

"VMware Software Defined Storage gives higher availability against data corruption."

Cons

"On our dedupe during our initial buy, we were expecting a number a little higher like 4x. However, we are getting about 3.6. While it is close enough, it doesn't quite hit the numbers. So, this has been a challenge."

"It would be nice if you could store file-based in the same box with the same technology."

"Its configuration should be easier."

"I would like to see better integration."

"I want efficiency. FlashBlade doesn't have efficiency now."

"There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

"The speed could be improved."

"The documentational aspect of FlashBlade needs improvement."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved."

"Simplifying the licensing model and making it cheaper would improve the solution."

"It doesn't have the ability to be deployed on any kind of hardware and network connectors."

"The solution has some limitations in terms of replication to remote sites or cloud infrastructure, which need improvement."

"VMware Software Defined Storage should include a shared database on a standard version."

"I'd like to see improved hardware compatibility"

"The performance is not as good as some competing products and reporting can be improved."

"The license model of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"There is room for more integrations and plugins into more storages."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

"I rate the tool's pricing a seven to eight out of ten."

"I feel that the price could always be lowered."

"We used a reseller for the purchase."

"It is within reason for what you get. From what we have found comparing it to other vendors, it is in the same range as others. Given the choice, we would definitely redeploy it based on the cost."

"The product is very expensive."

"It's a costly solution, but Pure Storage FlashBlade doesn't require additional licenses. All of the software is combined into one bundle."

"The price could be cheaper."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"I believe there is a yearly licensing fee of around $2000 - $5000. I don't think there are additional costs above that but it depends on the type of infrastructure you're booting."

"VMware Software Defined Storage is a slightly expensive solution."

"The product is quite expensive and is among the most expensive for this type of solution."

"A single socket costs you around US $6,000 for three years. At a minimum, you have a three load cluster for a medium or enterprise-scale company. It can get quite expensive because you're likely to need four to six sockets on the other side. It comes to around $30,000."

"The solution is very expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and per...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Nexenta?

There were some SMB issues, but they were resolved in the latest version. Four to five customers faced intermittent i...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Nexenta?

It's for file systems. It's a NAS solution, and it has flexibility. There shouldn't be any outages because if one nod...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Nexenta?

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten. I would recommend using it.

See all answers

What do you like most about VMware Software Defined Storage?

VMware Software Defined Storage gives higher availability against data corruption.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VMware Software Defined Storage?

The price of VMware Software Defined Storage is on the pricey side, rated four out of five in cost. There is room for...

See all answers

What needs improvement with VMware Software Defined Storage?

There is room for more integrations and plugins into more storages. More automation, such as using Playbook on Ansibl...

See all answers

Comparisons

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 20% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

MinIO vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

VAST Data vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 10% of the time

More Pure Storage FlashBlade Competitors

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Nexenta

Compared 71% of the time

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Nexenta

Compared 29% of the time

More Nexenta Competitors

DataCore SANsymphony vs VMware Software Defined Storage

Compared 38% of the time

IBM Spectrum Scale vs VMware Software Defined Storage

Compared 33% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs VMware Software Defined Storage

Compared 28% of the time

More VMware Software Defined Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

June 2025

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined Storage (SDS)

May 2025

Download Nexenta product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Software Defined Storage

May 2025

Download VMware Software Defined Storage product report

Also Known As

No data available

VMware SDS

Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Nexenta is the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage - what we call Open Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS).We uniquely integrate software-only "Open Source" collaboration with commodity hardware-centric "Software-Defined Storage" (SDS) innovation.

Nexenta by DDN

VMware software-defined storage is a simple, yet intelligent, storage data center architecture that aligns with business and application demands—eliminating static, purpose-built and inefficient hardware with dynamic, agile and automated solutions.

VMware

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

GMO, Northern Backup, Cox Communications, University of Toronto, ScaleMatrix, Wipro, Ruhr University, Drillinginfo, George Washington University, Walton Electric, Faculty of Physics, NAU, ServerCentral

Helse Nord, Sky

Buyer's Guide

Nexenta vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

June 2025

Free Report: Nexenta vs. VMware Software Defined Storage

Find out what your peers are saying about Nexenta vs. VMware Software Defined Storage and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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