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Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs StarWind Virtual SAN 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
6.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure users achieve ROI within 2-3 years, citing cost, energy savings, and operational efficiencies with stable infrastructures.
Sentiment score
6.9
StarWind Virtual SAN offers cost-effective, flexible storage solutions reducing operational costs, downtime, and hardware needs, with rapid ROI.
We don't sell a lot of redundant servers, so it's not a massive ROI, but the ability to rely on their technical support and the software's ease of setup allows us to reduce labor costs and go to market competitively.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
The cost benefits, as far as we consider, are much better with a StarWind VSAN solution, and the training requirements with the ease of administration simplify and reduce our administrator and professional services costs.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Regarding cost savings, for my client, it was about 20K USD for his specific use and as for extending capacity, StarWind made that process easy.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure support is praised for quick, knowledgeable service, resolving issues swiftly with multilingual capabilities and proactive monitoring.
Sentiment score
7.8
StarWind Virtual SAN offers exceptional support with timely responses, expert staff, and 24/7 proactive monitoring for optimal performance.
When we send an email, an engineer is assigned within 15 to 20 minutes, and we get on a call to resolve the issue.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The second one was a licensing issue because when I switched from the SMB package to another package, I had to change the way of licensing, and that was horrendous.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
Even in the instances where my technical team does not have the ability to manage or troubleshoot or resolve an issue, StarWind's technical team supports and resolves on our behalf very quickly.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
They have some awesome guides online that show you exactly how to configure the product, how to do the initial setup, and you can speak with them directly who will be able to connect, verify your setup, run its parameters, and see exactly what's working and what is not, and adjust it, and they really help you with that.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
The customer support from StarWind Virtual SAN is great, as the people are knowledgeable and have great knowledge about the product and the functionality we require in the system.
System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers exceptional scalability, allowing seamless expansion, dynamic growth, and effortless workload management for enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.6
StarWind Virtual SAN impresses users with seamless scalability, allowing effortless upgrades and configurations without downtime, supporting various setups.
The scalability of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) deserves an eight out of ten rating, as there is no solution that is 100% efficient and there is always room for improvement.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
If we want to expand our storage or add disks, it is easy to add them, configure the RAID, and then deploy it.
IT Support Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I believe that scalability should be further improved, especially considering the possibility that environments may grow exponentially.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
When you move from a two-node cluster to a three-node cluster, you have to completely redo the way that they are connected to each other with iSCSI.
Manager of Systems Administration at Monster Digital
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers stable, reliable performance with minimal downtime, efficient workload handling, and high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.4
StarWind Virtual SAN offers stable, reliable performance with minimal issues, seamless updates, and efficient VM migrations, even during failures.
Compared to VM, we find it most stable.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Regarding stability, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) a seven out of ten.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
In my experience, StarWind Virtual SAN is very stable, and I have never had a single instability issue.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
It has been working for five years and the customer is still happy with it.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
I ran it on a two-node Hyper-V cluster setup, and I didn't experience any unexpected crashes or major issues.
Hosting Operations Senior Analyst at Equinix Brasil
 

Room For Improvement

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure needs improvements in setup cost, storage, integration, compatibility, networking, oversight, and pricing transparency for competitiveness.
StarWind Virtual SAN needs better documentation, automation, integration, setup simplification, monitoring, and feature enhancements like deduplication and encryption.
We hope Nutanix can integrate inside our current license module.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
They should add AI features in the future.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
A more intuitive interface or an improved dashboard for monitoring the cluster would also be helpful, as it would facilitate performance tracking and help identify potential issues before they affect services.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
There have been cases where not understanding exactly what's failing on the Virtual SAN has been an issue.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
Limited feedback in the management GUI is the main area where I would like to see StarWind Virtual SAN get better.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers cost-effectiveness with comprehensive solutions, despite initial costs, appealing to enterprises for long-term ROI.
StarWind Virtual SAN is competitively priced, simple to license, easy to implement, and offers excellent value with flexible options.
The pricing is renewed every year, at almost $100,000 per year.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
It costs more compared to VMware due to different licensing areas.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
At first, it is cheaper than cloud services, so the cost is a major benefit.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
The costs are acceptable and very competitive compared to other hardware-only HCI solutions.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
I talked to the sales team, they gave me a quote with a perpetual license with the support and everything went through smoothly.
Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer
This is a great product and good support even you are using free version!
Infrastructure Manager at Beacon Fronline Solutions Inc
 

Valuable Features

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure excels in ease of use, scalability, data protection, and seamless management, enhancing performance and reducing costs.
StarWind Virtual SAN offers cost-effective, high performance solutions with easy management, excellent support, and seamless integration for various platforms.
When technology development or devops teams request server provisioning, the setup time has been reduced from hours to less than 20 minutes.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The performance was really better for applications and access times to the data.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
The replication method between Nutanix clusters is a valuable feature.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Thanks to its seamless integration with Proxmox, the implementation of high availability servers has drastically reduced downtime, which is crucial for our security-focused company.
Soporte IT at Sildan Security
StarWind Virtual SAN helps us keep customer satisfaction and provides the solutions we need without having to hire many IT specialists.
Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees
StarWind's storage virtualization and failover capabilities have made a difference for my clusters through uptime improvements, with zero downtime specific to server host maintenance or even maintenance of the StarWind software itself.
Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
6th
Ranking in HCI
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
200
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)
StarWind Virtual SAN
Ranking in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
1st
Ranking in HCI
4th
Average Rating
9.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
204
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Software Defined Storage (SDS) category, the mindshare of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is 5.4%, up from 5.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 5.5%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined Storage (SDS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
StarWind Virtual SAN5.5%
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)5.4%
Other89.1%
Software Defined Storage (SDS)
 

Featured Reviews

OB
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
Infrastructure efficiency has improved significantly with quick server provisioning, though physical to virtual migrations need a streamlined in-house tool
From my experience with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), there is one area that needs improvement. When moving a critical infrastructure from a physical machine to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), we currently have to use a third-party tool to convert the physical machine to a VM. We have to use VMware converter to perform this conversion before moving it to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
Jccerong Heron - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Support team has guided us through deploying virtual storage on legacy hardware and reducing operational costs
The reason I chose StarWind Virtual SAN for this particular scenario is really the features, the ease of use, and most importantly, the price. In my opinion, the best features StarWind Virtual SAN offers are easy integration with the system installed in the data center. The integration with my existing systems in the data center works well, especially with VMware, as we already have a big cluster in VMware, and the easy integration with that is helpful to solve some problems with the platform. StarWind Virtual SAN has positively impacted my organization by reducing OPEX costs. My OPEX costs have gone down as we reutilize some old servers, and this reduces the CAPEX of hardware in the data center.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.
884,328 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees
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
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business92
Midsize Enterprise77
Large Enterprise82
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business165
Midsize Enterprise54
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

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 core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy hyper...
What makes Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) worth using?
NCI is a product with many tools and services but the one that, in my opinion, makes it better than similar products and worth using, is the full-stack lifecycle management. This capacity allows u...
Have you received reliable help from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's support when you contacted them?
NCI is one of the best out there. For any software, no matter how good it is, technical support makes it or breaks it for me. You may have an amazing product but if there is not anyone to help you ...
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) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool” acce...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was very good. We were able to get the software at a good cost. I did most of the setup, so there wasn't really any cost there. The professiona...
What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?
The only thing that I would say about documentation is there are some aspects of the documentation that are a little bit unclear. However, when I worked through those issues with their professional...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,328 professionals have used our research since 2012.