Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs. StarWind Virtual SAN

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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

8.5

Pure Storage FlashBlade delivers cost savings, efficiency gains, and increased VM density, with returns seen within four years.

Sentiment score

7.6

Nutanix Unified Storage offers significant cost savings, enhanced productivity, and scalability, improving resource allocation and disaster recovery capabilities.

Sentiment score

7.4

StarWind Virtual SAN offers high ROI by reducing costs, downtime, and using existing servers for efficient deployment.

It does not require much management once you set up correctly, so it saves time, allowing an admin to focus on other work.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

For me, the biggest return on investment when using this solution is that we do not have to have much support staff to run it.

Tom Hiles

Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure & Support at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The scalability challenge with previous systems is lessened with Nutanix since we can expand by adding new hardware without needing migrations.

Ryan Salaheddine

Infrastructure Architect & Manager at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees

We are saving approximately 20% to 25% compared with the competition.

reviewer2703840

Global of Central Computing IT Operations Head at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.0

Pure Storage FlashBlade's customer service is praised for expertise but sometimes experiences slower responses due to growth challenges.

Sentiment score

8.0

Nutanix Unified Storage support is praised for responsiveness and knowledge, with high satisfaction despite occasional delays for complex issues.

Sentiment score

8.4

StarWind Virtual SAN excels in customer service with quick, professional support, seamless integration, and clear communication, ensuring satisfaction.

I would rate them an eight out of ten.

IT Field Support Engineer at Unisys

The support is done through email and is not that great, making it a very problematic area I've been dealing with for over four years.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

They come on the call, start troubleshooting immediately, and resolve issues effectively.

Ashish Savaratkar

Senior System Administrator at Datavail

They are very knowledgeable, and if they can't solve the problem, they find the answer within a day or so.

Shawn Greisen

Manager, System Engineering at a mining and metals company with 10,001+ employees

I would give the customer service and technical support a ten out of ten.

Manuel Heredia

PreSales at IKUSI

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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

When we set it up, they validate our settings and configurations to ensure we don't miss anything.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Manager, Field Support at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

8.8

Pure Storage FlashBlade is praised for its scalability and ease of expansion, satisfying various industries like banking and media.

Sentiment score

8.1

Nutanix Unified Storage offers scalable, flexible expansion with seamless capacity adjustments, praised for supporting diverse workloads efficiently.

Sentiment score

7.8

StarWind Virtual SAN offers scalable, flexible storage solutions, easily adapting to infrastructure growth with minimal reconfiguration, despite some licensing limitations.

Pure Storage FlashBlade is scalable.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

This means you don't have to buy everything upfront; you can buy what you need and add more as you grow, which is advantageous.

ChrisGeaghan

Sales engineer at HYCU, Inc.

These three components utilize scalability tools, enabling storage addition to nodes and supporting independent, linear performance growth.

Amarnath Charugundla

System Engineer at Tata Consultancy

I can rack mount the server or node and add it to the cluster anytime with just one click.

Ashish Savaratkar

Senior System Administrator at Datavail

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

I believe that scalability should be further improved, especially considering the possibility that environments may grow exponentially.

Soporte IT at Sildan Security

I have never needed to scale up or add additional nodes with StarWind Virtual SAN, but we have had to expand, and customer support has been excellent.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.8

Pure Storage FlashBlade is highly rated for stability, reliability, and performance, with minimal downtime and swift recovery.

Sentiment score

8.5

Nutanix Unified Storage is praised for its stability, reliability, minimal downtime, seamless updates, and efficient data management.

Sentiment score

8.6

StarWind Virtual SAN is highly reliable with minimal maintenance, offering seamless, dependable operations across diverse environments, and earning user trust.

In case there is any issue with any blade, the data is moved to another.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

IT Field Support Engineer at Unisys

We have not experienced these issues with Nutanix, which I attribute to the all-flash technology, the quality of their platform, and the responsiveness of the hyper-converged infrastructure.

Ryan Adams

System Administrator II at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is very stable.

Ashish Savaratkar

Senior System Administrator at Datavail

It automatically triggers tasks, causing performance issues.

reviewer2700540

Nutanix Egineer with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer

Room For Improvement

Users want better cloud integration, support, pricing, efficiency, and improvements in analytics, configuration, and backup for FlashBlade.

Nutanix Unified Storage needs better simplicity, security, integration, cost efficiency, support, and improvements in interface, protocols, and analytics.

StarWind Virtual SAN users seek better documentation, management tools, and integration features, while appreciating its affordability and high availability.

Technical support definitely needs significant improvement.

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

Its configuration should be easier.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

IT Field Support Engineer at Unisys

The main concern is pricing, which could deter some customers; addressing this would enhance its appeal.

Mrudula Oruganti

Senior Solution Software Engineer at Gigamon

The system should move towards AI-driven optimization and enhance S3 object storage capabilities.

Sukhwinder-Singh

Corporate Trainer at a educational organization with 501-1,000 employees

System downtime can disturb the entire ecosystem and impact all applications.

Amarnath Charugundla

System Engineer at Tata Consultancy

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Setup Cost

Pure Storage FlashBlade is costlier but valued for performance, ease, and reliability, justifying its comprehensive licensing with included software.

Nutanix Unified Storage offers competitive pricing, valued for performance and flexibility, but can be costly for smaller businesses.

StarWind Virtual SAN is cost-effective, easy to set up, offers flexible scalability, and has responsive support with perpetual licenses.

The pricing of Pure Storage FlashBlade is expensive compared to other products I used from other companies in the past, but one benefit is that they have built-in ransomware protection.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

Compared to buying three or four vendor solutions, it is much cheaper.

Tom Hiles

Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure & Support at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

The cost has doubled for the same amount of data, which was a challenge when presenting use case justifications for the increased cost.

Ryan Salaheddine

Infrastructure Architect & Manager at a real estate/law firm with 201-500 employees

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) has definitely helped reduce our total cost of ownership.

Nidhi Lnu

Information Technology Managed Services Provider at SCE

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Pre Post Sales Engineer at Logiccomputer

The pricing can be a bit complex depending on the features you need.

JohnPerez

IT Administrator at Panoptic Services, Inc.

Valuable Features

Pure Storage FlashBlade offers high performance, scalability, and ease of use with excellent data protection and seamless integration for large storage needs.

Nutanix Unified Storage offers scalable, centralized management, enhancing performance, accessibility, and security for efficient IT infrastructure.

StarWind Virtual SAN offers robust features, simplicity, and reliability with seamless integration and automation for enhanced data redundancy and resilience.

We can plug in many blades, and we can have data up to one terabyte.

IT Field Support Engineer at Unisys

The best features of Pure Storage FlashBlade include better throughput and better performance.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pure Storage FlashBlade report

System admin at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is appreciated for its fault tolerance and redundancy at the cluster level, which ensures reliable storage of files, folders, and other information accessible on the client side.

reviewer2700540

Nutanix Egineer with 10,001+ employees

The cybersecurity features of Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) when dealing with unstructured data, such as ransomware threats, provide the ability to detect and back up block-based storage, allowing me to restore repositories or sets of block storage with one button click, which is automatic.

Andrew Essien

Network Engineer at Alabama A & M University

My experience with using Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) for data-intensive workloads is that we have many SQL Servers and they perform much better than they did when we used hybrid converged previously.

Tom Hiles

Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure & Support at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) report

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.

For more quotes and insights, download the StarWind Virtual SAN report

Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

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 Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) is 5.3%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of StarWind Virtual SAN is 7.0%, down from 8.5% 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.

Read full review

Vipin Kumar Sha

Cloud Engineer at CtrlS Datacenters Ltd

Pricing challenges overshadow efficient data handling and fast deployment

In terms of improvement areas for Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS), pricing is a significant issue, and another aspect is that the export of Nutanix backups does not support CD-ROMs, which is a disadvantage. Currently, it only supports QZ bus types for backups, which limits compatibility. When comparing Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) with other solutions in the market, it falls short because it only supports iSCSI backups, while competitors also support QZ, iSCSI, fiber channel, and NVMe storage. The solution requires no maintenance for patching since it is designed effectively, but Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) does not support fiber channel connectivity or external attached storage through NAS, limiting its compatibility. Additionally, technical support response time and efficiency are lacking in comparison to competitors.

Read full review

Seamless integrations, high availability, and offers a free version

Soporte IT at Sildan Security

Although I am generally satisfied with VSAN and its performance, there are some areas that could be improved to enhance its effectiveness even further. One area that could benefit from improvement is scalability. While the tool works well in its current configuration, allowing for greater ease and flexibility in adding new nodes to the cluster without complications would be very beneficial, especially in growing environments. Additionally, I would like to see additional features in the next version, such as better support for automated resource management. This could include proactive suggestions for optimizing storage and memory usage, as well as preventive alerts about the health status of the servers. 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.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.

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859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

32%

Educational Organization

14%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

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...

What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

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

What do you like most about Nutanix Unified Storage?

Nutanix has excellent product documentation available on their portals, written in simple, easy-to-understand language.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nutanix Unified Storage?

Nutanix solutions are often perceived as premium-priced, but they deliver substantial ROI in terms of performance, re...

What needs improvement with Nutanix Unified Storage?

Nutanix Unified Storage is already a robust and forward-thinking platform. That said, one area for potential improvem...

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) combin...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for StarWind Virtual SAN?

I have had no setup costs and no challenges with setup and installation for StarWind Virtual SAN. The costs are accep...

What needs improvement with StarWind Virtual SAN?

There are times when the feedback in the event of an impending issue or an actual failure can be limited. The remedia...

Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Comparisons

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Dell PowerScale (Isilon) vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

Compared 16% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

Compared 15% of the time

MinIO vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

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NetApp AFF vs Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

Compared 4% of the time

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VMware vSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 23% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

StorMagic SvSAN vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 14% of the time

DataCore SANsymphony vs StarWind Virtual SAN

Compared 14% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Download Pure Storage FlashBlade product report

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS)

Download Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) product report

Download StarWind Virtual SAN product report

StarWind Virtual SAN

May 2025

Also Known As

No data available

Nutanix Files Storage, Nutanix Volumes Block Storage, Nutanix Objects Storage

StarWind SAN & NAS

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

Nutanix Unified Storage provides high availability and seamless cloud platform integration, ensuring robust redundancy, scalability, and streamlined management. It supports hybrid cloud connectivity, enhancing storage security and performance.

Nutanix Unified Storage is designed for effective data protection across block, file, and object storage, offering features like ransomware detection and a centralized management interface through Prism Central. Users gain improved SLAs and IT cost savings through its efficient performance. Despite its user-friendly interface, there is a demand for enhanced security measures such as Multi-Factor Authentication and DLP. While its resilience is notable, users seek improvements in protocol compatibility, storage capabilities, pricing, and support processes.

What are the most important features of Nutanix Unified Storage?

User-Friendly Interface: Simplifies storage management and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures continuous operation and reliability.
Seamless Cloud Integration: Compatible with platforms like Azure and AWS.
Robust Redundancy: Protects data against hardware failures.
Scalable Architecture: Easily adapts to growing data storage needs.
Ransomware Detection: Enhances data protection measures.

What benefits and ROI might users find in reviews?

Improved SLAs: Increased service reliability and performance.
IT Cost Savings: Reduces expenses through efficient resource use.
Enhanced Security: Stronger data protection and reduced risk.
Centralized Management: Easier control and monitoring from one dashboard.

Industries implement Nutanix Unified Storage for tasks such as file storage, database performance improvement, and storage solution consolidation. Companies deploying virtual machines, securing against ransomware, connecting hybrid clouds, and backing up data find it useful. It supports workloads like Citrix VDI, Kubernetes, and research data, assisting many organizations migrating from legacy storage for better cost efficiency and reduced data center footprints.

Nutanix

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.

StarWind

Sample Customers

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

JetBlue, International Speedway Corporation, Volkswagen SAIC, Brighton and Hove City Council, Foresters Financial, Janus International Group, Cloud Comrade, Serco

Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs. StarWind Virtual SAN