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Lipaz Hessel - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration Manager at Gilat Satellite Networks
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Expensive solution that requires professional services for installation and implementation
Pros and Cons
  • "We didn't only choose vSAN; we chose VMware because of SR-IOV, which is more on the hypervisor level and not on the vSAN storage. It's part of the whole system."
  • "There could be more features with the automatic backup."

What is our primary use case?

I'm running an application that's running under a virtual machine on vSAN. That vSAN environment is only for this specific application. We didn't only choose vSAN; we chose VMware because of SR-IOV, which is more on the hypervisor level and not on the vSAN storage. It's part of the whole system.

The solution is deployed on-prem.

There are seven users in my organization. They are all in IT roles.

What needs improvement?

There could be more features with the automatic backup.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for a year and a half. I'm still using the solution with a bigger environment, not vSAN.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is bad. They pointed me to professional services, and I had to pay someone when I already had the basic support agreement. I think we took the standard support agreement with VMware.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I'm still using a different solution. I only took two servers with vSAN to support one application that needs one feature that only VMware has. If not for that feature, I wouldn't touch VMware.

Now, I'm looking at products like Nutanix, Silver Peak, Flexione, and FortiGate. For products that I choose, I don't need a specialist of that vendor. In VMware, I need a specialist in VMware.

That's the issue I have with VMware. It's not like I can take any IT person, and they will know what to do. I need to make sure he will do the call, get the certificate and time to practice.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was complex. I would rate the complexity a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

For an experienced IT person, it isn't that complex. But if I compare it to the  competition, Nutanix would be a 1, and VMware would be a 5. If you have never touched Nutanix, VMware is not that complex. But if I compare it to Nutanix, it's complex.

Deployment of VMware vSAN took four days.

What about the implementation team?

We used a third party for deployment. We didn't have a good experience with them.

The person didn't have knowledge in VMware, and we had to pay someone to do the installation, and they said things like, "We need this. We need a certificate. We need another VLAN. We need another number."

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost is expensive. I purchased two servers. The hardware cost was $19,000. The software cost for these two servers, including the vSAN, was $30,000, which is $11,000 more than the hardware. Then I had to pay another $5,000 for installation and implementation for professional services. In total, it was $54,000 for two vSAN Servers.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 4 out of 10. 

For my needs on virtual machine and HCI, which is hyperconverged infrastructure, I have another solution that costs less and gives me better features. When it comes to one feature that only VMware supports, I had to pay. They have the patents, and they have things that only they can do. But I work in the telecom world, and we give services to a lot of companies. On my infrastructure, there are more than 80 million people using the infrastructure on a daily basis. Most of it is not VMware, and I'm so happy.

For the last two years, Gartner and even Nutanix have been above VMware.

My advice is to be sure you really need it, as there are other vendors in the market that give good solutions. Nutanix and Hyper-V give a solution that is good for most cases in the market. If I take the business world, 80% of the businesses in the world will be okay with other vendors and they cost less. 

My environment is 26 physical servers that aren't VMware and two physical servers that are VMware.

Previously, we had 400 servers, and only five of them were VMware. When you look in the market, you know the better solution for your needs. No one in the world has been fired or lost their job for purchasing Cisco; it's the name. It's the same with VMware; it's just too expensive.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Neeraj Mehra - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager of Solutions and Support at Esconet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Reseller
Top 5
A highly scalable solution that can be used for general-purpose computing and storage
Pros and Cons
  • "Instead of going for SAN storage, customers can use the scale-up and scale-out features of VMware vSAN."
  • "Enterprise customers get discounts on the solution's licensing pricing, but it is too expensive for SMB customers."

What is our primary use case?

VMware vSAN is used for virtualization and general-purpose computing. Instead of going for the SAN (storage area network) storage, customers go for VSAN (virtual storage area network). The solution is used for general-purpose computing, production computing, and storage.

What is most valuable?

Instead of going for SAN storage, customers can use the scale-up and scale-out features of VMware vSAN.

What needs improvement?

Enterprise customers get discounts on the solution's licensing pricing, but it is too expensive for SMB customers. Maintenance-wise, when the capacity is utilized beyond 60% to 70%, then the time of the upgrade is a little higher compared to the standard SAN storage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

VMware vSAN is a pretty stable solution. We haven't seen any issues with the solution's stability in five to seven years. The customers would face issues if they ignore some key points.

I rate VMware vSAN a nine out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, we have to just add the nodes. If you require more computing or storage, you have to add the nodes to the existing cluster. Our clients for VMware vSAN are medium and enterprise businesses.

I rate the solution nine and a half out of ten for scalability.

How was the initial setup?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the solution's initial setup an eight or eight and a half out of ten.

What about the implementation team?

The solution's deployment time totally depends on the customer or the deployment guide. However, we can deploy VMware vSAN in a day.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution's licensing pricing could be improved. The level of discounts available on the solution's licensing price varies from customer to customer. Enterprise customers get discounts on the solution's licensing pricing, but it is too expensive for SMB customers.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

Our clients are government and private customers working with VMware vSAN in the manufacturing, defense, oil and gas, and ITIS industries. The solution is generally built on top of the virtualization layer with VMware. It's a part of virtualization. The solution's performance and management are pretty easy.

VMware vSAN is tightly integrated with other VMware products because it's a part of vSphere. It is tightly integrated with the virtualization layer. We can integrate and utilize VMware vSAN for other VMware products very easily.

Using VMware vSAN is totally dependent on the customer's use case. A standard three-tier architecture is recommended for customers who want to use a tier-one application for ERP protection. VMware vSAN is recommended to customers with a use case for VDI, general-purpose computing, and test development environments.

Overall, I rate VMware vSAN a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director - IT Strategy Lead at Globe Mobile
Real User
Top 10
We're able to manage multiple platforms with ease, and we were surprised at how fast it was implemented
Pros and Cons
  • "The flexibility is most valuable. Being able to manage things quickly if something goes wrong is also valuable. Very recently, we had one node that went down due to a power problem, but there was really no major impact on the systems running on top of it."
  • "It could have some automation. We haven't involved ourselves in a lot of automation around the vSAN environment capabilities. We're still running it using a very traditional setup. So, there could be some plugins to automate it using third-party environments, such as Jenkins."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for a redundant, local front-end environment for our WiFi portal. We're also using it for critical backend services, our DCP instances, and our internal monitoring environments. We have instances inside that system right now.

I believe we are using its latest update.

What is most valuable?

The flexibility is most valuable. Being able to manage things quickly if something goes wrong is also valuable. Very recently, we had one node that went down due to a power problem, but there was really no major impact on the systems running on top of it. 

It is pretty straightforward. We're able to manage multiple platforms with ease. In terms of the overhead of understanding how the entire platform is being administered, it was fairly quick for our team to get the hang of it.

What needs improvement?

It could have some automation. We haven't involved ourselves in a lot of automation around the vSAN environment capabilities. We're still running it using a very traditional setup. So, there could be some plugins to automate it using third-party environments, such as Jenkins.

We were trying to explore a solution for a hybrid setup, and VMware had proposed something, but we wanted to understand a deeper setup where our existing vSAN and our HCI environment can interact better with our platforms on the cloud in AWS. So, there should be those types of interactions wherein we can better explore cost-saving opportunities from some platforms in the cloud versus the one that we have on-prem.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has been a pretty stable system so far.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We had a long discussion with our vendor partner about a plan to scale up the system. They gave us several options, but we ended up with the most cost-effective one where we had to trim down some of the node requirements that we were planning to buy initially.

How are customer service and support?

We had an experience with them recently, and the correspondence with the technical support from VMware was fairly quick. It was aligned with the expected SLA. There were no major issues with the support people who assisted us during that time.

How was the initial setup?

It was fairly straightforward. We were surprised at how fast it was implemented. The entire implementation took about two weeks. After that, it was turned over to us, and then we planned on the migration of the platforms from our old converged environment into this new environment.

In terms of the maintenance, apart from the normal operational maintenance that we're doing, we always ensure that there is a back-to-back maintenance agreement with VMware and the vendor partner who sold us the solution. So far, there has been very low admin maintenance on the platform. There have been no major issues except the last one where one node got affected by a power problem in the data center. That's just about it.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with a vendor partner for its implementation. Right now, in our team, we have around five admins who work with this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cost-wise, the Nutanix licenses were cheaper, but in terms of the hardware, there was some contention around it. So, in terms of implementation, the way Nutanix was projecting the implementation on their end was that there were a lot of open-source admin platforms. vSAN is a licensed product in VMware, and Nutanix was proposing a KVM solution, which is open source. That's why their pricing was a bit cheaper, but when we were trying to compare it with an enterprise version of their management platform, it boiled down to the VMware vSAN being most effective in the long run.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When we were exploring an HCI solution, we zoned in on the VMware vSAN, HPE solution, and Nutanix solution. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others. It is easy to implement, scale, and maintain. The operational work required to maintain the platform is not that difficult.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Rolando-Rodriguez - PeerSpot reviewer
Pre sales Engineer at Sonda S.A.
MSP
Top 10
It's the most natural way to migrate a fully hyperconverged solution
Pros and Cons
  • "In my opinion, vSAN is the most natural way to migrate to a fully hyperconverged solution. If a customer needs a more scalable solution with consolidated management, vSAN is excellent."
  • "A vSAN cluster must have compression and deduplication to be an all-flash array, but it's not supported with a hybrid array. Deduplication and compression work better with an all-flash array, so I think that VMware should give customers the option to activate and support this feature for hybrid arrays. Other products like Nutanix support this."

What is our primary use case?

The majority of our customers already vSphere in their infrastructure, so we usually upgrade the infrastructure by adding new hardware, or we migrate to a hyperconverged solution with vSAN ReadyNode and VxRail in some cases.

What is most valuable?

The vSAN storage cluster is the most interesting feature.

What needs improvement?

Many VMware products are specialized, where one solution does one thing and another does something else. It would be better if VMware consolidated these products and offered modules or add-ons instead of selling 10 different solutions.

Also, a vSAN cluster must have compression and deduplication to be an all-flash array, but it's not supported with a hybrid array. Deduplication and compression work better with an all-flash array, so I think that VMware should give customers the option to activate and support this feature for hybrid arrays. Other products like Nutanix support this.

For how long have I used the solution?

We first implemented vSAN about three or four years ago.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had some complaints about the recent firmware update. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think vSAN is more scalable than some solutions we've tried. We don't have the same issues as we do with VxRail. It's less of a concern because the software is more independent of the hardware.

How are customer service and support?

I've never had to contact support. 

How was the initial setup?

Our engineers have a lot of experience with vSAN, so we think it's easy to implement. One person is usually enough to set up the solution and apply updates. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate VMware vSAN eight out of 10. In my opinion, vSAN is the most natural way to migrate to a fully hyperconverged solution. If a customer needs a more scalable solution with consolidated management, vSAN is excellent. It causes fewer disruptions from changing the administration. You need about the same amount of knowledge and expertise as vSphere.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1120872 - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of the Cloud Factory Architecture & President at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Mature solution that is simple to implement and maintain
Pros and Cons
  • "Allows us to implement more quickly, and to ease the maintenance."
  • "One area that could be improved is the management feature."

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has improved our organization by allowing us to implement more quickly, and to ease the maintenance. However, it doesn't change the internal organization much.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of the solution is the simplicity to implement and to maintain.

What needs improvement?

One area that could be improved is the management feature. The link between the virtualization layer and the application layer can be improved as well.

An additional feature I would like to see in the next release is integration between virtualization with vSAN and network virtualization.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for the last three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

My impression of the stability is that it's a very good solution for our usage.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For the product cloud, scalability is okay. However, when we try to use a larger cloud, we can add more new nodes into the same vSAN configuration.

Every year, our number of users increases.

How are customer service and support?

The customer support is very good, depending on the contract support that you supply. We are using a premium support and the quality is quite good.

How was the initial setup?

The complexity of the initial setup is not really on the VMware, but only the hyper-layer because we need to check if the hyper-layer, underlying VMware are strictly compatible.

For the first implementation, it took more or less one year, but now it takes much less time to add new material and new configuration.

What was our ROI?

In the beginning, we saw a huge return on investment from VMware, from 10 years ago to five years ago, but now we are used to the product. So the ROI doesn't make much enough for us because we only use vSAN. Now VMware is the baseline.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The product is quite expensive, regarding the open-source solution.

The cost of the solution is a mixture of monthly user and licenses purchasing. So for the internal user, we use licenses purchasing. For an external customer, we use the Pay-Per-View model.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before choosing VMware, we evaluated Microsoft Nutanix and Cisco HyperFlex. VMware design is more mature than the other solutions, generally.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Google
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Eric Preudhomme - PeerSpot reviewer
Products Manager at RCARRE SA
Real User
Top 20
Provides seamless integration within the hypervisor core, providing stability and eliminating the need for additional VM gateways per node

How has it helped my organization?


What is most valuable?

VMware vSAN is a highly scalable solution. We can start with as few nodes as possible and scale up according to our needs. Another advantage is deploying a stretched solution across two sites, with data synchronization between the two data centers. Setting up a stretch cluster is made easy with vSAN.

VMware vSAN provides seamless integration within the hypervisor core, providing stability and eliminating the need for additional VM gateways per node, as required by solutions like Nutanix. This integration simplifies the ecosystem, making it easier to adopt and manage.

What needs improvement?

The main improvement in VMware vSAN is its licensing mode. Its acquisition prioritizes doubling the EBITA rather than focusing on technological advancement. This is a common issue in the IT market, where companies may be acquired by financial entities, potentially leading to stagnation in technological innovation. The technology is mature and stable, with no significant improvements currently evident.
The new feature allows for the use of only two nodes in an active-active setup.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The performance is up to our expectations. The initial performance is high solution because we use flash storage. The complete solution is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution’s scalability is good. 200 users are using this solution. We have a private cloud with many intelligent users who can connect to the cloud.

How are customer service and support?

We can manage the solution ourselves. 

How was the initial setup?


What other advice do I have?

There may be an opportunity for vSAN to explore new avenues for open-cycle solutions with the recent reorganization of Broadcom impacting VMware.

We use VMware vSAN with 50 instances, but we must change the licensing. Broadcom buys VMware.

We had been using the Dell VxRail solution. Due to Dell's cessation of collaboration with VMware and Broadcom's decision to overhaul the licensing model, our future with VxRail is uncertain. We can purchase VxRail with vSAN, which is integrated into Dell's portfolio. We lack assurance now that Dell and Broadcom are separate entities.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
PeerSpot user
Michael Tsang - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant Manager at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Fast performance and well priced, but it should be easier to support and upgrade
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the fast performance."
  • "As a software-based product, it requires a lot of system resources."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and I am a consultant that works with products such as VMware vSAN.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the fast performance.

The licensing includes all of the recent features.

What needs improvement?

This solution should be easier to support and upgrade.

As a software-based product, it requires a lot of system resources.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with VMware vSAN for approximately two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is quite good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I would describe it as medium-level when compared to others.

How are customer service and support?

I have been in contact with technical support but I have not needed to ask them a lot of questions. They are not the best but not the worst. Overall, I am satisfied with the support.

I would rate the support a four out of five.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In addition to VMware vSAN, we have HPE SimpliVity and Nutanix.

VMware vSAN operates at the software level, whereas SimpliVity operates at the hardware level. The price of SimpliVity is higher than a software-based product.

The disadvantage to VMware, operating at the software level, is that you have to have more resources.

The bottom line is that it's cheaper and easier to set up VMware vSAN.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not quite easy but rather, a medium-level difficulty. The installation should be simple but the instructions from the vendor are not quite enough. This means that you have to conduct some trial and error.

On a scale of one to where, where five is the easier, I would rate the initial setup and deployment a three.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is a cost-effective product. It's a bit cheaper than the other solutions.

Price-wise, I would rate vSAN a four out of five.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is considering this solution is that you need to think about what it's going to be used with. For example, it may be more or less suitable depending on whether it will be used for normal database applications, VDI, or something else. The reason it needs consideration is that the initial hardware purchase depends on it. With respect to the software, there is only one choice, which is the VM license. However, for the hardware, you have to think about the servers, including the storage and other components.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Vebjorn Nergaard - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Engineer at Guard Automation AS
Real User
Top 20
Low maintenance, flexibility, and high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of VMware vSAN is the ease of management. VMware vSAN it's a part of VMware ESXi and when you do patching for VMware ESXi, VMware vSAN receives the patches too."
  • "If we have some complicated issues, you have to use the command lines interface. Not everything is possible to be fixed in the GUI. This is a drawback, that some things have to be fixed via command-line interface and should be able to be done in the GUI."

What is our primary use case?

We are using VMware vSAN for a SCADA industrial automation system.

How has it helped my organization?

VMware vSAN has benefited our company mainly from the flexibility and redundancy. We have a two-node cluster, if one of the servers goes down, we will still be in operation. It provides high availability.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of VMware vSAN is the ease of management. VMware vSAN it's a part of VMware ESXi and when you do patching for VMware ESXi, VMware vSAN receives the patches too.

What needs improvement?

If we have some complicated issues, you have to use the command lines interface. Not everything is possible to be fixed in the GUI. This is a drawback, that some things have to be fixed via command-line interface and should be able to be done in the GUI.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of VMware vSAN is excellent. We have been running for one year, and there's there has not been any downtime. The speed is not the fastest, but it's sufficient.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is excellent because we can expand with more disks if we choose. The expansion is part of the license model which is simple to adjust.

We have approximately 60 people using this solution in my organization. The solution is always running in the background, it is always being used.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted the technical support from VMware vSAN. We have not had a need to contact them.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of VMware vSAN is of a medium level of difficulty. Since we have a two-node cluster, they have done some very smart innovations. You first have to understand the smart solution before you can fully understand the deployment.

The time of the deployment took approximately one week, this included some experimentation and test.

What about the implementation team?

I did the full implementation myself.

The maintenance of VMware vSAN can be done quarterly, and one person is only needed. It's very easy to manage, the staff required for maintenance is very limited.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the VMware vSAN ROBO which allows us to have a maximum of 25 virtual machines. The approximate cost is €10,000 for a perpetual license.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated StorMagic before choosing VMware vSAN which was a better git for our use case.

What other advice do I have?

I would highly recommend VMware vSAN to others.

If others want to implement VMware vSAN I have experience with the Remote Office Branch Office(ROBO) solution. It's possible to deploy a virtual center during the installation of VMware vSAN. I recommend doing some studying before deploying it because there are some very good tips on YouTube on how to deploy it. It's a special method of how to deploy it, it's important to understand this method.

I rate VMware vSAN a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
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Buyer's Guide
Download our free VMware vSAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.