Director at a media company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
It is easy to use and implement, and it comes with a lot of technical resources to help you support it
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very well known in the industry, and there are a lot of technical resources around it. This is a big thing for me because, at the end of the day, when you implement it, you need to support it."
  • "The big thing is pricing, and the rest of it is mostly good. From a scalability point of view, scaling the storage from network or compute should be easier. It is again all around the cost, and it would be good if it was easier to scale your storage separately from your compute."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for the consolidation of compute, network, and storage.

For VMware, we're mostly using on-premises deployment.

What is most valuable?

It is very well known in the industry, and there are a lot of technical resources around it. This is a big thing for me because, at the end of the day, when you implement it, you need to support it.

It is easy to use and easy to implement.

What needs improvement?

The big thing is pricing, and the rest of it is mostly good. From a scalability point of view, scaling the storage from network or compute should be easier. It is again all around the cost, and it would be good if it was easier to scale your storage separately from your compute. One of the things that I have observed is that when you start off, you've got too much storage, and over time, you've got less storage, and you have to build new clusters to scale. So, if you can scale compute and storage, it would be good. I know it is scalable separately, but it is a complex process.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for more than 10 years.

Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is pretty scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Currently, we've deployed VxRail, and it comes with everything. So, support is good.

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

We used Nutanix with VMware for about a year, and then we switched over to the packaged solution with VMware. 

Dell has got a product called VxRail, which incorporates vSAN. So, it's a packaged solution. We've now implemented VxRail, and it is a new experience with them. VxRail is an all-in solution, but there might be an additional cost that you have to pay to get the support at the vSAN level.

How was the initial setup?

It is easy to implement, but for big organizations with multiple products, it becomes complicated. If you're going to have different clusters for your databases and workload, then setting up and deploying it could become complex. 

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

Its price could be improved. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate it an eight out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Managing Director at Ictnet Limited
Real User
Easy to set up, simple to manage, and very user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability is very good and the solution is stable and reliable."
  • "This product is very expensive."

What is our primary use case?

While we have some applications running on VMware, mostly we are providing and proposing these solutions to our clients.

I have one client, for example, that is running the CRM and accounts and manufacturing applications on VMware and they're using HP infrastructure for them. They have some SQL databases they're running on that and some back-office applications, and also an Extend Server as well.

What is most valuable?

The migration capabilities are a very useful aspect of the solution. 

The way it handles failovers is very good. 

The imaging is helpful.

Right now, VMware is number one in the virtual space.

The initial setup is very easy.

The management is very straightforward. It's an extremely user-friendly product.

It integrates very well with other products. 

The scalability is very good and the solution is stable and reliable.

So far, everything is okay.

What needs improvement?

Currently, there aren't any shortcomings to discuss or missing features that we worry about. 

This product is very expensive. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for a long time. I'd used VMware since it come out in the '90s. It's been decades. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the stability to be great. There aren't bugs. It doesn't glitch. There aren't issues around it crashing or freezing. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability has been great. If you need to expand it, you can do so. 

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been great. They are helpful and responsive. I've been happy with their level of service when we've needed them. We are satisfied. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward and simple. There shouldn't be an issue if a company wants to set it up. 

If you have, for example, 100 VMs, you only need one person to manage it. It requires very little maintenance or overhead in terms of staff. 

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

The solution can be expensive. However, if you are a big company, such as a telco, likely you can get a good deal on pricing. That said, being so big, likely the cost won't be a deterrent. 

What other advice do I have?

We are partners and also a solution provider.

The solution is great. I'd rate it at a nine out of ten. I'd advise other people to give it a try. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
VMware vSAN
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about VMware vSAN. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Senior System Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
Scalable, good performance, and easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability of the solution is most valuable."
  • "They can improve the manageability of the solution to make it more simple. It is not that complicated, but it will be good if they can make it more simple."

What is our primary use case?

We usually use it for any workload virtualization, data center virtualization, and storage. We use it for our software-defined storage and when a customer needs scalable storage. Data center modernization is also a use case for it.

I am using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

The scalability of the solution is most valuable.

What needs improvement?

They can improve the manageability of the solution to make it more simple. It is not that complicated, but it will be good if they can make it more simple.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for almost three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable, and its performance is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is really scalable. We have five to six administrators and implementers who work with this solution.

How are customer service and support?

They are supportive. They are good in their support.

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

In my previous company, I worked with Nutanix. In my current company, I'm working with vSAN. Nutanix is much simpler from an interface point of view. vSAN, as a part of VMware, has more maturity in terms of features and software-defined data center journey. VMware is more mature than Nutanix in this area.

How was the initial setup?

It is straightforward. It took two to three days.

In terms of maintenance, it requires the usual day-to-day maintenance. It sometimes requires some kind of support.

What about the implementation team?

We installed it ourselves.

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

It is not that expensive, and it is not even cheap. If it is designed in a proper way, it has good pricing, but if you do oversizing, the price will be high. There are different licensing models.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to do proper sizing and look at the features that they want to include or not include. They need to first understand their business needs and then do the sizing. This way they will get a good solution.

I would rate VMware vSAN a nine out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Infrastructure Analyst at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Video Review
Real User
The stability, which is important for our internal ops, has been flawless for us

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for management of all the data that we collect from our customer bases and from our 500-plus locations. There is also the data that we use to manage employee systems, so it's both ends of the business. It's the actual retail side of the business, as well as the internal operations.

How has it helped my organization?

vSAN has improved the organization just based on the overall speed. It's a lot faster than what we what we've used in the past. The old-school storage systems were kind of slow and cumbersome. This is much faster. It's much more reliable.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature that VSAN offers is reliability. In my mind, as long as their storage is up and running, we can always access what we need when we need it, that's what's important. It's super important to have reliability, particularly for internal operations: for employee data, payroll management; and then as well for the customer side of the equation with customer information and customer databases.

What needs improvement?

Areas of improvement could be the UIs. I've seen them. I've worked with them a little bit. The UIs are kind of cumbersome.

There could be an easier way than having the UUIDs associated to the LUNs. That could be simplified to make life a little easier to search and naming conventions and being able to search them down and for overall utilization; ease of utilization.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of vSAN has been pretty much flawless for us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability: pretty simple. You just add more and away you go.

The data sets are constantly growing, so we have internal needs, new VMs are getting spun up all the time. They're gobbling up all kinds of storage space. We try not to over-commit too much, but everybody does, right? But it's constantly growing and we're constantly adding to it.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have personally not contacted tech support at VMware for vSAN.

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

The company has been around for quite a while, so we go back to some of the earliest days of spinning disks and a local, small data center at the corporate office, to the point now where we've grown to have our own data center and racks upon racks upon racks of storage.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the setup on that side, either. That's a different team that does that.

What was our ROI?

The primary ROI for this is its stability. That's the key. I can't really speak to the cost side of the equation, but I can speak to the stability side, and I know that it's critically important to us to have our data available to us when we need it. Since we've gone over to the vSAN solution, it's been very stable.

What other advice do I have?

When we're choosing a vendor, there are two factors involved, and the lowest price isn't always the most important. We need a vendor who provides really good support and products that really meet our needs well. 

I'm going to rate it as a ten out of ten, because it just works. It's always solid.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Security Specialist at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
As a hyperconverged solution, it simplifies what equipment we have to buy
Pros and Cons
  • "Being hyperconverged, it simplifies what equipment we have to buy."
  • "I like that we could choose whatever hardware we wanted, rather than having to use one particular vendor."
  • "It's very scalable. I like that. Adding a node is easy. Adding a disk group is easy."
  • "I'd like to see better integration with the Update Manager, with respect to firmware updates for hardware."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is production data and the performance has been great.

What is most valuable?

  • Cost
  • Being hyperconverged, it simplifies what equipment we have to buy

What needs improvement?

I'd like to see better integration with the Update Manager, in terms of firmware updates for hardware.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has been pretty stable for us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's very scalable. I like that. Adding a node is easy. Adding a disk group is easy.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support has been very knowledgeable for the issues that we've had. They have been able to troubleshoot or determine exactly what is going on and then resolve it in a timely manner.

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

We were end-of-life on our previous storage and looking at replacements. It made sense to look at something that was going to integrate both the servers and the storage.

The most important criteria, for me, when selecting a vendor are

  • reputation
  • ease of use
  • value.

We went with vSAN because of cost and ultimate value. Ease of use and the cost, compared to some of the alternatives, were pretty compelling. I also liked that we could choose whatever hardware we wanted, rather than having to use one particular vendor.

How was the initial setup?

The setup had some complexity, and some of that was figuring out newer releases. Networking, originally, was kind of a pain, with having to have everything talk Multicast. They've gone to Unicast which simplifies things.

What was our ROI?

It has simplified things for us. It was one purchase for servers and storage so that made it easier on us. It's been a good product, it's something that we'll continue to use.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

For our shortlist, we looked at SimpliVity, some Dell EMC solutions, and Nutanix. 

What other advice do I have?

Make sure you do a proof of concept. And look at your options for hardware if you're looking at vSAN, compared to some competitors where you have just one option.

I would rate the solution at eight out of ten. To get to a ten they would have to drop the cost. That would get a point right there. Then, going forward, I'd like to see better integration with Update Manager. Some of the manual processes that you still have to do, being able to automate those, have it do them on its own, would be great.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user335802 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Cloud Architect at Tribune Media
Video Review
Vendor
Its part of the vSphere world, so it looks and feels like any other object that people are used to seeing metrics on. I would like to have snapshots for recovery be part of the core product.

What is most valuable?

It's not a storage array which is a very valuable feature of it and it's maintenance structure isn't paid like a traditional storage array. For me, that's the biggest leap with it is there's a compelling cost with reason to step in to it. You don't have to make a snap decision and get away from where I am. I can keep what I have and dip my toe in VSAN without risking an all-or-nothing decision.

How has it helped my organization?

VSAN is really simple to manage. Its GUI is part of the eco-system so it looks and feels like the rest of VMware. So a VMware engineer or a VMware operations guy's is going to be able to manage the provision storage without having to touch an array, which is generally higher profile so there's a cost reduction through headcount.

VSAN manageability is much easier because it's in and part of the vSphere world, so it looks and feels like any other object that people are used to seeing metrics on and there have been great improvement in management. In 655, there's a little bit of lack information. In the newer system, there's a lot more data about what's going on in that system, in the GUI, easily consumable.

What needs improvement?

The features I'd like to see in future releases of VSAN are around back-up and recovery. There is a great way to replicate data now, but I'd like to see them focus on making recovery from snap shots, off-site, part of the core product.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. Once you get it built and you take the time to build the system correctly, do your research, once it's in place it's been very stable and it performs as it says.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm looking at two different ways of scaling that system. One is for speed and one is for mass. It scales into mass based on what size of disc you choose and it scales in to speed based on solid-state drive size. Both of those are two different avenues that work well for us.

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't had a technical support case open but we do look at the forums and try to avoid issues and problems based on what's in a publicly available space which has always been something that VMware has done really well, which is making issues public so we can avoid them.

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

We chose it from a cost perspective. In media we are always looking to save money. It's a publicly traded company so the money I give back is smiled on. We saw a way not to pay maintenance for expensive systems and to run it in a system that performs on parallel with what we already own.

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

So with a traditional storage array you pay maintenance based on the purchase price for the array plus any software you bought with it so that residual number is high, so if you paid a million dollars for the machine, you may have to pay $200,000 for maintenance at some point in time. With VSAN I'm paying server-based maintenance and that's a much lower number.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The top criteria we looked at when considering VSAN was performance and cost. We were going to make sure that we could deliver the performance that people are used to and used the system that costs less than a traditional array model. We did not look at other vendors because there really isn't another vendor that's doing this. There are people that are close but with a traditional hyper-converged box, there's a bunch of things I don't need. With VSAN I have the technical backing from VMware to back-stop the product and is doing what I need and no more so there is a cost-savings for not buying features-compute that I don't need.

What other advice do I have?

I would certainly give it an 8 and I would split in to two parts. The initial configuration of VSAN, once the systems in place, it manages and runs without much attention and that's where it's really shining at the moment, is once it's in production, it doesn't require a lot of care and feeding.

My recommendation is make sure you've got a hardware vendor who's promising you that this equipment that you get is on the HCL, so the compatibility list of what VMware supports and VSAN is important to having a successful deployment. Taking the time to do that and install and build the system correctly first will give you years of good results. Not doing that is a headache.

When looking at any new technology, having peer review and having information available about what it's doing, how many people have adopted it and whether or not it's a good technology is critically important. It's good to be on the edge but you don't want to be the first guy to take the blind leap so having that out and having the forms available has been very important.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Loay Mohamed - PeerSpot reviewer
System Service Representative at IBM
Real User
Good support, simple installation, and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "The performance of VMware vSAN is very good."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use VMware vSAN as a VDI solution.

    What is most valuable?

    The performance of VMware vSAN is very good.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using VMware vSAN for approximately two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    VMware vSAN is a stable solution.

    How are customer service and support?

    The support from VMware vSAN was good. When I had to contact the support for my clients everything was as expected.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is straightforward. It took us approximately one month to implement for one of our customers but there were some delays on our customer's side. We could have done it in a shorter timeframe.

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

    My customers have found VMware vSAN to be a little expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    VMware vSAN is the most trending hypervisor that most of the customers are working with.

    I would recommend this solution to others.

    I rate VMware vSAN a ten out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
    Senior Server Analyst at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Video Review
    Real User
    We scale it to see how many VMs that we can host and how long it will take us to add new hosts
    Pros and Cons
    • "vSAN is one of the easiest implementations of any VMware product. It's almost like click it to enable it, then you're almost done."
    • "Technical support has been very good. They respond pretty fast, especially if we have a critical issue. Their responses have been great."
    • "We can scale it very easily for a test environment. We were able to segment our DMZ so it wasn't connected to anything, which we really liked."
    • "One thing in vSAN that I would like to improve is using vSAN as a repository for files or other things. For example, with Horizon, maybe we can save profiles with UEM on there. That would be a good feature that I would like."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it for our DMZ and any test environments that we put into our industry.

    It's performing pretty well. We have no issues with vSAN at all.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It has improved our organization in a way of scaling it. 

    What is most valuable?

    • Cost was big for us.
    • Speed
    • Scalability

    We can scale it very easily for a test environment. We were able to segment our DMZ so it wasn't connected to anything, which we really liked.

    What needs improvement?

    One thing in vSAN that I would like to improve is using vSAN as a repository for files or other things. For example, with Horizon, maybe we can save profiles with UEM on there. That would be a good feature that I would like.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability has been great with vSAN. We have not yet seen downtime.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We scale it with our test environment. We are looking to do it with Horizon. We are able to scale it to see how many VMs that we can host and how long it will take us to add new hosts, if needed.

    How is customer service and technical support?

    Technical support has been very good. They respond pretty fast, especially if we have a critical issue. Their responses have been great.

    How was the initial setup?

    vSAN is one of the easiest implementations of any VMware product. It's almost like click it to enable it, then you're almost done. So, vSAN is very easy to set up.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We did consider other hyperconverged solutions. It usually came down to price. vSan was the most cost effective thing. That's why we went with it. Also, we didn't have to get a connected array. We can put it in small places, remote sites, etc.

    Nutanix, Cisco HyperFlex Edge, and VxRail were on our shortlist.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. To make it a ten, it needs to be able to scale the amount of data that we can hold so we can put bigger, more data-intensive apps on it.

    My advice to a person looking at vSAN is get your hands dirty in the labs. Show how easy it is to set up, because it's not very complicated. It's an easy solution that you can implement at your company.

    Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: Since we're a hospital, we have multiple hospitals in the area. We look at local site resiliency, so we're looking to see if we can put it in each of our hospitals.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
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    Updated: March 2024
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    Download our free VMware vSAN Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.