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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.

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 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
Head Of Products And Solutions Architect at a government with 201-500 employees
Real User
Responsive technical support, easy to use, and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is simple to use compared to other solutions, such as Hyperflex, VxRail, and Nutanix"
  • "VMware vSAN needs to improve its features because other solutions have more advanced features."

What is our primary use case?

VMware vSAN is a hyper-converged infrastructure and we use it as a software-defined storage solution for our customers.

What is most valuable?

The solution is simple to use compared to other solutions, such as Cisco Hyperflex, Dell VxRail, and Nutanix

What needs improvement?

VMware vSAN needs to improve its features because other solutions have more advanced features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using VMware vSAN for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is quite stable in small and medium environments. However, I do not have experience using the solution in enterprises companies.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have 31 people in my organization using this solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical has been good in my experience but they could improve.

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

The price of VMware vSAN is expensive and there is an annual license required.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated many other solutions, such as Cisco Hyperflex, Dell VxRail, and Nutanix

What other advice do I have?

In my country, Myanmar, both VMware, and Cisco are the most reliable solution for networking and virtualization than other related solutions. Other vendors, such as Nutanix and SimpliVity are quite strange to our IT environments at this time.

I rate VMware vSAN an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
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.
Markus Kemppinen - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Specialist at Civilpoint Oy
Real User
A stable solution with good support
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is quite stable."
  • "We plan to switch products since the hardware nowadays is a little bit outdated and we need to scale up a bit."

What needs improvement?

We plan to switch products since the hardware nowadays is a little bit outdated and we need to scale up a bit. We are looking for better performance and storage. This is why we are examining other solutions, including VxRail. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using VMware vSAN for at least 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is quite stable. We have encountered some minor issues but, overall, are quite satisfied.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

While the solution is scalable, I feel that this can be better. 

How are customer service and technical support?

Although we have not made much use of the technical support, we found them to be good and helpful in finding solutions. 

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

The solutions we previously used were dissimilar to the current one. We had VMware for an extremely long time, at least 15 or 16 years. First, there was VMware servers, followed by us building and setting up VMware custom within a couple of servers.

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

I feel the pricing to be reasonable. We pay monthly. 

What other advice do I have?

We have 50 users making use of the solution in our organization.

I rate VMware vSAN as an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Reseller
Deploys on any server or hardware, reliable, and good overall support
Pros and Cons
  • "One of the valuable features of vSAN is it has a universal type of technology that allows you to deploy it on any server or hardware. Competitors, such as Nutanix, provides the AOS and can be deployed only on certified hardware. For vSAN, it does not require any kind of certified hardware."
  • "In a future release, they could add micro-segmentation or security level features integrated into vSAN."

What is our primary use case?

We have a lab setup using VMware vSAN which is on Nutanix. We are using the vSAN for testing purposes and attempting to answer some questions. For example, how will the application be supported, how will the exit configuration be, and what would happen in terms of failures.

What is most valuable?

One of the valuable features of vSAN is it has a universal type of technology that allows you to deploy it on any server or hardware. Competitors, such as Nutanix, provides the AOS and can be deployed only on certified hardware. For vSAN, it does not require any kind of certified hardware.

Additionally, the dashboards and user interface provide a lot of details.

What needs improvement?

In a future release, they could add micro-segmentation or security level features integrated into vSAN.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution within the last 12 months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have never had any kind of hardware issues or problems. The solution is stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical was responsive and was helpful. There is a lot of documentation online if we need assistance.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex.

What about the implementation team?

We had assistance doing the implementation from the vSAN engineers.

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

This solution is expensive.

Nutanix provides us with Acropolis Operating System (AOS) along with its hardware, while VMware provides vSAN, vCenter, and vSphere which all have separate licenses and costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have evaluated Nuranix and HPE.

What other advice do I have?

If you have storage, separate servers, or any kind of traditional architecture you can convert it to FCI with vSAN. It is a very simple and easy-to-use solution.

I rate VMware vSAN 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
Manager at SSMS
Real User
Top 5
Stable and easy to manage with a straightforward setup
Pros and Cons
  • "We've found the solution to be scalable."
  • "On the DevOps side, if there could be more automation it would be more helpful."

What is our primary use case?

Basically, we wanted to do more automation. That was the primary reason for us to move to it. Specifically, with respect to the finance part, we wanted to ensure that more automation can happen there in order to give more control to the end-user. It's also used for managing some of the application stack as well as storage management.

What is most valuable?

The solution makes management very easy.

We've found the solution to be scalable.

The stability of the solution is very good.

The installation process is very simple and straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The solution could use more integration with respect to the DR solution. If there was more integration with respect to the backup solutions, that will definitely help us.

On the DevOps side, if there could be more automation it would be more helpful. Specifically, we would like to know how to integrate and extend it towards the cloud. Either it is JCP or GCP or AWS.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have found the solution to be stable and reliable. We haven't really had to deal with bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze either.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. If a company wants to expand the solution it can. It's not a problem.

We have about 500 users on the solution currently. We do plan to continue to use it.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've only really had two incidents that required support, and therefore my experience with technical support is rather limited. Dell EMC tends to handle the support, and we've never had issues getting any help. Overall, it's been fine, and in general, we are satisfied with the level of technical support we can get when we need it.

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

I didn't really use a different version of the solution. Most of the time I had been using ESX environment, and that was one of the reasons for going ahead with vSAN.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not difficult or complex. It's very simple, very straightforward. A company should find it very easy to set up.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves, in-house. We did not need the help of a consultant or implementor.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer and an end-user.

We are not on the latest version. We are using the latest version minus one. 

I'd recommend this solution to others.

I'd rate the product at 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
Head of enterprise systems at Fidelity Bank Plc
Real User
Can be used to virtualize SAN without having to have a separate storage area network
Pros and Cons
  • "It's stable and scalable. Also, you can virtualize SAN so that you don't have to have a separate storage area network and can have your computer and storage on the same box or computer."
  • "Because of virtual storage, the system reaches reserve storage for its functions. It also consumes a certain amount of storage, which then results in the creation of a fault tolerance for the system. All of this adds to a lot of capacity being consumed in terms of storage for each drive for vSan. I find this to be one drawback of using vSan."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to virtualize SAN so that you don't have to have a separate storage area network and can have your computer and storage on the same box or computer.

What is most valuable?

It's stable and scalable. 

Also, you can virtualize SAN so that you don't have to have a separate storage area network and can have your computer and storage on the same box or computer.

What needs improvement?

Because of virtual storage, the system reaches reserve storage for its functions. It also consumes a certain amount of storage, which then results in the creation of a fault tolerance for the system. All of this adds to a lot of capacity being consumed in terms of storage for each drive for vSan. I find this to be one drawback of using vSan.

The pricing for licensing could be cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I find it to be a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think VMware vSAN is a scalable solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

I was satisfied with the customer service and technical support I received.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and took less than two weeks.

What about the implementation team?

We used a consultant for the installation project.

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

The licensing cost is high and should be taken into account.

What other advice do I have?

You need to pay attention to the calculation metrics in terms of sizing. Depending on your design, you need to be sure that you actually factor in enough storage capacity to be able to achieve whatever you want to achieve in terms of looking at your growth rate.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would rate this product at eight.

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
Head of network and web at a maritime company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Good performance and pricing but needs load balancing features
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support is very helpful and very good at resolving issues."
  • "Hardware load balancing is available on the enterprise version of the solution, however, it's extremely expensive and therefore out of our budget."

What is our primary use case?

We are mainly using the solution for our Windows environment. 

What is most valuable?

We're largely happy with the solution overall. 

The performance has been good in general.

The initial setup is simple.

Technical support is very helpful and very good at resolving issues.

The pricing is decent.

What needs improvement?

We are looking for more load balancing at an application level.

For the hardware level, we're looking at some other solutions. For example, we're checking out Nutanix and Sangfor. 

We've had issues with load balancing. Suppose, for example, if the physical ESXi host is down, the virtual machine you have handle manually. We need to have load balancing and RAM and processor balancing also.

Hardware load balancing is available on the enterprise version of the solution, however, it's extremely expensive and therefore out of our budget.

In general, we're looking for more features. This solution doesn't really offer us that much.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using the solution for three to four years at this point.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We had some issues about a year ago with stability. We took the problem to support and they were able to resolve whatever the issue was. It's been stable since then, and we haven't had issues with bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

My colleague and I are the IT people, and we are managing vSAN for the most part. We haven't necessarily attempted to scale the solution at all. Therefore, it would be hard to say how easy or difficult the process is or how scalable in general the product is.

How are customer service and technical support?

We've used technical support in the past to resolve issues, and they have been very helpful and responsive They were able to fix any problems we've had. We're quite satisfied with them. They've been very good, very helpful.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex. It's very simple and very straightforward. 

While we handle the maintenance ourselves in-house, we have the option of calling our integration partner if we run into any issues.

What about the implementation team?

We had an integration partner that came in and assisted us with the initial implementation. We did not handle it completely in-house. They were very helpful.

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

The pricing is mid-range. It's pretty good compared to other options. Everything is included. There are no additional or hidden costs.

The enterprise version, however, is very, very high. Currently, we are using the standard version. To move to the enterprise level, there is a big price jump.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We're currently evaluating Nutanix and Sangfor as options to replace VMware in our organization. We want more load balancing and therefore are looking for a solution that could potentially offer us that.

What other advice do I have?

We are just a customer and an end-user.

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations.

I would rate it at a seven out of ten. We've been happy with it for the most part, however, we are looking at other options that offer more features. The standard version just isn't giving us enough of what we need. That said, it;'s a good product.

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
CTO & Co-Founder at Servers Australia
Real User
Best stability, good price, and useful Stretched Cluster feature
Pros and Cons
  • "Stretched Cluster is one of the big features that we use across multiple data centers."
  • "I am looking for more of a software-defined storage platform that uses different protocols, such as iSCSI, NFS, and CIS, and maybe also has an object as part of that. They should 100% make it more of a storage-based product where it is not linked just to VMware, and it also has NFS and iSCSI built-in at a scalable level. They should turn it more into a dedicated storage-as-a-service platform instead of just being built into the VMware kernel. Their level one and level two support is not at all good, and it should be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We use it everywhere. We power all of our public cloud with it, and we also power all of our customers' private clouds with it. 

What is most valuable?

Stretched Cluster is one of the big features that we use across multiple data centers.

What needs improvement?

I am looking for more of a software-defined storage platform that uses different protocols, such as iSCSI, NFS, and CIS, and maybe also has an object as part of that. They should 100% make it more of a storage-based product where it is not linked just to VMware, and it also has NFS and iSCSI built-in at a scalable level. They should turn it more into a dedicated storage-as-a-service platform instead of just being built into the VMware kernel.

Their level one and level two support is not at all good, and it should be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is the best product that we've ever used.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is surely scalable for 64 nodes. We can run petabytes of data if we want. 

Our clients are small to medium companies.

How are customer service and technical support?

VMware's level one and level two support is not at all good. Their support is good only when you get to level three.

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

It is cheap. It is $0.02 a gig.

What other advice do I have?

I would advise others to just make sure that latency is brought into the equation because being HCI, network latency determines everything.

I would rate VMware vSAN an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
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.