VMware VSAN - 5 Reasons It's Unique: Video Interview, Pricing, Slide Deck, & VSAN Links

Posted on:

March 12, 2014

Author

Keith Ward

Moderator and Editor

TL;DR - Article Summary

Today, VMware officially launched their new sofware-defined storage solution for vSphere virtual machines - VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN). Along with the release of VSAN is the release of vSphere 5.5 Update 1. Of course, the big news is the pricing, which you will find in the slide deck below. I plan to post some cost […]

Today, VMware officially launched their new sofware-defined storage solution for vSphere virtual machines - VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN). Along with the release of VSAN is the release of vSphere 5.5 Update 1. Of course, the big news is the pricing, which you will find in the slide deck below. I plan to post some cost analyses between VMware VSAN and other solutions like Nutanix so subscribe to our RSS feed and follow @VirtSoftware on Twitter to stay tuned for more great content around VMware VSAN!

In the post below, I'll list out my 5 reasons that VSAN is unique, you'll find a video interview with VMware Storage Product Manager Vijay Ramachandran, the official launch slide deck (which contains details on pricing, max configurations, design, and more), and relevant links.

5 Reasons VMware VSAN is Unique

There are a number of software-defined storage solutions already compatible with VMware vSphere. Hyperconverged vendors like Nutanix, SimpliVity, Maxta, Pivot 3, and Scale have all been out for some time and say that they are a better value. So - what makes VSAN unique? Here are 5 reasons:

1) Easier to Install and Manage

easy to set up
simple to manage with extensive built in automation
deep integration with VMware stack and vSphere workflows -- anyone who know vSphere can use VSAN

2) Policy-Driven Storage

VM-centric control of service levels
self-tuning

3) Hypervisor-Converged

Built into vSphere for optimized IO datapath
less than 10% CPU utilization
provides greater consolidation ratios

4) Hardware Independent

choose hardware you want from broad HCL

5) Lower TCO (per VMware)

Note: these TCO claims are from VMware, you should do your own TCO calculations and compare those to alternatives

lowest $/IOP
lowest $/VDI
low $/GB
no large upfront cost
significant reduction in opex
no specialized skill set

Exclusive Video Interview with VMware Storage Product Manager Vijay Ramachandran by David Davis and Scott D Lowe

VMware VSAN Pricing and Packaging

At $2495 per socket VSAN isn't for everyone but if you compare what you are paying for a SAN today to store VMs to VSAN, VMware says that you will get a better ROI with VSAN. Here is the pricing info-