IBM Storage Scale vs. VMware vSAN

IBM Spectrum Scale creates excellent and real time data results and the capability to extract data and data modeling tools via IBM Spectrum Scale is amazing. The capacity planning and data archiving and the data security offered by IBM Spectrum Scale is more productive and the data quality control using the system is impressive.

vSAN is well suited for any application that can run in Virtual Environment. vSAN serves better for VDI, NSX, and vSphere on Cloud solutions. vSAN is a good fit for small and medium business companies. vSAN can't be a good solution where you have Oracle Solaris or IBM power systems. vSAN can't provide storage space using FCP protocol.

Incentivized

• Good for storage Optimizing.
• Good velocity.
• Strong agility in the product.

Incentivized

• VMware runs VSAN certification programs to make sure the OEM sells validated nodes. It helps customers to select appropriate certified ready nodes like Lenovo ThinkAgile VX which comes factory configured and easy to set up.
• Hyperconverged solutions reduce real estate space and networking costs when compare with shared storage. The host overhead also less.
• Supports All-Flash (SATA and NVMe SSDs) and Hybrid vSAN with HDD and SSD. So customers can choose cost-effective solutions appropriate to their workloads.
• Supports different storage policies, RAID and duplication, and compression features and it makes a complete storage solution.

Incentivized

• Price
• Requires a learning curve and training to manage the product

Incentivized

• It would be nice to have fabric-based storage acceptance to disaggregate storage and expand beyond the node concept. The assumption that increased storage needs require increased compute or ram is simply not true.
• The licensing costs are high but you do get what you pay for.

Incentivized

Deploying and configuring VSAN is a relatively simple process for people that are already used to working in virtual environments, primarily for those that are familiar with vSphere. The compatibility of those two products is amazing. You shouldn't really encounter any issues and if you do, you surely did something wrong.

Incentivized

Support is (as always forVMware) top notch and easy to work with. The majority of computer companies are outsourcing their tech staff, and it seems they do as well. But their guys know the product well and are quick to respond to your ticket (if the severity is right!).

Incentivized

When we implemented the Spectrum Scale solution, we had in place a NetApp FAS series working in Metro Cluster mode. What is great about NetApp is its low maintenance. On the other hand, it lacks performance, especially on the CPU nodes. We needed a solution that will deliver steady performance while keeping a steady growth.

Incentivized

VMWare stand out compared to all the products. However, it is worthwhile mentioning the following products can be used to achive similar results. Hitachi Virtual Storage Systems Nutanix Cloud Infrastrucure. In case if we are using Nuatinux at the Hypervisor level then it would be recommended to use their very own product for storage virtulization even though the vendors say that all their products are cross platform supportable. However, during tests we have found high performance when using same products accross virtualization.

Incentivized

• Different versions in a short period of time
• Re-creation of the certificates after an update creates confusion

Incentivized

• The ROI for VMware vSAN seems very positive. We have yet to need to upgrade since we put it in a few years ago, but without the heavy cost of dedicated storage, we have already seen reduced hardware maintenance costs and reduced management time spent.
• With the cost of dedicated storage and its separate maintenance costs, all this is rolled back into the hosts. The hosts cost more with drives in them, but not near as much as the separate dedicated storage did.
• Before VMware vSAN, you had hosts and storage devices aging out, running out of capacity, or underperforming. With vSAN you only have to worry about the hosts.

Incentivized