Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs StarWind Virtual SAN comparison

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4,174 views|3,265 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
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5,311 views|1,785 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Dell vSAN Ready Nodes and StarWind Virtual SAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. StarWind Virtual SAN Report (Updated: March 2024).
770,616 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"You don't have to spend much time evaluating the hardware. It can be deployed in a short time. The tool is also easy to upgrade.""If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability.""The most valuable feature of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is the flexibility of the nodes. Additionally, if there are any critical issues they update us through emails. The issues are taken care of remotely on the system.""We find the initial implementation process simple and straightforward.""The product is useful for DR and other things.""Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes is scalable""The most valuable feature is the set of user tools that are available.""It is easy to install."

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"The failover protection and the ability to expand storage and nodes with no downtime are by far the best physical features we have benefited from.""The license price is one of the cheapest in the market.""The fact that the solution is vendor-agnostic allows it to be used with any virtualization vendor while remaining a powerful abstraction over storage.""StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially hardware agnostic, allowing us to build out a specific hardware layer based upon the customer's unique requirements.""I save both physical and virtual space.""It provides shared storage to multiple hypervisor hosts. Times had changed, however. StarWind Virtual SAN is the “software replaces hardware” for SAN. We have access control and CCTV systems up and running using Microsoft clustering and shared storage""Their support staff is comprised of true experts who can also communicate clearly.""The price was right."

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Cons
"Dell vSAN Ready Nodes must be flexible since it is complex in designing concepts. It needs to improve stability. The product should integrate with the public cloud.""Scalability is an area that could be improved. We are looking at a maximum of 32 nodes now in a cluster, but going to 64 or 128 would be a major advantage.""The deployment is done by doing it one by one and could be simplified.""The power switch on the hardware is located in a poor location where it can accidentally be pushed. In an update, they should solve this issue so people do not push it accidentally to have their service go down. A possible solution is the switch should be inside.""Upgrades are carried out manually.""There is room for improvement in the maintenance pricing. Maintenance isn't difficult, but the prices are high and ridiculous. Some customers feel it is better to go with a new solution rather than renew this one.""The solution should provide daily task alerts for data recovery maintenance, usage, and other instructions to ensure the systems are in a good status.""The Dell VxRail solution is based on vSAN Ready Nodes, but the Dell VxRail is fully automated. It would be helpful if this automation feature could be added to the Dell vSAN Ready Nodes. For example, we need to install VMware ESXi, and manually expand the cluster."

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"Diagnostics information or alerts on the state of systems could also be implemented to give more visibility.""I would like them to invest time in reducing the complexity of the startup and shutdown procedure.""Security on the ISCSI protocol could be improved by adding features like OS-type control access, especially for the data center environment.""They require more media visibility.""I did not see any indication that StarWinds vSAN is a usable solution with non-GUI instances of Hyper-V.""The only thing that I have any difficulty with is that in order to perform upgrades, it is required that the SANs be detached from the Hosts before that can happen.""For the StarWind VSA vSphere solution, I would like to see a simpler and automated virtual machine installation process in terms of network settings.""If there was one feature I would like to see it would be a built-in subsystem for managing UPS backups shutdown procedures providing a way to initiate VM shutdown on all host servers, shut down the host servers, then put the fault-tolerant mirroring in standby, and finally shut down the StarWind SANs."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is a problem, which is the lack of an integrated price structure."
  • "The price of the solution was reasonable."
  • "We have a four-year contract to use Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes."
  • "Comparing the price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes to other solutions it is not expensive."
  • "The tool's pricing is competitive compared to others. The tool's licensing is based on annual subscriptions."
  • "My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the solution. The solution is expensive."
  • More Dell vSAN Ready Nodes Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The setup cost is very low. The pricing is great."
  • "We are happy with the price."
  • "The license is reusable. We can always rebuild it and apply the license. Then, boom, we get new servers, apply the license, and we're back up and running."
  • "The pricing is fine for the work that it does."
  • "When we did all the analysis for StarWind, it was approximately 20 percent less than any of the other solutions that we looked at."
  • "The scalability limitation for us is its licensing. At some point in the fairly near future, we will probably have to upgrade our license so we can store eight terabytes instead of four. We are currently at four terabytes, but we're starting to knock on the door of that capacity."
  • "The pricing is excellent. It will run on anything. You don't have to buy a $100,000 server, with hardware you don't need. You just pay for the license and you're good to go."
  • "The licensing is a bit weird. If you license the standard version of StarWind, it allows you four terabytes. Then, they have a pro version, but with the pro version, the only difference is it doubles the terabytes to eight."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:If I consider the overall product, I would say that it is an excellent solution that offers very good performance and stability.
    Top Answer:My company makes yearly payments towards the licensing charges attached to the solution. The solution is expensive.
    Top Answer:The product's price is an area of concern where improvements are required. The price of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes could be lowered. Dell's competitors offer many products at very good prices. I face some… more »
    Top Answer:It is easy to use and can monitor system synchronization and check Storage status. StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) combines flash and disks of the cluster and forms a virtual shared storage “pool”… more »
    Top Answer:I would highly advise new users to consult the StarWind technical team beforehand. Also, consider the paid version if you want the ease of management through the console GUI and not just use it for… more »
    Top Answer:You can maintain and update it with little to no fuss, even the free version is incredibly capable whilst it brings the cost of a Highly Available HCI solution down to a very cost-effective point… more »
    Ranking
    11th
    out of 45 in HCI
    Views
    4,174
    Comparisons
    3,265
    Reviews
    7
    Average Words per Review
    447
    Rating
    9.3
    4th
    out of 45 in HCI
    Views
    5,311
    Comparisons
    1,785
    Reviews
    95
    Average Words per Review
    601
    Rating
    9.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    vSAN Ready Nodes
    StarWind SAN & NAS
    Learn More
    Overview

    Dell EMC vSAN Ready Nodes are pre-configured building blocks that reduce deployment
    risks with certified configurations, improve storage efficiency by up to 50%1
    , and can help
    you build or scale your vSAN cluster faster.14 Whether you're just getting started, and/or
    expanding your existing VMware environment, Dell EMC is here for you every step of the
    way with consulting, education, deployment and support services for the entire solution.

    StarWind Virtual SAN provides high availability and fault tolerance for virtualized environments without the need for dedicated SAN hardware. It allows for real-time replication between servers, shared storage for Hyper-V clusters, and enables vMotion and High Availability features for VMware vSphere. The solution reduces costs and leverages existing hardware while providing a scalable and reliable infrastructure. Valuable features include ease of use, scalability, top-tier support, hardware agnosticism, and the ability to use off-the-shelf standard servers to increase storage space. StarWind VSAN has helped organizations improve performance, data availability, and data security while reducing downtime and providing cost-saving storage options.

    Sample Customers
    Rackspace
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company60%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Healthcare Company10%
    Government10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Government9%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Construction Company8%
    Educational Organization8%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise43%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business24%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise61%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business65%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise58%
    Buyer's Guide
    Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. StarWind Virtual SAN
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. StarWind Virtual SAN and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    770,616 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is ranked 11th in HCI with 14 reviews while StarWind Virtual SAN is ranked 4th in HCI with 182 reviews. Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is rated 8.6, while StarWind Virtual SAN is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes writes "Offers good performance and is easy to use". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind Virtual SAN writes "Excellent support, great performance, and good redundancy". Dell vSAN Ready Nodes is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series, Dell PowerFlex and Sangfor HCI - Hyper Converged Infrastructure, whereas StarWind Virtual SAN is most compared with VMware vSAN, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, StorMagic SvSAN, Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage. See our Dell vSAN Ready Nodes vs. StarWind Virtual SAN report.

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    We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.