We performed a comparison between IBM Spectrum Virtualize and StarWind HyperConverged Appliance based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."I like all the features, but the most impressive recently has been the introduction of IBM's Flash Core Modules. They are a form of a flash drive, but they have many more features."
"Although the GUI from the XIV was used (in my view), IBM has polished and refined the GUI providing a pleasant and easy to navigate GUI experience."
"Using SBC, a valuable feature is the mirroring, which is the virtualization of the disk between disparate places."
"The scalability is very good. It can handle anywhere from very small to large enterprise class."
"It lowers cost. It does so by getting more efficient use out of the technology behind it."
"The most valuable feature is its reliability."
"When we add storage behind it, the product is good for the customers because their customers do not notice that anything is happening due to the virtualization."
"The ability to have a feature-rich software set which extends the capabilities of the back-end storage arrays."
"The full suite of redundancy gives a nice sense of security for the whole environment."
"It did not hurt that the price for the hardware and three years of support cost less than the disparate hardware the cluster used to run on."
"The added speed of using standard HDD and SSD meant we could increase what services are stored on the servers without having to have additional servers."
"We have the ProActive Premium Support and it has reduced our monitoring efforts. It has been very useful. They have been able to detect things such as when there's an issue with the cluster or they're getting some kind of weird reading that I have no idea about. They're really quick to let me know about it and even set up a schedule to address it. I've been very happy with their level of support on that."
"We no longer need multiple staff members performing small, mundane tasks."
"The biggest thing we were looking for was redundancy, with both the compute and the storage, so that way we could lose a full node and still keep everything up and running, and not have to worry about it... StarWind was able to provide a solution for what we wanted, - to provide for redundancy."
"I do like that I can manage StarWind with a console running on my local desktop."
"The option to deploy a hyper-converged system without an expensive storage switch was a benefit."
"Tighter integration with cloud storage might be useful as a target for a variety of use cases."
"I hate I/O groups. If you start swapping I/O groups, they can be potentially risky. If they could get rid of the whole I/O group principle, the risk is not there anymore. I understand the fundamental thing about I/O groups, but they are risky."
"The solution could have a better built-in performance monitor."
"They are actually working on one bug we found, which was with flash restore. This was the user interface design for virtual environments."
"GUI should be developed in HTML5 as opposed to Java."
"I would like to see more baseline replication and integration with the operating system between Vmware and IBMI."
"In general, the migration is complicated. Though, it is case-by-case."
"There are things that occur when you get to this size and capacity. We're very large, i.e., petabytes. When you get to that sheer volume of the numbers of things, it is too big for people to keep track of."
"The StarWind Command Center web portal could use some work."
"The truth is that the operation and support offered is good, but we consider that the product's usability could improve, as well as the data resynchronization time after an unexpected closure."
"We have to pay for support, which is high-end support. That can be expensive, at least for us."
"Updates need improvement."
"In the future, it would be nice to be able to migrate from the Windows vSAN to the Linux vSAN without having to do a full restore from backups."
"Possible new features could be CSV-level snapshot capability, Veeam integration, and maybe a more straightforward setup. Granted, you don't have to worry about setups with the HCA, but if you want to implement StarWind vSAN in a lab to test it is a tedious setup process."
"Over the past three years, there were two instances where our cluster had an issue, yet StarWind proactively notified me of those issues and effortlessly guided me through the process of correcting the issue with minimal effort on my part."
"The response time is usually several hours after the issue occurred."
More StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Pricing and Cost Advice →
IBM Spectrum Virtualize is ranked 15th in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 36 reviews while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is ranked 5th in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 65 reviews. IBM Spectrum Virtualize is rated 8.8, while StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is rated 9.6. The top reviewer of IBM Spectrum Virtualize writes "A highly scalable product that is relatively easy to use and set up". On the other hand, the top reviewer of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance writes "Straightforward to use with good remote management and a simple GUI". IBM Spectrum Virtualize is most compared with Dell VPLEX, VMware vSAN, VxRail, IBM Spectrum Scale and DataCore SANsymphony, whereas StarWind HyperConverged Appliance is most compared with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), VMware vSAN, Dell PowerFlex, VxRail and StorMagic SvSAN. See our IBM Spectrum Virtualize vs. StarWind HyperConverged Appliance report.
See our list of best Software Defined Storage (SDS) vendors.
We monitor all Software Defined Storage (SDS) 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.
