• Home
  • Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)

Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Download the complete report
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
March 2024
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) 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.
To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Report (Updated: March 2024).
Download the complete report
768,246 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Adolfo Albanell
Stable solution with an easy initial setup process
Samuel Rothenbuehler
What you might not know about Nutanix that makes it so unique
As a system integrator, Nutanix offers a highly standardized solution that can be deployed in a timely fashion compared to legacy three-tier,... Read more →
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Its technical support is excellent.""The performance, reliability, and affordability has been most valuable.""The flash ability, in terms of tiering and caching, is amazing""The most valuable feature is that there is no single point of failure.""It's mainly about the storage expansion, like in hyper-converged solutions.""The most valuable feature are the caching capabilities using the storage class memory."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Pros →

"Nutanix Acropolis AOS makes it easy to use and manage projects and it has a good reputation.""Simplified management: It provides us more time to work on other tasks.""The most valuable features are its ease of use and its good performance.""There are a lot of features in Nutanix that are different from other hyper-converged solutions, such as site-to-site replication. VM-based site-to-site replication is bundled with the software licensing. For the DR, it has the availability groups, which is one of the key features that Nutanix provides.""Single-click upgrades are the most valuable feature. In the sector in which we work, it is tough to have downtime and arrange firmware upgrades.""The scalability, performance, and licensing model are the most valuable features.""The best feature of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is the central management of all of our resources. Additionally, it is easy to use""It consolidates our servers, and improves our electricity consumption and cooling as well."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pros →

Cons
"Documentation management could be improved""More optimization could be done in terms of mirroring.""It is scalable, but only beyond two nodes. If I go for two nodes it's not scalable. I need to build a complete cluster from the beginning if I'm going for two nodes.""It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution.""I think the online documentation needs a lot of work and so do the sizing tools.""The management tool within this solution could be improved. We would also like to be able to access services like Azure when using this solution."

More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Cons →

"The price could be lower.""The ability to create clusters faster would be nice to see in a future release.""We had a few problems with the foundation machine that you can use to build your systems out. We've got it working now, but it should be improved.""The pricing model for software and hardware subscription renewals can be improved.""The technology has a lot of room for improvement. For example, when they want to segment applications in conjunction with NSX, which VMware uses, Acropolis is not compatible with the competitors. The integration in the security layer is not compatible with NSX for the application segmentation that uses VMware.""NCI's pricing is expensive.""We would like to see it support other systems outside of the compute stack from which it was built.""The patch updates of Nutanix Acropolis could be improved. I'm work on the corporate side, but I get feedback from our IT team that patch updates and other updates are taking a significantly longer time. This definitely needs to be resolved. We are in discussion with Nutanix regarding certain configuration issues we are having, so maybe something can be changed to ease these patch updates."

More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly."
  • "Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products."

    • More Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Able to grow with smaller, more linear increments of investment"
  • "The basic license that comes with the box allows basic virtualization features but advanced automation features would require an upgrade of licenses."
  • "I know Nutanix and VxRail have similar prices and licenses. Nutanix is a go-ahead if AHV is used as hypervisor because it is already embedded in the price."
  • "While cost may seem higher than your traditional 3-tier architecture, you need to look at the bigger picture. You're not just buying hardware here. You're buying a complete environment."
  • "Setup cost is minor, pricing is quite a bit (we have a 7-node-cluster for about 450K EUR with 2 vGPU-nodes for Citrix) but that includes hardware, software, and support."
  • "The price is good but I think there is still room for improvement on the price."
  • "Extra features should not be so expensive. We would love to be able to use or even just try some of the extra features without having to buy them. Buying those features is just as expensive as buying vSphere licenses, so the cost savings is nullified."
  • "Work close with your InfraTeam and discuss with Nutanix the best way to achieve sizing and price that are right for you."

    • More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    See Which Vendors Are Best For You
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.
    See Recommendations
    768,246 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
    Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned and congruent to the organization’s data architecture and business plans. The announcement of Gartner’s latest Magic Quadrant on Integrated Systems (read hyper convergence) has put Nutanix as the leader of the pack as of August 2015. Clearly, many of us get caught up because it is the “greatest feeling in the world”. However, this faux feeling is not reality because there are many factors that made the pack leaders in the Magic Quadrant (MQ). First of all, the MQ is about market perception. There is no doubt that the pack leaders in the Leaders Quadrant have earned their right to be there. Each company’s revenue, market share, gross margin, company’s profitability have helped put each as leaders in the pack. However, it is also measured by branding, marketing, market perception and acceptance and other intangible factors. Secondly, VMware EVO: Rail has split the market when EMC has 3 HC solutions in VCE, ScaleIO and EVO: Rail. Cisco wanted to do their own HC piece in Whiptail (between the 2014 MQ and 2015 MQ reports), and closed down Whiptail when their new CEO came on board. NetApp chose EVO: Rail and also has the ever popular FlexPod. That is why you see that in… Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
    Top Answer:We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is best suited for small- to medium-sized organizations. It is easy to create load… more »
    What do you like most about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
    Top Answer:Its technical support is excellent.
    Read all 6 answers   →
    What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
    Top Answer:It is difficult to get a hardware compatibility certification for the solution. In comparison, the process is easy for VMware and VSAN.
    Read all 7 answers   →
    What is the biggest difference between Nutanix Acropolis and VMware vSphere?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 7 answers   →
    How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
    Top Answer: Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from core to edge and multi-cloud environments. It helps IT and OT teams deploy… more »
    Read all 2 answers   →
    Which would you choose - Nutanix Acropolis AOS or VMware vSAN?
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface that allows you to talk directly to your VM from the present software. We found… more »
    Read all 4 answers   →
    Ranking
    9th
    out of 37 in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
    Views
    2,063
    Comparisons
    1,377
    Reviews
    1
    Average Words per Review
    241
    Rating
    7.0
    2nd
    out of 37 in Software Defined Storage (SDS)
    Views
    4,022
    Comparisons
    1,517
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    952
    Rating
    8.6
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Storage Spaces Direct
    Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
    Learn More
    Microsoft
    Nutanix
    Overview

    Storage Spaces Direct uses industry-standard servers with local-attached drives to create highly available, highly scalable software-defined storage at a fraction of the cost of traditional SAN or NAS arrays. Its converged or hyper-converged architecture radically simplifies procurement and deployment, while features like caching, storage tiers, and erasure coding, together with the latest hardware innovation like RDMA networking and NVMe drives, deliver unrivaled efficiency and performance.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a top-ranking HCI software, cloud management tool, and Software Defined Storage (SDS) tool that is marketed as the foundation for users' hybrid clouds. It offers a powerful and secure hyperconverged infrastructure to deliver all data and applications at any scale and on any cloud. The solution offers a complete software stack that allows users to unify their hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

    NCI’s services include computer, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, and deployment in public or in private clouds. The product also comes with built-in resilience, disaster recovery capabilities, self-healing, and high-security capacities. It provides further deployment flexibility through several software and hardware options and platforms. NCI includes a full set of enterprise capabilities. It can also be deployed on a wide range of servers from popular manufacturers.

    The capabilities of the product are categorized into three main groups:

    • AOS storage
    • Flexible and open compute
    • Automated and secure networking

    Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:

    • Integrated disaster recovery
    • Full-stack lifecycle management
    • VMware with Nutanix
    • Intelligent operations

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers its customers various features and tools in each of the previously mentioned categories. The available features for users currently include:

    • High-performance: This set of features utilizes hardware advances such as NVMe and RDMA to accelerate users' most demanding applications with consistent performance. The tools in this feature category work alongside data locality to ensure successful results.

    • Foolproof resiliency: These Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure features protect data and keep it available by facilitating advanced distributed consistency algorithms. Users can utilize these features to protect their data from issues like bit rot, hardware failures, and even entire site failure.

    • Flexibility: This set of features allows storage to be sized for the needs of each organization and expanded promptly and easily so that the organization and its data can grow. The features offer flexibility to users in terms of applying storage policies logically on a pre-workload basis, instead of being tied to hardware.

    • Hypervisor choice: Users can choose from the leading hypervisors - Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi. They can also leverage the built-in hypervisor AHV that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides.

    • Integrated virtualization: These features offer simplified automation and AHV streamlined operations. The services in this category are optimized for high performance and reliability.

    • Kubernetes: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to build and deploy cloud-native applications on intelligent distributed infrastructure. Apps can be integrated with cloud-compatible storage and both building and deployment can be achieved within the same platform.

    • Microsegmentation: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to prevent malware spread and reduce attack surfaces by leveraging machine learning (ML).

    • Virtual networking: This set of features allows users to easily implement multi-tenancy in their environment or stretch networks across clouds.

    • Centralized network management: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides organizations with a way to manage networking configurations centrally. Users can utilize it across their human-computer interaction (HCI) environment with simple virtual switch management.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits

    The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:

    • NCI reduces technology sprawl and frees up technical resources to allow organizations to focus on other activities, potentially reducing costs for the business.

    • The product allows customers to deploy, scale, and bridge to the public cloud to be able to react in evolving business environments.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure improves data availability while simultaneously protecting it against several kinds of failures and attacks.

    • The solution offers high-performance, resilient distributed storage for all workloads.

    • Working alongside Nutanix Cloud Platform, NCI offers simple management of data from one console.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure works by the zero trust philosophy, protecting users' apps and data through specially designed security protocols.

    Reviews from Real Users

    According to Gerhard J., an IT manager at Q4 Fuel, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI.

    A solutions architect at a computer software company describes NCI as a stable, straightforward to set up, and scalable solution.

    Sample Customers
    Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt
    St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization26%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business71%
    Large Enterprise29%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise54%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise30%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise36%
    Large Enterprise47%
    Buyer's Guide
    Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
    March 2024
    Free Report: Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    768,246 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is ranked 9th in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 7 reviews while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 2nd in Software Defined Storage (SDS) with 194 reviews. Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is rated 7.6, while Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct writes "Stable solution with an easy initial setup process". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "A powerful solution with easy deployment, upgrades, and management". Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is most compared with VMware vSAN, StarWind Virtual SAN, Red Hat Ceph Storage, DataCore SANsymphony and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, whereas Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and Hyper-V. See our Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) 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.