How StorPool Compares to VMware vSAN
Organizations looking to get the most performance from the storage running their business-critical applications often look to software-defined storage (SDS) platforms. Running on standard commodity server hardware, they can be much more cost-effective than legacy purpose-built storage arrays. Both StorPool and VMware vSAN are SDS solutions, but there are significant differences between the two.
StorPool is a fully-managed SDS platform purpose-built for ultra-high performance and reliability with massive scale and low latency in block-storage environments.
VMware vSAN is a specialized SDS platform built for VMware vSphere workloads. By being single-purpose, it allows for the expansion of storage silos in your data center.
The Performance Gap
The primary differences between the two platforms is the level of sustained performance delivered under heavy workloads and the fact that vSAN can only be used for VMware workloads, while StorPool Storage is multi-purpose and can run multiple different workloads simultaneously, eliminating storage silos in your data center.
Latency
IOPS
Throughput
What Reliability Looks Like With StorPool
The operational stability of a storage cluster depends on both the software architecture and the management expertise applied to it.
Reliability
Customers have measured 99.999% actual uptime. Its parallel multi-node shared-nothing architecture ensures no single point of failure and maintains performance during drive or node failures.
Management Model
StorPool is delivered as a fully-managed service. The StorPool engineering team handles deployment, 24/7 proactive monitoring, non-disruptive updates, and tuning.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
StorPool uses replication of snapshots for built-in backup and disaster recovery. Some all-Flash arrays can do the same, but may require additional software licensing.
The Real Cost of Running StorPool vs. VMware vSAN
While the acquisition cost of software varies, the total cost over a lifecycle favors StorPool in performance-intensive environments.
Acquisition: StorPool and vSAN both require commercial licenses. vSAN, however, is no longer available as a standalone product and can only be purchased as part of the full VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) bundle, which is over-built for many organizations.
Operational Expense (OPEX): StorPool’s managed service model eliminates the need to hire or train a dedicated storage ops team. For managing vSAN, you’re on your own and require trained IT staff who will spend time performing maintenance rather than working on other projects.
Overall ROI: StorPool typically delivers a significantly lower TCO than the purchase of the VCF software bundle (anywhere from 64 to 71% less) and through reduced management overhead. Additionally StorPool’s elimination of storage silos provides even more cost savings.
Feature Comparison
From block-level performance to snapshot efficiency and day-to-day manageability, this table breaks down exactly how StorPool and VMware vSAN compare across the features that matter most for production storage environments.
Feature |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Block storage | Y | Y |
File storage | Y Max. volume 64TB | Y |
Object storage | N | Y |
Triple mirroring | Y | Y |
Erasure Coding | Y | RAID-5 or RAID-6 |
Latency | 100 microseconds | 0.5 ms to 5 or more ms |
Throughput | 1TB/s | Up to 300,000 GB/s
Per node |
IOPS | Up to 1.2 Million IOPS
Per node | Up to 300,000 IOPS
Per node |
iSCSI | Y | Y |
NVMe/TCP | Y | Drives, Y Protocol, N |
Quality of Service | Y Live data-in-place tier changes | Y |
Snapshots | Y Nearly limitless | Y Max 32 per snapshot chain Max 32 per fileshare |
Low overhead snapshots | Y No effect on performance | ESA, Y OSA, N |
Built-in advanced monitoring | Y | N |
Built-in analytics | Y | N |
Deployment | Assisted and Easy | DIY |
Maintenance | Proactive Full Service | Many inhouse hours |
Stop Managing Storage. Start Trusting It.
Locked into VMware, bundled into VCF, and maintained by your own team — that’s vSAN. StorPool breaks the silos, runs any workload, and cuts TCO by up to 71%.