SDS and HCI comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
2nd 4th 8th
Score
0%
0%
User Reviews
Question?
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Analysis expand by Herman Rutten by Herman Rutten by Herman Rutten
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General expand
0%
0%
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  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + Extensive platform support
  • + Extensive data protection capabilities
  • + Flexible deployment options
  • + Extensive QoS capabilities
  • + Considerable data protection integration
  • + Built for performance
  • + Flexible architecture
  • + Satisfactory platform support
  • + Several Microsoft integration points
Cons
  • - No native data integrity verification
  • - Dedup/compr not performance optimized
  • - Disk/node failure protection not capacity optimized
  • - Single hypervisor support
  • - No stretched clustering
  • - No native file services
  • - Minimal data protection capabilities
  • - No native dedup capabilities
  • - No native encryption capabilities
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
  Assessment  
  •  
Overview
Name: SANsymphony
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: 1998
First Product Release: 1999
NEW
Name: Acuity (AC)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2016
First Product Release: 2017
Name: HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2014
First Product Release: 2016
  •  
Maturity
GA Release Dates:
SSY 10.0 PSP12: jan 2021
SSY 10.0 PSP11: aug 2020
SSY 10.0 PSP10: dec 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP9: jul 2019
SSY 10.0 PSP8: sep 2018
SSY 10.0 PSP7: dec 2017
SSY 10.0 PSP6 U5: aug 2017
.
SSY 10.0: jun 2014
SSY 9.0: jul 2012
SSY 8.1: aug 2011
SSY 8.0: dec 2010
SSY 7.0: apr 2009
.
SSY 3.0: 1999
NEW
GA Release Dates:
AC 10.6.1: feb 2019
AC 10.6: dec 2018
AC 10.5.1: oct 2018
AC 10.4: jun 2018
AC 2.3.3: mar 2018
AC 2.3.2: jan 2018
AC 2.2: oct 2017
AC 2.1.1: aug 2017
AC 2.1: apr 2017
NEW
Release Dates:
HCA build 13279: oct 2019
HCA build 13182: aug 2019
HCA build 12767: feb 2019
HCA build 12658: nov 2018
HCA build 12393: aug 2018
HCA build 12166: may 2018
HCA build 12146: apr 2018
HCA build 11818: dec 2017
HCA build 11456: aug 2017
HCA build 11404: jul 2017
HCA build 11156: may 2017
HCA build 10833: apr 2017
HCA build 10799: mar 2017
HCA build 10695: feb 2017
HCA build 10547: jan 2017
HCA build 9996: aug 2016
HCA build 9781: jun 2016
HCA build 9052: may 2016
HCA build 8730: nov 2015
  Pricing  
  •  
Hardware Pricing Model
N/A
Per Node
  •  
Software Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
NEW
Per Node (all-inclusive)
Per Node (all-inclusive)
  •  
Support Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
Per Node
Per Node (included)
Design & Deploy expand
0%
0%
0%
  Design  
  •  
Consolidation Scope
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
Compute
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
  •  
Network Topology
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE (iSCSI)
8, 16, 32, 64 Gbps (FC)
10 GbE (or 1GbE)
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE
  •  
Overall Design Complexity
Medium
Low
Medium
  •  
External Performance Validation
SPC (Jun 2016)
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
ESG Lab (dec 2017)
StorageReview (oct 2019)
  •  
Evaluation Methods
Free Trial (30-days)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC; up to 12 months)
Cloud Edition (forever)
Online Labs
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
Partner Driven Demo Environment
Community Edition (forever)
Trial (up to 30 days)
Proof-of-Concept
  Deploy  
  •  
Deployment Architecture
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer (primary)
Dual-Layer (secondary)
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer (secondary)
  •  
Deployment Method
BYOS (some automation)
Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
Turnkey (very fast; highly automated)
Workload Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Virtualization  
  •  
Hypervisor Deployment
Virtual Storage Controller
Kernel (Optional for Hyper-V)
Virtual Storage Controller
Virtual Storage Controller (vSphere)
User-Space (Hyper-V)
  •  
Hypervisor Compatibility
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5-7.0U1
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012R2/2016/2019
Linux KVM
Citrix Hypervisor 7.1.2/7.6/8.0 (XenServer)
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5-6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5U3-6.7
Microsoft Hyper-V 2012-2019
  •  
Hypervisor Interconnect
iSCSI
FC
iSCSI
iSCSI
NFS
SMB3
  Bare Metal  
  •  
Bare Metal Compatibility
Microsoft Windows Server 2012R2/2016/2019
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5/6.6/7.3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.0SP3+4/12.0SP1
Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS
CentOS 6.5/6.6/7.3
Oracle Solaris 10.0/11.1/11.2/11.3
Many
Microsoft Windows Server 2012/2012R2/2016/2019
  •  
Bare Metal Interconnect
iSCSI
  Containers  
  •  
Container Integration Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
N/A
  •  
Container Platform Compatibility
Docker CE/EE 18.03+
Docker CE 17.06.1+ for Linux on ESXi 6.0+
Docker EE/Docker for Windows 17.06+ on ESXi 6.0+
Docker CE 17.06.1+ for Linux on ESXi 6.0+
Docker EE/Docker for Windows 17.06+ on ESXi 6.0+
  •  
Container Platform Interconnect
Docker Volume plugin (certified)
Docker Volume Plugin (certified) + VMware VIB
Docker Volume Plugin (certified) + VMware VIB
  •  
Container Host Compatibility
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
Virtualized container hosts on VMware vSphere hypervisor
Virtualized container hosts on VMware vSphere hypervisor
  •  
Container Host OS Compatbility
Linux
Linux
Windows 10 or 2016
Linux
Windows 10 or 2016
  •  
Container Orch. Compatibility
Kubernetes 1.6.5+ on ESXi 6.0+
Kubernetes 1.6.5+ on ESXi 6.0+
  •  
Container Orch. Interconnect
Kubernetes CSI plugin
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
  VDI  
  •  
VDI Compatibility
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
  •  
VDI Load Bearing
VMware: 110 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 110 virtual desktops/node
VMware: 272-317 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 167 virtual desktops/node
NEW
VMware: up to 260 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: up to 220 virtual desktops/node
Server Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Server/Node  
  •  
Hardware Vendor Choice
Many
Dell
Lenovo
Super Micro (StarWind branded)
Dell (StarWind branded)
Dell (OEM)
HPE (Select)
  •  
Models
Many
8 compute+storage models:
X5-2000, X5-2500, X5-6000, X5-6500, X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 compute-only models:
X3-2000, X3-2500, X3-6000, X3-6500
4 storage-only models:
X3-2000s, X3-6000s, X5-2000s, X5-6000s
NEW
6 Native Models (L-AF, XL-AF, L-H, XL-H, L, XL)
20 Native Submodels
  •  
Density
1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
1 node per chassis
1 node per chassis
  •  
Mixing Allowed
Yes
Partial
No
  Components  
  •  
CPU Config
Flexible
Flexible: up to 7 options
NEW
Flexible
  •  
Memory Config
Flexible: up to 4 options
NEW
Flexible
  •  
Storage Config
Flexible
Flexible: disk capacity
NEW
Flexible: number of storage devices
  •  
Network Config
Flexible
Flexible: 2 or 3 options
NEW
Fixed (Private network)
  •  
GPU Config
NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
X5: NVIDIA Tesla
X3: N/A
NVIDIA Tesla/Quadro
  Scaling  
  •  
Scale-up
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
Memory
Network
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
  •  
Scale-out
Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Compute+storage
Compute-only (iSCSI)
Storage-only
NEW
Compute+storage
Compute-only
Storage-only
  •  
Scalability
1-64 nodes in 1-node increments
X5 Hybrid: 3-12 nodes in 1-node increments
X5 All-Flash: 3-16 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 Hybrid: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
X3 All-Flash: 3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
2-64 nodes in 1-node increments
  •  
Small-scale (ROBO)
2 Node minimum
3 Node minimum (data center)
1 Node minimum (ROBO)
2 Node minimum
Storage Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  General  
  •  
Layout
Block Storage Pool
Block Pool
Block Storage Pool
  •  
Data Locality
Partial
None
Partial
  •  
Storage Type(s)
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (VoV)
SAN or NAS
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (Raw)
SAN or NAS
  •  
Composition
Magnetic-only
All-Flash
3D XPoint
Hybrid (3D Xpoint and/or Flash and/or Magnetic)
NEW
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
Magnetic-only
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
  •  
Hypervisor OS Layer
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
USB, SSD, SD
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
  Memory  
  •  
Memory Layer
DRAM
  •  
Memory Purpose
Read/Write Cache
Read Cache and Write Buffer
Read/Write Cache
  •  
Memory Capacity
Up to 8 TB
Configurable
Configurable
  Flash  
  •  
Flash Layer
SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
  •  
Flash Purpose
Persistent Storage
NVMe PCIe: Read/Write Cache
SSD: Persistent Storage
Read/Write Cache (hybrid)
Persistent storage (all-flash)
  •  
Flash Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB per device
All-flash:
X5-6500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe +16x SSD
X3-6500: 1x NVMe U.2 + 8x SSD
X5-6000: 16x SSD
X3-6000: 8x SSD

Hybrid:
X5-2500: 1x NVMe AIC/PCIe + 2x SSD
X3-2500: 1x NVMe U.2/PCIe + 1x SSD
X5-2000 2x SSD
X3-2000 1x SSD
All-Flash: 4-20+ devices per node
Hybrid: 2 devices per node
  Magnetic  
  •  
Magnetic Layer
SAS or SATA
Hybrid: SATA
  •  
Magnetic Purpose
  •  
Magnetic Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB (per device)
X3 Hybrid: 12 SATA HDDs per host/node
X5 Hybrid: 8 SATA HDDs per host/node
Hybrid: 4+ devices per node
Magnetic-only: 4-12+ devices per node
Data Availability expand
0%
0%
0%
  Reads/Writes  
  •  
Persistent Write Buffer
DRAM (mirrored)
NVMe PCIe (mirrored)
DRAM (mirrored)
Flash Layer (SSD, NVMe)
  •  
Disk Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1) + opt. Hardware RAID
Erasure Coding (EC1/EC3/EC5)
Global Virtual Sparing
1-2 Replicas (2N-3N)
+ Hardware RAID (1, 5, 10)
  •  
Node Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1)
Erasure Coding (N+1/N+3/N+5)
1-2 Replicas (2N-3N)
  •  
Block Failure Protection
Not relevant (usually 1-node appliances)
Manual configuration (optional)
Not relevant (1-node chassis only)
Not relevant (1-node chassis only)
  •  
Rack Failure Protection
Manual configuration
  •  
Protection Capacity Overhead
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
Mirroring (3N) (primary): 200%
+ Hardware RAID5/6 overhead (optional)
EC1: 9%-51%
EC3: 25%-72%
EC5: 36%-92%
Replica (2N) + RAID1/10: 200%
Replica (2N) + RAID5: 125-133%
Replica (3N) + RAID1/10: 300%
Replica (3N) + RAID5: 225-233%
  •  
Data Corruption Detection
N/A (hardware dependent)
Metadata verification (software)
Predictive drive analysis (software)
Disk scrubbing (software)
N/A (hardware dependent)
  Points-in-Time  
  •  
Snapshot Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Snapshot Scope
Local + Remote
Local + Remote
N/A
  •  
Snapshot Frequency
1 Minute
GUI: 15 minutes (Policy-based)
N/A
  •  
Snapshot Granularity
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
Per Volume
N/A
  •  
Backup Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
External
  •  
Backup Scope
Local or Remote
To local and remote clusters
To remote cloud object stores (Amazon S3)
N/A
  •  
Backup Frequency
Continuously
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
N/A
  •  
Backup Consistency
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
File System Consistent (Windows); Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
N/A
  •  
Restore Granularity
Entire VM or Volume
Entire Volume (snapshots/backups)
N/A
  •  
Restore Ease-of-use
Entire VM or Volume: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
Entire VM: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
N/A
  Disaster Recovery  
  •  
Remote Replication Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native; stretched clusters only)
External
  •  
Remote Replication Scope
To remote sites
To MS Azure Cloud
To remote sites
To AWS Cloud
VR: To remote sites, To VMware clouds
HR: To remote sites, to Microsoft Azure (not part of Windows Server 2019)
  •  
Remote Replication Cloud Function
Data repository
Data repository (AWS)
VR: DR-site (VMware Clouds)
HR: DR-site (Azure)
  •  
Remote Replication Topologies
Single-site and multi-site
Single-site and multi-site
VR: Single-site and multi-site
HR: Single-site and chained
  •  
Remote Replication Frequency
Continuous (near-synchronous)
15 minutes (Asynchronous)
VR: 5 minutes (Asynchronous)
HR: 30 seconds (Asynchronous)
SW: Continuous (Stretched Cluster)
  •  
Remote Replication Granularity
VM or Volume
Volume
VR: VM
HR: VM
  •  
Consistency Groups
Yes
Yes
  •  
DR Orchestration
VMware SRM (certified)
VMware SRM (certified)
NEW
N/A
  •  
Stretched Cluster (SC)
VMware vSphere: Yes (certified)
N/A
vSphere: Yes
Hyper-V: Yes
  •  
SC Configuration
2+sites = two or more active sites, 0/1 or more tie-breakers
N/A
vSphere: 2+ sites = minimum of two active sites + optional tie-breaker in 3rd site
Hyper-V: 2+ sites = minimum of two active sites + optional tie-breaker in 3rd site
  •  
SC Distance
<=5ms RTT (targeted, not required)
N/A
  •  
SC Scaling
<=32 hosts at each active site (per cluster)
N/A
No set maximum number of nodes
  •  
SC Data Redundancy
Replicas: 1N-2N at each active site
N/A
Replicas: 0-3 Replicas at each active site
Data Services expand
0%
0%
0%
  Efficiency  
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Engine
Software (integration)
NEW
Software
Software (integration; limited)
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Function
Efficiency (space savings)
Efficiency and Performance
Efficiency (space savings)
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Process
Deduplication: Inline (post-ack)
Compression: Inline (post-ack)
Deduplication/Compression: Post-Processing (post process)
NEW
Deduplication: Inline (on-ack)
Compression: Inline (on-ack)
Post-Processing
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Type
Optional
NEW
Always-on
Optional
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Scope
Persistent data layer
Read and Write caches + Persistent data layers
Persistent data layer
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Radius
Pool (post-processing deduplication domain)
Node (inline deduplication domain)
NEW
Storage Cluster (vPG)
Volume
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Granularity
4-128 KB variable block size (inline)
32-128 KB variable block size (post-processing)
NEW
256 KB - 1.5 MB variable block size
32-128 KB variable block size
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Guarantee
N/A
N/A
  •  
Data Rebalancing
Full (optional)
Full
Full (optional)
  •  
Data Tiering
Yes
N/A
Partial (integration; optional)
  Performance  
  •  
Task Offloading
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; Space Reclamation (T10 SCSI UNMAP)
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; UNMAP/TRIM
  •  
QoS Type
IOPs and/or MBps Limits
IOPs/MBps/Latency Guarantees (minimums)
N/A
  •  
QoS Granularity
Virtual Disk Groups and/or Host Groups
Per volume
N/A
  •  
Flash Pinning
Per VM/Virtual Disk/Volume
  Security  
  •  
Data Encryption Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Data Encryption Options
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: SANsymphony Encryption
Hardware: N/A
Software: Pivot3 Acuity data encryption; HyTrust DataControl (validated)
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption; VMware Virtual machine Encryption
  •  
Data Encryption Scope
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: N/A
Software: Data-at-rest (Pivot3); Data-at-rest + Data-in-transit (HyTrust)
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
  •  
Data Encryption Compliance
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SANsymphony)
Hardware: N/A
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (Pivot3;HyTrust)
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (BitLocker; VMware Virtual Machine Encryption)
  •  
Data Encryption Efficiency Impact
Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: N/A
Software: No (Pivot3); Yes (HyTrust)
Hardware: No
Software: No (Bitlocker); No (VMware Virtual Machine Encryption)
  Test/Dev  
  •  
Fast VM Cloning
Yes
Yes
No
  Portability  
  •  
Hypervisor Migration
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
  File Services  
  •  
Fileserver Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
Built-in (native)
  •  
Fileserver Compatibility
Windows clients
Linux clients
N/A
Windows clients
Linux clients
  •  
Fileserver Interconnect
SMB
NFS
N/A
SMB
NFS
  •  
Fileserver Quotas
Share Quotas, User Quotas
N/A
Share Quotas, User Quotas
  •  
Fileserver Analytics
Partial
N/A
Partial
  Object Services  
  •  
Object Storage Type
N/A
N/A
N/A
  •  
Object Storage Protection
N/A
N/A
N/A
  •  
Object Storage LT Retention
N/A
N/A
N/A
Management expand
0%
0%
0%
  Interfaces  
  •  
GUI Functionality
Centralized
Centralized
Centralized
  •  
GUI Scope
Single-site and Multi-site
Single-site and Multi-site
Single-site and Multi-site
  •  
GUI Perf. Monitoring
Advanced
Advanced
Advanced
  •  
GUI Integration
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
VMware vCenter plug-in for SANsymphony
SCVMM DataCore Storage Management Provider
Microsoft System Center Monitoring Pack
VMware HTML5 vSphere Client (plugin)
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
vSphere: Web Client (plugin)
Hyper-V: SCVMM 2016 (add-in)
  Programmability  
  •  
Policies
Full
Full
Partial (Protection)
  •  
API/Scripting
REST-APIs
PowerShell
REST-APIs (through Swordfish)
PowerShell
  •  
Integration
OpenStack
VMware vRealize Automation (vRA)
  •  
Self Service
Full
N/A
  Maintenance  
  •  
SW Composition
Unified
Partially Distributed
Partially Distributed
  •  
SW Upgrade Execution
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Manual Upgrade (1-by-1)
  •  
FW Upgrade Execution
Hardware dependent
1-Click
Manual Upgrade (1-by-1 )
  Support  
  •  
Single HW/SW Support
No
Yes
Yes
  •  
Call-Home Function
Partial (HW dependent)
Full
Yes
  •  
Predictive Analytics
Partial
Full
Partial

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • DataCore
  • Pivot3
  • StarWind
  •  
  • 2 nd
  • 4 th
  • 8 th
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