Almost three years ago, VMware introduced the world to its virtual SAN. This new solution enabled customers to use storage within ESXi servers without the need for external storage – an exciting promise for organizations that wanted to quickly scale their virtual storage. Now, it’s time to check in on this technology and see if it’s living up to its promise.
VMware became a player in the storage array and software market when it launched vSAN. Server admins were looking forward to using vSAN because it gave them a symmetrical architecture that did not require external storage, thus being able to use storage within existing servers. It also doesn’t require specialized storage skills. However, no one solution can be all things to all enterprises, and as enterprises began to deploy vSAN across their environments, they noticed something big was missing.