SDS and HCI comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
2nd 5th 9th
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
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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
  • + Extensive data protection capabilities
  • + Small form factor
  • + Built for simplicity
  • + Policy-based management
  • + Cost-effectiveness
Cons
  • - No native data integrity verification
  • - Dedup/compr not performance optimized
  • - Disk/node failure protection not capacity optimized
  • - No hybrid configurations
  • - No stretched clustering
  • - Single hypervisor support
  • - Single hypervisor support
  • - No stretched clustering
  • - No native file services
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
  Assessment  
  •  
Overview
Name: SANsymphony
Type: Software-only (SDS)
Development Start: 1998
First Product Release: 1999
NEW
Name: NetApp HCI
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2016
First Product Release: 2017
Name: Hyperconvergence (HC3)
Type: Hardware+Software (HCI)
Development Start: 2011
First Product Release: 2012
  •  
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:
NetApp HCI 1.8P1: oct 2020
NetApp HCI 1.8: may 2020
NetApp HCI 1.7: sep 2019
NetApp HCI 1.6: jul 2019
NetApp HCI 1.4: nov 2018
NetApp HCI 1.3: jun 2018
NetApp HCI 1.2: mar 2018
NetApp HCI 1.1: dec 2017
NetApp HCI 1.0: oct 2017
NEW
GA Release Dates:
HCOS 8.6.5: mar 2020
HCOS 8.5.3: oct 2019
HCOS 8.3.3: jul 2019
HCOS 8.1.3: mar 2019
HCOS 7.4.22: may 2018
HCOS 7.2.24: sep 2017
HCOS 7.1.11: dec 2016
HCOS 6.4.2: apr 2016
HCOS 6.0: feb 2015
HCOS 5.0: oct 2014
ICOS 4.0: aug 2012
ICOS 3.0: may 2012
ICOS 2.0: feb 2010
ICOS 1.0: feb 2009
NEW
  Pricing  
  •  
Hardware Pricing Model
N/A
Per Node
  •  
Software Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
NEW
Per Node
Capacity based (per TB)
Per Node (all-inclusive)
  •  
Support Pricing Model
Capacity based (per TB)
Per Node
Per Node
Design & Deploy expand
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  Design  
  •  
Consolidation Scope
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
Compute
Storage
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
Hypervisor
Compute
Storage
Networking (optional)
Data Protection
Management
Automation&Orchestration
  •  
Network Topology
1, 10, 25, 40, 100 GbE (iSCSI)
8, 16, 32, 64 Gbps (FC)
10/25 GbE (iSCSI)
1, 10 GbE
  •  
Overall Design Complexity
Medium
Low
Low
  •  
External Performance Validation
SPC (Jun 2016)
ESG Lab (Jan 2016)
Evaluator Group (aug 2019)
N/A
  •  
Evaluation Methods
Free Trial (30-days)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC; up to 12 months)
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
Public Facing Clusters
Proof-of-Concept (PoC)
  Deploy  
  •  
Deployment Architecture
Single-Layer
Dual-Layer
Dual-Layer
Single-Layer
  •  
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)
None
KVM User Space
  •  
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 6.5U2-7.0
(Microsoft Hyper-V)
(Red Hat KVM)
Linux KVM-based
NEW
  •  
Hypervisor Interconnect
iSCSI
FC
iSCSI
Libscribe
  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
RHEL 7.4-8.1 (KVM)
Windows Server 2016-2019 (Hyper-V)
VMware vSphere 6.5-7.0
Citrix XenServer 7.4-7.6
Citrix Hypervisor 8.0-8.1
N/A
  •  
Bare Metal Interconnect
N/A
  Containers  
  •  
Container Integration Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Container Platform Compatibility
Docker CE/EE 18.03+
Docker EE 17.06+
N/A
  •  
Container Platform Interconnect
Docker Volume plugin (certified)
Docker Volume Plugin (certified)
N/A
  •  
Container Host Compatibility
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
Virtualized container hosts on all supported hypervisors
Bare Metal container hosts
N/A
  •  
Container Host OS Compatbility
Linux
RHEL
CentOS
Ubuntu
Debian
N/A
  •  
Container Orch. Compatibility
Kubernetes 1.9+
N/A
  •  
Container Orch. Interconnect
Kubernetes CSI plugin
Kubernetes Volume Plugin
N/A
  VDI  
  •  
VDI Compatibility
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
VMware Horizon
Citrix XenDesktop
Citrix XenDesktop
Parallels RAS
Leostream
  •  
VDI Load Bearing
VMware: 110 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: 110 virtual desktops/node
VMware: up to 139 virtual desktops/node
Citrix: unknown
Workspot: 40 virtual desktops/node
Server Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  Server/Node  
  •  
Hardware Vendor Choice
Many
Super Micro
Quanta Cloud Technology
Lenovo (native and OEM)
SuperMicro (native)
  •  
Models
Many
6 models (3x compute + 3x storage) + several sub-models
4 Native Models
NEW
  •  
Density
1, 2 or 4 nodes per chassis
1 node per chassis
4 nodes per chassis
1 node per chassis
NEW
  •  
Mixing Allowed
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Components  
  •  
CPU Config
Flexible
Flexible (up to 5 options)
Flexible: up to 3 options (native); extensive (Lenovo OEM)
  •  
Memory Config
Fixed: H610C
Flexible: H410C/H615C
Flexible: up to 8 options
  •  
Storage Config
Flexible
Flexible (3 options)
Capacity: up to 5 options (HDD, SSD)
Fixed: Number of disks
  •  
Network Config
Flexible
Fixed (10 or 25Gbps)
Fixed: HC1200/5000: 10GbE; HE150/500T: 1GbE
Flexible: HE500: 1/10GbE
  •  
GPU Config
NVIDIA Tesla
AMD FirePro
Intel Iris Pro
H610C/H615C: NVIDIA Tesla
N/A
  Scaling  
  •  
Scale-up
CPU
Memory
Storage
GPU
N/A
CPU
Memory
  •  
Scale-out
Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Storage+Compute
Compute-only
Storage-only
Storage+Compute
Storage-only
  •  
Scalability
1-64 nodes in 1-node increments
2-64 compute nodes and 2-40 storage nodes in 1-node increments
3-8 nodes in 1-node increments
  •  
Small-scale (ROBO)
2 Node minimum
4 Node minimum (2 storage + 2 compute)
Storage Support expand
0%
0%
0%
  General  
  •  
Layout
Block Storage Pool
Block Pool
Block Storage Pool
  •  
Data Locality
Partial
None
None
  •  
Storage Type(s)
Direct-attached (Raw)
Direct-attached (VoV)
SAN or NAS
Direct-Attached (Raw)
Direct-Attached (Raw)
  •  
Composition
Magnetic-only
All-Flash
3D XPoint
Hybrid (3D Xpoint and/or Flash and/or Magnetic)
NEW
All-Flash (SSD-only)
Magnetic-only
Hybrid (Flash+Magnetic)
All-Flash
  •  
Hypervisor OS Layer
SD, USB, DOM, SSD/HDD
SSD
HDD or SSD (partition)
  Memory  
  •  
Memory Layer
DRAM
NVRAM (PCIe card) or NVDIMM
DRAM
  •  
Memory Purpose
Read/Write Cache
NVRAM/NVDIMM: Write Buffer
DRAM: Metadata
Read Cache
Metadata structures
  •  
Memory Capacity
Up to 8 TB
NVRAM/NVDIMM: Non-configurable
DRAM: Unknown
4GB+
  Flash  
  •  
Flash Layer
SSD, PCIe, UltraDIMM, NVMe
SSD, NVMe
SSD, NVMe
  •  
Flash Purpose
Persistent Storage
All-Flash: Metadata + Persistent Storage Tier
  •  
Flash Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB per device
All-Flash: 6 SSDs/12 NVMe per storage node
Hybrid: 1-3 SSDs per node
All-Flash: 4 SSDs per node
  Magnetic  
  •  
Magnetic Layer
SAS or SATA
Hybrid: SATA
  •  
Magnetic Purpose
  •  
Magnetic Capacity
No limit, up to 1 PB (per device)
Magnetic-only: 4 HDDs per node
Hybrid: 3 or 9 HDDs per node
Data Availability expand
0%
0%
0%
  Reads/Writes  
  •  
Persistent Write Buffer
DRAM (mirrored)
NVRAM (mirrored)
Flash/HDD
  •  
Disk Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1) + opt. Hardware RAID
1 Replica (2N)
NEW
2-way Mirroring (Network RAID-10)
  •  
Node Failure Protection
2-way and 3-way Mirroring (RAID-1)
1 Replica (2N)
2-way Mirroring (Network RAID-10)
  •  
Block Failure Protection
Not relevant (usually 1-node appliances)
Manual configuration (optional)
Protection Domains
Not relevant (1U/2U appliances)
  •  
Rack Failure Protection
Manual configuration
Protection Domains
  •  
Protection Capacity Overhead
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
Mirroring (3N) (primary): 200%
+ Hardware RAID5/6 overhead (optional)
Mirroring (2N) (primary): 100%
  •  
Data Corruption Detection
N/A (hardware dependent)
Read integrity checks
Read integrity checks (software)
Disk scrubbing (software)
  Points-in-Time  
  •  
Snapshot Type
Built-in (native)
  •  
Snapshot Scope
Local + Remote
Local + Remote
Local (+ Remote)
  •  
Snapshot Frequency
1 Minute
5 minutes
5 minutes
  •  
Snapshot Granularity
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
Per VM (Vvols) or Volume
  •  
Backup Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
  •  
Backup Scope
Local or Remote
Locally
To remote sites
To remote cloud object stores (Amazon S3, OpenStack Swift)
Locally
To remote sites
  •  
Backup Frequency
Continuously
5 minutes
5 minutes (Asynchronous)
  •  
Backup Consistency
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
Crash Consistent
File System Consistent (Windows)
Application Consistent (MS Apps on Windows)
  •  
Restore Granularity
Entire VM or Volume
Entire Volume
Entire VM
  •  
Restore Ease-of-use
Entire VM or Volume: GUI
Single File: Multi-step
Entire VM: Multi-step
Single File: Multi-step
Entire VM: Multi-step
Single File: Multi-step
  Disaster Recovery  
  •  
Remote Replication Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
  •  
Remote Replication Scope
To remote sites
To MS Azure Cloud
To remote sites
To remote sites
To Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  •  
Remote Replication Cloud Function
Data repository
N/A
DR-site (GCP)
  •  
Remote Replication Topologies
Single-site and multi-site
Single-site and multi-site (limited)
Single-site and multi-site
  •  
Remote Replication Frequency
Continuous (near-synchronous)
Continuous (Synchronous, Asynchronous)
5 minutes
  •  
Remote Replication Granularity
VM or Volume
VM (Vvols) or Volume; Snapshots-only
VM
  •  
Consistency Groups
Yes
  •  
DR Orchestration
VMware SRM (certified)
VMware SRM (certified)
HC3 Cloud Unity (native)
  •  
Stretched Cluster (SC)
VMware vSphere: Yes (certified)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Configuration
2+sites = two or more active sites, 0/1 or more tie-breakers
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Distance
<=5ms RTT (targeted, not required)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Scaling
<=32 hosts at each active site (per cluster)
N/A
N/A
  •  
SC Data Redundancy
Replicas: 1N-2N at each active site
N/A
N/A
Data Services expand
0%
0%
0%
  Efficiency  
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Engine
Software (integration)
NEW
Software
Software
  •  
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 (pre-ack)
Compression: inline (pre-ack) + post process
Post-Processing
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Type
Optional
NEW
Always-on
Always-on
  •  
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
Per Node
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Granularity
4-128 KB variable block size (inline)
32-128 KB variable block size (post-processing)
NEW
4 KB fixed block size
1 MiB
  •  
Dedup/Compr. Guarantee
N/A
Workload/Data Type dependent
  •  
Data Rebalancing
Full (optional)
Full
Full (optional)
  •  
Data Tiering
Yes
N/A
Yes
  Performance  
  •  
Task Offloading
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
Hyper-V: Microsoft ODX; Space Reclamation (T10 SCSI UNMAP)
vSphere: VMware VAAI-Block (full)
  •  
QoS Type
IOPs and/or MBps Limits
IOPs Limits (maximums)
IOPs Guarantees (minimums)
N/A
  •  
QoS Granularity
Virtual Disk Groups and/or Host Groups
Per volume
Per vdisk (Vvols)
N/A
  •  
Flash Pinning
Per VM/Virtual Disk/Volume
Not relevant (All-Flash only)
Per virtual disk
  Security  
  •  
Data Encryption Type
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Data Encryption Options
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: SANsymphony Encryption
Hardware: Self-encrypting drives (SEDs)
Software: Element OS encryption
NEW
Hardware: N/A
Software: HyTrust KeyControl + Client (validated); WinMagic SecureDoc CloudVM (validated)
  •  
Data Encryption Scope
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
Hardware: Data-at-rest
Software: Data-at-rest
NEW
Hardware: N/A
Software: Data-at-rest
  •  
Data Encryption Compliance
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (SEDs)
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SANsymphony)
Hardware: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (SEDs)
Software: N/A
Hardware: N/A
Software: FIPS 140-2 Level 1 (HyTrust; WinMagic)
  •  
Data Encryption Efficiency Impact
Hardware: No
Software: No
Hardware: No
Software: Yes (very limited)
NEW
Hardware: N/A
Software: Yes (HyTrust; WinMagic)
  Test/Dev  
  •  
Fast VM Cloning
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Portability  
  •  
Hypervisor Migration
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
ESXi to Hyper-V (external)
Hyper-V to ESXi (external)
HC3 Move
  File Services  
  •  
Fileserver Type
Built-in (native)
Built-in (native)
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Compatibility
Windows clients
Linux clients
Windows clients
Linux clients
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Interconnect
SMB
NFS
SMB
NFS
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Quotas
Share Quotas, User Quotas
User Quotas
N/A
  •  
Fileserver Analytics
Partial
N/A
N/A
  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
  •  
GUI Integration
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
VMware vCenter plug-in for SANsymphony
SCVMM DataCore Storage Management Provider
Microsoft System Center Monitoring Pack
VMware vSphere Web Client (plugin)
Not relevant (Unified interface)
  Programmability  
  •  
Policies
Full
Full
  •  
API/Scripting
REST-APIs
PowerShell
REST-APIs
CLI
REST-APIs
Apache Thrift
Python executables
  •  
Integration
OpenStack
OpenStack
Orchestration (vRO plug-in)
Ansible playbooks
N/A
  •  
Self Service
Full
N/A
Partial
  Maintenance  
  •  
SW Composition
Unified
Unified
Unified
  •  
SW Upgrade Execution
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
NEW
Rolling Upgrade (1-by-1)
  •  
FW Upgrade Execution
Hardware dependent
Manual (written procedure)
1-Click
  Support  
  •  
Single HW/SW Support
No
Yes
  •  
Call-Home Function
Partial (HW dependent)
Full
Full
  •  
Predictive Analytics
Partial
Partial (Capacity)
NEW
N/A

Matrix Score

  •  
  •  
  • DataCore
  • NetApp
  • Scale Computing
  •  
  • 2 nd
  • 5 th
  • 9 th
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