UPDATE: Looks like we will be seeing some VSPP Pricing for VSAN in Q2
vCenter and ESXi 5.5 Update 1 has reached GA, and we now have v1.0 of VSAN officially ready for production use. Technically it’s a winner, and from an industry maturity standpoint…it clearly sets a new direction in how storage is consumed on the back of other SDS vendors.
https://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u1-release-notes.html
- VMware Virtual SAN – Virtual SAN 5.5 is a new hypervisor-converged storage tier that extends the vSphere Hypervisor to pool server-side magnetic disks (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). By clustering server-side HDDs and SSDs, Virtual SAN creates a distributed shared datastore designed and optimized for virtual environments. Virtual SAN is a standalone product that is sold separate from vSphere and requires its own license key.
In what many people in the community thought was a strange move, pricing for VSAN was held back even after the binaries went live. VMware have just released official pricing of VSAN, and even through those with NDA links knew of the approx. pricing structure I think the US$2495/CPU Socket pricing has still taken most by surprise.
Basically in addition to the pure licensing costs you need to consider how to design and build the other key components that makes a VSAN Cluster…namely compute and storage. This is where I think VSAN will prove a winner…ultimately, not withstanding the per socket price the rest of the cost is up to those that will ultimately consume it. However having a think about a typical Dual Socket Server these days, plus the minimum of 3 hosts in a VSAN Cluster, you are looking at $US14,970 before adding the compute, storage and other overhead costs…again, deciding if that is expensive of not is relative to how the rest is stacked out.
VSPP Option:
If VMware are still serious about supporting their VSPP pricing and vCloud Powered Partners they must look at releasing a pricing option that’s on the VSPP price list. This should be based similar to how those on the VSPP consume and pay for vRAM. (yes, in the SP world vRAM is not a bad four letter word) Ultimately Server Providers can consume VSAN per GB or TB used. Total monthly costs are worked out based on your points level and then multiplied by however many points VMware wants to make that per GB/TB unit worth.
I see massive potential to provide my clients with a VSAN backed tier of storage that can be exposed via Storage Profiles into client Virtual Data Centers. It’s a no brainier for mine and I am sure most of you in the VSPP world would agree the uptake of VSAN would be greatly enhanced by a move like this.
I won’t say more on VSAN, as there is plenty of Social Comment happening and million and one blog posts…however for a great post, check out @ChrisWahl‘s Post below…it covers all aspects of VSAN. Also check out the other links below…
VSAN RESOURCES: http://virtualpatel.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/vsan-resources.html?spref=tw
