VMware vSAN Product Review Overview

This document is a product review of VMware vSAN, detailing its features, capabilities, and deployment options. VMware vSAN is a software-defined storage solution integrated with VMware's vSphere hypervisor, designed to provide a storage virtualization layer for Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) clusters. The review outlines the various configurations available, including over 100 Ready Node models from multiple vendors, and discusses the two distinct storage architectures introduced with vSAN 8: Original Storage Architecture (OSA) and Express Storage Architecture (ESA). The document explains the key capabilities of vSAN, such as inline deduplication, compression, and RAID configurations, and highlights the integration with VMware's ecosystem, including support for Kubernetes and cloud deployments. It also covers the management of vSAN through VMware vCenter and the implications of using vSAN Max for independent scaling of storage. The review emphasizes the importance of understanding the hardware requirements and the migration process for existing customers transitioning to the new architecture.