vSAN

Storage that grows with your infrastructure

With VMware vSAN, evoila consolidates compute and storage onto a single platform. Highly available, software defined, and fully integrated with VMware Cloud Foundation.

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Software-defined storage, natively integrated in VCF

Traditional external storage arrays are often complex, expensive, and demanding to operate. They frequently struggle to scale economically alongside modern data center requirements. VMware vSAN resolves this challenge through hyperconverged integration, combining compute and storage into a single unified platform.

This modern architecture eliminates the need for dedicated storage hardware, removes separate management silos, and avoids unnecessary complexity. Our engineering teams implement vSAN across its full functional spectrum, from initial HCI consolidation and Stretched Clusters up to vSAN Express Storage Architecture and vSAN Max as a native component of VMware Cloud Foundation.

Business benefits at a glance:

  • Significant cost reduction: Replacing external storage arrays directly reduces capital expenditure and completely eliminates separate storage management software costs.
  • Simplified daily operations: Enjoy unified management of compute and storage resources through vCenter and VCF without maintaining a separate storage administration layer.
  • Linear scalability: Experience predictable scale out capabilities through simple node expansion without any additional storage migration effort.

The storage silo era is over

vSAN consolidates compute and storage into a single, software-defined platform, natively integrated in VCF, without dedicated storage hardware or separate management layers.

The Challenge

The structural shift from array-based to software-defined storage

Modern data center requirements have shifted: unified lifecycle management, automated provisioning, and software defined scalability demand a different foundation.

High capital expenses

Dedicated storage hardware, maintenance contracts, and specialist administrators add to the cost base regardless of how much storage capacity is actually in use.

Separate management silos

Managing separate tracks for compute and storage increases operational complexity and data center friction, expanding the blast radius of any operational error.

Time-consuming expansions

Traditional array expansions are expensive and require long planning cycles, complex network zoning, and manual hardware procurement.

Complex high availability

Achieving synchronous replication across multiple locations with traditional arrays requires separate replication paths and complex fabric configurations.

Architecture decisions shape storage outcomes for years

evoila approaches every vSAN project with hardware sizing, storage policy design, network configuration, and data migration strategy planned as a unified whole, before a single node goes live.

Our Solution

vSAN as a strategic storage platform

We deliver full lifecycle architecture for your software-defined storage layer:

vSAN architecture design & sizing

Development of the target vSAN architecture based on specific performance, capacity, and availability requirements, including hardware qualification and network design.

vSAN ESA & OSA implementation

Implementation of vSAN in the Express Storage Architecture for maximum performance on NVMe hardware or the Original Storage Architecture for existing generations.

Stretched clusters for multi-site high availability

Design of vSAN stretched clusters for synchronous replication across two sites with witness configuration and automatic failover.

vSAN data protection integration

Configuration of native data protection mechanisms, snapshots, erasure coding, RAID protection levels, and optimal integration of external backup solutions.

vSAN Max

Implementation of vSAN Max for environments requiring disaggregated HCI, allowing storage pools to be decoupled from compute and scaled independently.

Storage policy design

Development of a structured storage policy framework with differentiated protection and performance profiles tailored to workload classes.

Data migration & Array replacement

Structured migration of data from legacy external storage arrays to vSAN with minimal risk of operational disruption.

Tech-Deep-Dive

The architecture behind IT

The technical core components of modern software-defined storage environments:

vSAN as a Native VCF Storage Stack

VMware vSAN is deeply integrated into the VCF stack. Not as an optional add-on, but as a native storage layer. vSAN aggregates the local storage resources of all cluster nodes into a shared, distributed data store that is managed via standard vCenter mechanisms. There is no separate storage management layer, no zoning configuration, and no LUN management.

Express Storage Architecture (ESA) vs. Original Storage Architecture (OSA)

vSAN ESA is the current architecture for modern NVMe hardware: It uses a new log-structured file system that fully leverages the performance characteristics of all-flash NVMe hardware to be more efficient than the classic OSA variant, with higher throughput, lower latency, and more efficient erasure coding. evoila qualifies hardware and selects the appropriate architecture based on specific workload requirements.

Storage Policies: Protection by Definition

vSAN implements data protection via storage policies, not via LUN configuration. Each VM or namespace is assigned a policy that defines failure-tolerance levels, erasure coding or RAID protection levels, and performance parameters. Changes to policies are applied online and without downtime. evoila develops a structured policy framework that clearly separates workload classes and minimizes administrative overhead.

Stretched Cluster: Synchronous Replication Without Compromise

vSAN Stretched Cluster implements synchronous replication between two sites using a witness host as a tiebreaker. Write operations are not confirmed until both sites have persisted the data—RPO is structurally zero. In the event of a failover, the remaining site automatically takes over without manual intervention. evoila optimizes network latency, witness placement, and failover policies for production-grade availability.

vSAN Max: Disaggregated HCI

vSAN Max decouples storage pools from compute resources—a single vSAN storage pool can be used by multiple compute clusters. This enables independent scaling of compute and storage and addresses environments where traditional HCI reaches its limits. evoila designs vSAN Max architectures for environments with vastly different compute and storage growth rates.

Technical Advantages

Storage Performance, Resilience & Simplicity

Six core technical advantages that hold true across your vSAN deployments:

Native VCF integration

vSAN is fully managed via vCenter and VCF lifecycle management, completely eliminating the need for a separate, external storage management layer.

Policy-based data protection

Differentiated protection and performance profiles are applied directly via software policies, modifiable online at any time without causing storage downtime.

ESA performance

Log-structured filesystem optimizes NVMe workloads for maximum throughput and minimal latency

Stretched Cluster RPO=0

Synchronous replication between two sites with automatic failover and structurally zero data loss

Linear scale-out

Capacity and performance expansion by adding nodes without storage migration

vSAN Max flexibility

Disaggregated scaling of compute and storage for different growth scenarios

Your partner of choice

Why evoila gets IT done

vSAN projects rarely fail because of the technology itself. They fail due to inadequate hardware sizing, flawed network design, or a storage policy strategy that does not scale with the environment. evoila has the experience to avoid these mistakes from the start.

Our engineers implement vSAN in production environments of various sizes, from mid-sized HCI consolidations to complex multi-site stretched cluster architectures. We cover the entire vSAN stack as an integral part of the overall VCF design. Storage architecture, network design, and automation frameworks are designed together, not retrofitted sequentially. For customers with existing storage arrays, evoila brings specific migration expertise, including parallel operation, data validation, and structured array replacement without downtime.

Full-Stack vSAN Coverage

Structured Array Replacement

Storage & VCF Architecture by Design

Same-Team Design to Operations

Technologies & Partner

The stack

vSAN
Broadcom

Introductory Offer

vSAN Architecture Assessment

This structured approach begins with an analysis of your existing storage landscape. In the evoila vSAN Architecture Assessment, we analyze:

Existing Storage Architecture & Replacement Potential

We audit your legacy hardware assets and map out the exact optimization potential of a software-defined transition.

Workload Characteristics & Performance Requirements

Our engineers profile your IOPS, throughput, and capacity curves to match them with the right architecture.

Availability Requirements & Stretched Clusters Readiness

We check your latency paths and multi-site network metrics to ensure flawless synchronous replication layouts.

Hardware Qualification & Sizing Fundamentals

Complete node dimensioning based on VCF standards to ensure your new cluster fits your budgetary and performance goals.

The result is a concrete vSAN target architecture concept with a prioritized migration and implementation plan.

External storage arrays are no longer a strategic investment

They are an operational burden. VMware vSAN makes storage a native, automatable component of the VCF platform. evoila makes the transition predictable and secure.

Request a vSAN Assessment Now

vSAN is one layer of the infrastructure stack.

If your enterprise architecture decisions span across the wider VMware Cloud Foundation portfolio, NSX network virtualization, cloud native platform integrations, or fully managed SDDC operations, our team is here to help you define the right starting point.

Mathias Meyenburg

Mathias Meyenburg

Cloud Infrastructure Architect

FAQs

Commonly asked questions about vSAN

vSAN ESA is the current architecture for NVMe hardware, featuring a new log-structured file system. It is optimized for maximum throughput and minimal latency. OSA supports older generations of hardware. evoila evaluates hardware and recommends the appropriate architecture based on specific workload requirements.

Data is replicated synchronously across two sites. A write operation is only considered complete once both sites have confirmed it. A witness host acts as a tiebreaker to prevent split-brain scenarios. In the event of a failure, the remaining site automatically takes over. The result: structurally zero RPO, RTO in the range of minutes.

Yes. evoila migrates data in a structured manner from external arrays to vSAN with parallel operation during the transition phase and full validation after migration. The array replacement is carried out in stages to ensure continuous application availability.

vSAN Max decouples storage pools from compute clusters. Multiple compute clusters can use the same storage pool. It is relevant for environments where compute and storage grow at different rates and traditional HCI scales inefficiently. evoila advises on the minimum environment size at which vSAN Max makes economic sense.

Storage policies can be provisioned via VCF Automation as part of Infrastructure-as-Code workflows. Workloads are automatically assigned the appropriate storage policy based on their class. This eliminates the need for manual storage configuration and ensures consistent, auditable deployments.