VMware bundles vSAN, but keeps third-party storage support
The forthcoming VCF 9 update will expand vVols technology to Broadcom's VMware private cloud platform, enabling enterprises to integrate VCF into existing storage architecture.
VMware customers can use third-party storage in a variety of workloads through a forthcoming update, although a purchase of vSAN storage is still required due to licensing changes by Broadcom.
The next generation of VMware vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols) will arrive with Broadcom's VMware Cloud Foundation 9, the next update for the vendor's private cloud virtualization platform. A release date for VCF 9 has not been publicized.
The update to vVols expands capabilities for third-party storage within a customer's VCF environment, so customers will be able to opt out of Broadcom's own vSAN storage and use existing storage software.
All vVols connected storage will fully integrate with VCF 9, enabling customers to use third-party software as primary and supplemental storage. Technology improvements will include high availability, stretched cluster support and immutable snapshots.
Anticipated uses by VMware include large-scale storage demands such as artificial intelligence and machine learning applications or for cloud service providers.
Recent updates to vSAN, such as the debut of vSAN Max disaggregated storage last year, better support massive infrastructure sought by certain enterprises, said Ray Lucchesi, founder and president of Silverton Consulting. But third-party storage vendors can offer more mature platforms for hybrid cloud, he said.
Broadcom needs to continue supporting third parties to ensure the availability and support of VMware, according to Lucchesi. Most of its customers will likely use the standard vSAN, but maintaining an on-ramp for third parties into VCF is a concession Broadcom can make without much sacrifice, he said.
"It enables more customer choice," Lucchesi said. "[VMware has] always played this game. They want to be able to operate with anybody."
Customer choice
The vVols storage technology automates provisioning based on what a virtual machine or application needs by abstracting storage hardware without administrator input.
Prior to its acquisition by Broadcom last year, VMware sold its virtualization platform as separate components, which meant customers could purchase vSAN as a standalone offering. Under Broadcom's ownership, customers are now required to purchase licenses for one of four bundled services. The two enterprise-focused packages include vSAN, VCF and vSphere Foundation.
Customers that choose to use third-party storage will still pay for and have access to vSAN as part of their bundled purchases, according to VMware spokespeople. The use of vSAN is also required to create management domain clusters.
Storage vendors started detailing plans to support the new vVols capabilities during Broadcom's VMware Explore 2024 conference last week, with NetApp and Pure Storage debuting as two early adopters and VMware partners for the new vVols release.
VCF has supported third-party storage for both primary and secondary uses since the launch of VCF 5.0 in June last year, said Mark Chuang, head of product marketing for VCF at Broadcom. But Broadcom's investments in and development of vSAN should make the offering more appealing.
"We've always supported storage choice within our platforms. This is not a departure for us," Chuang said. "We're going to keep it simple. We value our ecosystem partners, [and] we'll let them tell customers about their value. But for us, we're going to focus on what we deliver."
Customers tend to choose third-party storage for environments with a large amount of storage clusters, according to Jonsi Stefansson, CTO and senior vice president at NetApp.
The talk of the town is, 'What is the alternative [to VMware]?'
Jonsi StefanssonCTO and senior vice president, NetApp
NetApp customers initially sought out VMware alternatives when news of the Broadcom purchase and licensing changes came about, but many are likely to stay due to the maturity of the VMware technology, he said.
"The talk of the town is, 'What is the alternative [to VMware]?'" Stefansson said. "But in reality, [migration] is going to take a long time. We're seeing more of our customers who had that initial [negative] reaction coming back and asking, 'How can I optimize my VMware environment?'"
One of NetApp's new offerings is VM Optimization for its NetApp Cloud Insights infrastructure monitoring service, enabling customers to calculate storage needs according to VM density and performance demands.
Third-party vendors might tout specific integrations as they form marketing partnerships with VMware, but the hardware-agnostic nature of VMware's software will likely offer some customer flexibility, according to Brent Ellis, an analyst at Forrester Research.
The VMware virtualization platform is a software platform, so working across a variety of hardware and cloud environments is in VMware's best interest, Ellis said. How customers specifically choose to deploy each bundled part of the software will depend on an individual environment or need, especially for storage, he said.
"For smaller clients who might not have massive storage needs, [vSAN] makes sense," Ellis said. "It's not until you get into petabyte-level storage that [incorporating] a dedicated storage system makes sense."
Tim McCarthy is a news writer for TechTarget Editorial covering cloud and data storage.
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