VMware vSAN 8 Enterprise

VMware vSAN 8 Enterprise is a hyperconverged infrastructure storage platform built natively into the VMware vSphere hypervisor, delivering software-defined storage that pools direct-attached NVMe, SSD, and HDD devices across cluster nodes into a shared, policy-driven datastore. The Express Storage Architecture (ESA), introduced in vSAN 8, replaces the legacy Original Storage Architecture with a ground-up redesign optimized for all-NVMe clusters, featuring a new log-structured file system, adaptive RAID, and compressed write path that eliminates the traditional disk group model in favor of storage pools, reducing write amplification and significantly improving throughput and latency at scale.

The Enterprise edition extends the core vSAN 8 platform with advanced data services including stretched clusters for metro-level availability, data-at-rest encryption, HCI Mesh for disaggregated storage consumption across clusters, vSAN File Services for NFS-based shared storage, and intelligent deduplication and compression operating at the storage pool level under ESA. The adaptive RAID engine dynamically selects between RAID-1 mirroring and RAID-5/6 erasure coding based on workload and cluster conditions, optimizing both capacity efficiency and resilience without manual intervention.

Targeted at enterprise production environments, vSAN 8 Enterprise is suited for organizations running Tier-1 virtualized workloads, Kubernetes-based containerized applications via vSphere with Tanzu, virtual desktop infrastructure, and business-critical databases on vSphere. It integrates natively with vCenter Server for unified lifecycle management, vSphere Lifecycle Manager for cluster updates, and VMware Aria Operations for storage performance monitoring and capacity planning, enabling consistent operations across on-premises and cloud-extended environments.

Ideal for

• Running Tier-1 business-critical databases such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server on all-NVMe HCI clusters requiring consistent low-latency storage I/O
• Deploying stretched cluster configurations across two metro-separated sites for continuous availability and zero-RPO storage resilience without external SAN hardware
• Hosting large-scale virtual desktop infrastructure environments where storage policy-based management simplifies per-VM QoS enforcement and capacity planning
• Supporting Kubernetes persistent volume storage for containerized workloads running on vSphere with Tanzu, with native CSI integration to vSAN datastores
• Consolidating multiple departmental vSphere clusters onto shared vSAN storage via HCI Mesh, decoupling compute scaling from storage scaling across the enterprise
• Providing NFS-based shared file storage through vSAN File Services for legacy applications and general-purpose enterprise file share workloads within the vSphere environment

Technical specifications

Available from Omnixon Global. Submit an RFQ and our team will confirm configuration and availability for your order.