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Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 5, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
4.6
Everpure Storage FlashArray enhances efficiency, reduces costs, and simplifies management, offering better performance, space utilization, and long-term savings.
Sentiment score
5.3
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct offers cost savings by enabling self-management, reducing fees, and providing long-term financial benefits.
Sentiment score
6.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure users achieve ROI within 2-3 years, citing cost, energy savings, and operational efficiencies with stable infrastructures.
In the long term, spanning three to five years, the total cost of ownership becomes cheaper, considering power consumption, data center footprint, and NVMe technology usage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
Our current workload, particularly the SQL use case, would not be possible on mechanical storage, and the ease of use for the small team for the array is important for supporting that workload.
Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Pure Storage FlashArray integrates with APIs and other systems.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
While our systems will be out of life in a few years, I believe that in that time, the payback from Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct will save us money on virtualization and storage costs, making it extremely beneficial after six years of use.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
I see some ROI in Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, such as saving time and money, and I estimate these savings to be about 30%.
IT Professional at NIPOS
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.2
Everpure Storage FlashArray's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional time zone and off-hours challenges.
Sentiment score
4.4
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct support varies; many prefer hardware brands' support over Microsoft's, finding frontline support sometimes inadequate.
Sentiment score
8.1
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure support is praised for quick, knowledgeable service, resolving issues swiftly with multilingual capabilities and proactive monitoring.
Pure's support organization is responsive with minimal bureaucracy, making support a key factor in customer retention.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I would rate the technical support an 11 out of 10.
Cyber Security Consultant at Jonkoping Energi AB
The support from Pure Storage is excellent.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
There were issues that the Microsoft team could not pinpoint, leading to delays in finding solutions.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Microsoft focuses on Azure as a cloud service.
Solution architect at Netland
When we send an email, an engineer is assigned within 15 to 20 minutes, and we get on a call to resolve the issue.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The second one was a licensing issue because when I switched from the SMB package to another package, I had to change the way of licensing, and that was horrendous.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Everpure Storage FlashArray offers scalable upgrades, seamless integration, and efficient performance, ideal for large-scale environments despite low-end model limitations.
Sentiment score
6.1
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct offers scalability and flexibility, though users report challenges with minimal node setups affecting stability.
Sentiment score
7.9
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers exceptional scalability, allowing seamless expansion, dynamic growth, and effortless workload management for enterprises.
A big banking client had around 300 petabytes of data on Pure Storage.
Works at a consultancy with self employed
The solution is highly scalable, particularly when there is a need to expand capacity.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
Theoretically, we can do controller upgrades and get into a larger chassis, but there was a limit to how far we could go without needing to do a full migration.
Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The scalability of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct has been extremely good, allowing for both vertical and horizontal expansion.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
It has limitations; it's configured for eight servers per site but can be scaled to 16 servers.
Solution architect at Netland
The scalability of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is limited.
IT Professional at NIPOS
The scalability of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) deserves an eight out of ten rating, as there is no solution that is 100% efficient and there is always room for improvement.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Everpure Storage FlashArray boasts high stability and consistent performance, with quick support for minor issues and seamless redundancy.
Sentiment score
6.0
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is stable with skilled management, but initial setup challenges require proper configuration and familiarity.
Sentiment score
8.2
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers stable, reliable performance with minimal downtime, efficient workload handling, and high user satisfaction.
For stability, I rate it a ten out of ten.
Senior Storage Administrator at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
We have continuous 99.9% uptime and do not experience any users reporting performance issues due to latency.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
The vision Pure Storage FlashArray offers through the GUI is clearer; we can discern the status, what is cabled, and how direct flash is enabled.
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct has been incredibly stable as long as it is configured correctly; incorrect configurations lead to surprises, which is common with any product.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Storage Spaces Direct is stable enough, however, there can be some glitches.
Solution architect at Netland
Compared to VM, we find it most stable.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Regarding stability, I would rate Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) a seven out of ten.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
 

Room For Improvement

Pure Storage FlashArray requires improvements in offline tools, integrations, scalability, performance, analytics, cost, user control, and support.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct requires improved management, integration, performance clarity, and better tools for monitoring and issue resolution.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure needs improvements in setup cost, storage, integration, compatibility, networking, oversight, and pricing transparency for competitiveness.
Integrating object storage into the FlashArray would benefit entry-level and SMB customers by offering a more unified solution.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
Storing cold data on expensive arrays doesn't make financial sense, and tiering to any of the big three cloud providers would be advantageous.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
As a technical professional, I lack visibility into the system logs.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
The licensing for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct could be improved to be clearer, as calculating license requirements requires significant expertise; even Microsoft resources do not provide the full picture needed for licensing, leaving gaps that become evident once we move to deploy solutions.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
One year ago, I had a problem, and it was difficult to identify and solve due to a lack of tools.
Owner at Micronet Systems
The performance of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is challenging when trying to support both NVMe and SATA SSDs, and there are problems regarding performance that need to be addressed.
IT Professional at NIPOS
We hope Nutanix can integrate inside our current license module.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
They should add AI features in the future.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
 

Setup Cost

Everpure Storage FlashArray offers high upfront costs justified by performance, ease of use, and inclusive licensing for enterprises.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is cost-effective with Hyper-V integration, despite potential unexpected costs with Azure monitoring tools.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure offers cost-effectiveness with comprehensive solutions, despite initial costs, appealing to enterprises for long-term ROI.
They're expensive.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
While they say it's free, we actually pay for support upfront.
Senior Network Engineer at Holy Redeemer Health System, Inc.
Some smaller organizations may find it slightly expensive, but for enterprises, when considering performance, future hardware investments, and overall benefits, it is a very cost-effective solution for mid and enterprise organizations.
Senior Storage Engineer at Ensono
I find the Azure Local to be a bit expensive, especially due to hidden costs associated with additional tools needed for monitoring and alerting.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Pricing is an advantage of Storage Spaces Direct.
Solution architect at Netland
The pricing is renewed every year, at almost $100,000 per year.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
It costs more compared to VMware due to different licensing areas.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
At first, it is cheaper than cloud services, so the cost is a major benefit.
Manager at Seoul Institute of the Arts
 

Valuable Features

Everpure Storage FlashArray offers ease of use, speed, reliability, seamless upgrades, data reduction, and integration, enhancing performance and efficiency.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct offers high performance, redundancy, and reliability with seamless integration into Windows Data Center and cost-effectiveness.
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure excels in ease of use, scalability, data protection, and seamless management, enhancing performance and reducing costs.
FlashArray's integration with the Pure One instrument provides a centralized platform for efficient management of all arrays.
Presales Engineer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Another noteworthy aspect is their platform, Pure One, a cloud-based analytics platform that automatically creates a case and sends out a part if a disk or controller fails.
Lead Technical Architect at ePlus Technology, inc.
It handles internal data migration seamlessly in the background without going offline, achieving a hundred percent uptime.
Director of Engineering at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The redundancy and fault tolerance features of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct have helped maintain data integrity and availability in my company by providing multiple copies through three-way mirroring, delivering hardware performance needed for our applications, which is crucial.
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
For caching, I use disks with more total bits written, which protects the main storage because writes are combined.
Owner at Micronet Systems
The price performance is the best advantage of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct.
Solution architect at Netland
When technology development or devops teams request server provisioning, the setup time has been reduced from hours to less than 20 minutes.
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
The performance was really better for applications and access times to the data.
Dsi at OFFICE PUBLIC DE L HABITAT DE ROUEN
The replication method between Nutanix clusters is a valuable feature.
Assistant Manager at Isuzu Hicom Malaysia Sdn Bhd
 

Categories and Ranking

Everpure FlashArray
Sponsored
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
211
Ranking in other categories
All-Flash Storage (4th)
Microsoft Storage Spaces Di...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (8th)
Nutanix Cloud Infrastructur...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
200
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined Storage (SDS) (6th), HCI (3rd), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) (1st), Hybrid Cloud Computing Platforms (4th)
 

Featured Reviews

Sowjanya MV - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at Wipro Limited
Has improved performance for mission-critical workloads and enabled seamless non-disruptive upgrades
The availability is 99.99%, which is the main factor any customer would need because their data should be available whenever they want to access it. This is one main critical thing. It is very easy to upgrade since Pure Storage FlashArray handles it well. Everything is non-disruptive now; previously, there were forklift shifts, but now that is not the case. Pure Storage FlashArray says no to forklift upgrades. Usually hardware requires downtime, but Pure Storage FlashArray has improved their footprint so that they are not asking for downtime; everything is just a non-disruptive activity, which is why customers are more inclined towards Pure Storage FlashArray. Customers want more of the models in their environment due to the performance they are giving, and everything is in one Pure1 Array console where we can view all the models on one page or just an orchestration tool. You don't miss anything; you have replication, notifications about replication, and details about which host groups replication is happening in and if that replication is successful or failed. On a daily basis, our purpose is to create volumes for infrastructure; our daily activities include creating volumes and mapping them to the host, doing any migrations from a VM, clearing the data stores, and carving the volumes to those VMs. One key factor is the data compression with a ratio of 5:1, focusing on space efficiency, inline deduplication, and the compression Pure Storage FlashArray works on; that is a major factor we can suggest to any customer. Analytical capabilities are crucial. Daily, we check the throughput and consumption, and Pure Storage FlashArray provides predictions for one year regarding usage. This prediction helps plan updates well ahead. For support, we just raise a case, and they follow up and get it done. There is also AI readiness, but with the model R2, we don't have much of that AI readiness. For others, we do have AI readiness that predicts capacity based on daily or monthly trends, enabling us to analyze how much space we need or if we need to expand the disk shelf. From an operational point of view, a good feature is that if you accidentally delete a volume, it will be retained in the destroyed state for the next twenty-four hours, which is not the same with any other vendor. I have worked in this storage domain for the past fifteen years, and this option is remarkable, benefiting any L1 or L2 engineer. Additionally, from a compliance perspective, Pure Storage FlashArray has REST APIs enabled. I have not explored automation much, but from a security standpoint, it is strong with encryption data. If you want to automate, you can easily integrate with all clouds and explore Pure Cloud for scheduling workloads, including volume creation. Customers find benefit in Pure Storage FlashArray's single management pane of glass due to the dual controller and active-active setup. If one of the controllers goes down, all workloads automatically shift to the other controller, ensuring their data is safe and accessible at all times. This is a highlighted feature that any customer desires because their data should always be accessible. For SAN workloads, we use Pure Storage FlashArray because for SAN FC fiber channel, we don't use it; we use NetApp for NAS activities. We have clearly split this, so SAN is for mission-critical applications, while network-attached storage handles file systems. This architecture helps us maximize the benefit from Pure Storage FlashArray due to the significant workloads from this giant retail client. From a footprint and energy consumption perspective, you can see energy consumption from the Pure1 storage portal on a daily basis, and it is very compact. The three models we use consume only three units, which is quite low. From a footprint and data center perspective, it doesn't occupy much space. As everything moves to cloud, there are requirements to avoid excess spending on data centers, and Pure Storage FlashArray is efficient in energy consumption and is environmentally friendly.
reviewer2588997 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Solution delivers impressive speed and performance with room for better management tool integration
Microsoft should improve the management aspect of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct, as we have raised multiple recommendations but they often refer us to use Microsoft Arc instead of Windows Admin Center. The licensing for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct could be improved to be clearer, as calculating license requirements requires significant expertise; even Microsoft resources do not provide the full picture needed for licensing, leaving gaps that become evident once we move to deploy solutions. Improving the Windows Admin Center to be more stable with alert notifications and management capabilities for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct would greatly benefit users, as we have not seen any recent product updates since the announcements last November.
OB
Head Systems Administration/Security at Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System PLC
Infrastructure efficiency has improved significantly with quick server provisioning, though physical to virtual migrations need a streamlined in-house tool
From my experience with Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), there is one area that needs improvement. When moving a critical infrastructure from a physical machine to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI), we currently have to use a third-party tool to convert the physical machine to a VM. We have to use VMware converter to perform this conversion before moving it to Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI). I would suggest that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) should develop their own P2V (physical to VM) tools instead of requiring users to rely on third-party solutions.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined Storage (SDS) solutions are best for your needs.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user244362 - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant with 51-200 employees
Aug 30, 2015
Nutanix vs. VMware EVO:RAIL vs. FlexPod
Originally posted at www.storagegaga.com/dont-get-too-drunk-on-hyper-converged/ I hate the fact that I am bursting the big bubble brewing about Hyper Convergence (HC). I urge all to look past the hot air and hype frenzy that are going on, because in the end, the HC platforms have to be aligned…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business63
Midsize Enterprise36
Large Enterprise143
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business92
Midsize Enterprise77
Large Enterprise82
 

Questions from the Community

Which should I choose: HPE 3PAR StoreServ or Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform F Series?
Both are great platforms, but if you are considering all flash solutions, I would recommend you to consider Pure Stor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashArray?
I don't really know much about the pricing for Pure Storage FlashArray in terms of the absolute cost. Regarding Everg...
What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashArray?
Despite liking Pure Storage FlashArray, there is room for improvement in automation. Pure Storage FlashArray needs to...
How does VMware vSAN compare with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
We found VMware’s vSAN was easy to set up, configure, and manage compared to other solutions we considered. It is bes...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, b...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct?
The performance of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct is challenging when trying to support both NVMe and SATA SSDs, and...
How do I choose between Cisco Hyperflex HX Series and Nutanix Acropolis AOS?
Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions from ...
What makes Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) worth using?
NCI is a product with many tools and services but the one that, in my opinion, makes it better than similar products...
Have you received reliable help from Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure's support when you contacted them?
NCI is one of the best out there. For any software, no matter how good it is, technical support makes it or breaks it...
 

Also Known As

Pure Storage FlashArray
MS Storage Spaces Direct
Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nielsen, Lamar Advertising, LinkedIn, Betfair, UT-Dallas
Acuutech, Quest Technology Management, Bradley, Mead & Hunt
St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct vs. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.