Senior Technical Support Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Jun 27, 2025
Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, but I find the Azure Local to be a bit expensive, especially due to hidden costs associated with additional tools needed for monitoring and alerting.
Founder, Professional Services Director, Lead Architect at Falcon Consulting
Real User
Top 10
Aug 6, 2020
It's a one-off price. Storage Space Direct is a bundled feature of the Windows server. There are no on-going costs and of course, you can purchase the software through it and enjoy the free upgrades. There are no underlying hidden costs, etc. because it is all included in Windows.
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.
Infrastructure Lead at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Jan 3, 2019
If you still use VMware as your hypervisor, you should consider Hyper-V. Since 2012 R2, it is as good as VMware, and with S2D it is much more cost effective.
Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct enhances data storage efficiency with advanced caching and tiering, offering high performance and reliability. It integrates seamlessly with Windows Data Center, providing a cost-effective solution for scalable storage with robust redundancy.Focusing on high availability and performance, Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct delivers exceptional storage capabilities that surpass traditional solutions. Its reliability and fault tolerance ensure data integrity,...
Overall, I find the cost of Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct to be affordable for the on-prem Windows pure solution, but I find the Azure Local to be a bit expensive, especially due to hidden costs associated with additional tools needed for monitoring and alerting.
Pricing is an advantage of Storage Spaces Direct. Licenses can be on a monthly or yearly basis, depending on the addition of software assurance.
The solution is expensive.
It's a one-off price. Storage Space Direct is a bundled feature of the Windows server. There are no on-going costs and of course, you can purchase the software through it and enjoy the free upgrades. There are no underlying hidden costs, etc. because it is all included in Windows.
Cost-wise the product is one of the more affordable within the category of products.
With the data center licensing and everything that is connected to that, this solution is relatively costly.
If you still use VMware as your hypervisor, you should consider Hyper-V. Since 2012 R2, it is as good as VMware, and with S2D it is much more cost effective.