StorPool: Virtualization Storage Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Virtualization Storage Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: product
Owner: StorPool Storage, Sofia, Bulgaria, founded 2011; about 60 staff; self-funded and profitable per the vendor at IT Press Tour 67 (2026-04-08); no acquisition found
Licence: commercial, proprietary; quote only, billed on stored data per third-party listings (unverified); no free tier; StorPool One bundles KVM and storage since 2026-03-20
Latest release: 21.0.3306 (2026-09-11); major version 21 announced 2023-10-19
Support lifecycle: not published; one rolling 21.0 line since 2023 with live updates that do not interrupt service (vendor)
Next milestone: none published; the Disaster Recovery Engine has been in beta since 21.0.1212 (2025-03-05) with API v1.1 in 21.0.3305
Hypervisors: KVM through OpenStack, CloudStack, OpenNebula, OnApp and Proxmox VE (native client, solution provider listing 2026-04-27); VMware ESXi over iSCSI (KB); Oracle Virtualization is a vendor claim; Hyper-V, XCP-ng, AHV and KubeVirt not found
Tier: Software-defined storage
Archetype: Dependable builder
Evidence grade: B. The 21.0 release notes, hardware requirements, redundancy and encryption pages were read from the vendor knowledge base, and the Proxmox listing from the Proxmox press release. storpool.com did not render, so ownership, pricing and the versions before 21 come from trade press or were not found; the 2015 to 2022 steps are inferred.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	65.3 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+15.1 points (2015 to 2022: +0.0)	higher is better
Credibility	15.0 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	11.0 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	8.5 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	10.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	2.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	56.8 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Data services core (15)	2.5	2.5	2.5	3
Resilience and HA (15)	3	3	3	3.5
Performance and protocols (12)	3	3	3	3.5
Hypervisor integration (12)	2	2	2	3.5
Scale and topology (10)	3	3	3	3.5
Data protection and DR (10)	2	2	2	3.5
Security (8)	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5
Operations and automation (8)	3	3	3	3.5
Hardware and deployment freedom (5)	4	4	4	4.5
Kubernetes and containers (5)	0.5	0.5	0.5	2.5
Total / 100	50.2	50.2	50.2	65.3

Year by year: 2015: 50.2 · 2016: 50.2 · 2017: 50.2 · 2018: 50.2 · 2019: 50.2 · 2020: 50.2 · 2021: 50.2 · 2022: 50.2 · 2023: 60.8 · 2024: 60.8 · 2025: 62.3 · 2026: 65.3

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2023	Data protection and DR	2 → 3	+2.0	v21: VolumeCare backup and DR
2023	Data services core	2.5 → 3	+1.5	v21 (2023-10-19): Reed-Solomon N+2 erasure coding; 21.0.3305 (2026) adds write and trim weights to limits; no compression or deduplication found
2023	Hypervisor integration	2 → 3	+2.4	v21: Proxmox VE integration announced alongside CloudStack, OpenNebula and Cinder updates; VMware ESXi over iSCSI
2023	Kubernetes and containers	0.5 → 2.5	+2.0	v21 era: Kubernetes named among the supported integrations in the KB (driver release date not read); RWX and KubeVirt not found
2023	Performance and protocols	3 → 3.5	+1.2	v21: improved iSCSI scalability; NVMe target service (NVMe/TCP wording not confirmed); no NFS or SMB
2023	Resilience and HA	3 → 3.5	+1.5	v21: erasure coding 2+2, 4+2 and 8+2 across five or more nodes, two node failures tolerated; no stretched or metro mode found
2025	Hardware and deployment freedom	4 → 4.5	+0.5	21.0.1416: initial Arm Ampere Altra support (preview, half step)
2025	Scale and topology	3 → 3.5	+1.0	21.0.1566: live migration of volumes between clusters in different locations
2026	Data protection and DR	3 → 3.5	+1.0	21.0.3305: VolumeCare 1.31 dual backup and DR mode, DR Engine API v1.1 (beta since 21.0.1212, GA not stated, half step)
2026	Hypervisor integration	3 → 3.5	+1.2	Proxmox solution provider listing (2026-04-27) with native integration; Oracle Virtualization offer (vendor claim)
2026	Operations and automation	3 → 3.5	+0.8	21.0.3086: GUI high availability; 21.0.1806: separate monitoring domain; no Terraform or Ansible found

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-10	v21: Reed-Solomon erasure coding, improved iSCSI scalability, CloudStack, OpenNebula, Cinder and Proxmox VE integrations, VolumeCare DR	Data services	C
2025-03	21.0.1212: Disaster Recovery Engine initial beta, Oracle Linux 9	Data protection	C
2025-06	21.0.1416: initial Arm Ampere Altra support	Hardware	V
2025-07	21.0.1475: AlmaLinux 9, Oracle Linux 8 UEK R7, Kioxia CM7 drives	Hardware	C
2025-10	21.0.1566: live migration of volumes between clusters in different locations; Ubuntu 18.04 removed	Resilience	C
2025-11	21.0.1743: erasure coding rebalancing fixes, cgroup v2, kernels 6.11 to 6.14	Operations	U
2026-01	21.0.1806: Kingston and Micron 9550 Pro NVMe drives, separate monitoring domain	Operations	C
2026-03	StorPool One: KVM, host OS, cloud management, storage and SDN bundled under one vendor	Packaging	M
2026-03	21.0.1858: AlmaLinux 10 initial, Oracle UEK R8, erasure coding relocation crash fix	Hardware	U
2026-04	Proxmox lists StorPool as a solution provider with native integration available	Hypervisor integration	M
2026-04	StorPool with Oracle Virtualization offered as a VCF alternative at IT Press Tour 67	Packaging	M
2026-05	21.0.3086: GUI high availability, erasure coding latency spike fix, refuse to join without hardware acceleration	Operations	C
2026-07	21.0.3305: kernel 7.0 on Proxmox VE 9 and Ubuntu 24.04, Rocky 9, write and trim weights in QoS limits, VolumeCare 1.31, DR Engine API v1.1	Data protection	C
2026-09	21.0.3306: fix for IOPS and bandwidth limits failing after 90 days of uptime	Operations	C

Centre of gravity: Operations (4), Hardware (3), Data protection (2)
Blind spots (no items): Performance, Scale, Security, Kubernetes, Licensing, AI
Driver mix: Vision 7%, Customer need 57%, Market window 21%, Upstream 14%, Portfolio 0%
Idea-to-need index: 0.08 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 15.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4	A dated revision every one to two months in the 21.0 line; no published calendar
Roadmap transparency	2	Public release notes; no roadmap; the vendor site did not render for this edition
Say-do	3	Erasure coding, the Proxmox listing and StorPool One shipped as announced; the DR Engine has been beta since 2025-03 with no GA statement
Velocity	3	Steady hardware, kernel and OS support plus resilience fixes; fewer headline capabilities
Lifecycle stability	3	One rolling 21.0 line since 2023 with live updates; support policy not published

Commercial risk: 11.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Price and licence volatility	2	No public price or history; quote based per third-party listings
Purchase constraints	3	Quote only; three-server minimum; no free or perpetual option found
Channel and access	2.5	Direct plus partners; public KB; download and patch terms not found
Owner stability	1.5	Self-funded and profitable per the vendor; a company of about 60 people
Cost of staying supported	2	Rolling updates inside one major line; policy unpublished

Technical lock-in: 8.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	Plain block devices; no proprietary VM format
Export path	1.5	Volumes attach over iSCSI to other systems; no vendor export tool
Stack coupling	2.5	Kernel modules and services on the hypervisor hosts for the native client; iSCSI avoids that
Hardware / cloud coupling	1	Commodity x86 with 32 GB ECC RAM and dual 10GbE per node; Arm initial
Skills and tooling coupling	2.5	Linux and KVM skills plus the StorPool CLI; remote installation by the vendor

Integrator fit: 10.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	2.5	Partner listings exist; programme terms not found
Multi-tenancy and self-service	3	Through OpenStack, CloudStack and OnApp integrations; no tenant model in the storage itself
API and infrastructure-as-code	3	REST JSON API, Python bindings and cloud drivers; Terraform and Ansible not found
Skills and certification	1.5	Not found

AI leverage: 2.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI workload infrastructure	0	0	0	2015: None
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2015: None
AI-assisted operations	0	0	0	2015: None
Agent openness	2	2	2	2015: REST JSON API with Python bindings; no MCP server

Year by year: 2015: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2026: 2

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 0 AI items announced; 0 GA, 0 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. No AI item has been announced; the vendor names AI cloud customers only.

StorPool has announced no AI feature. It lists GPU cloud operators among its customers, but nothing in the release notes serves AI workloads differently from any other block workload, and agents get a REST API without an MCP server.

Reading

StorPool scores as mature block storage for KVM clouds whose lines have moved little since 2023 apart from erasure coding, cross-cluster volume migration and the Proxmox VE listing. Resilience stays at 3.5 because no stretched or metro mode was found, and security sits at 1.5 because the design leaves the storage network unencrypted and no RBAC or external key management is documented. Hardware freedom is the strongest line, with mixed drives on any x86 server and Arm arriving. A buyer should get the support lifecycle, the price and the VMware support statement in writing, because none of the three is public and the vendor site could not be read for this edition.

Open questions and items to re-score

First release date and the dates of versions 18 to 20; the production-ready year is a judgement.
Support lifecycle and pricing: nothing public; third-party listings describe quote-only, usage-based pricing.
Whether the NVMe target service is NVMe/TCP, and whether VMware ESXi is supported beyond iSCSI.
Hyper-V, XCP-ng, AHV and KubeVirt support: named on a homepage summary that did not render; unverified.
Whether the Disaster Recovery Engine is GA; beta since 2025-03-05, API v1.1 in 2026-07.
The Kubernetes driver's release date and its RWX and KubeVirt behaviour.

	’23	’25	’26
Data services core
Resilience and HA
Performance and protocols
Hypervisor integration	2		1
Scale and topology		1
Data protection and DR	3		2
Security
Operations and automation			3
Hardware and deployment freedom		2
Kubernetes and containers	1