{ "edition": "2026-10-16", "years": [ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 ], "ai_labels": [ [ "infra", "AI workload infrastructure" ], [ "stack", "AI platform stack" ], [ "ops", "AI-assisted operations" ], [ "agents", "Agent openness" ] ], "index_weights": { "cap": 35, "cred": 20, "safety": 20, "ai": 10, "integ": 10, "mom": 5 }, "domains": [ { "key": "data", "label": "Data services core", "weight": 15 }, { "key": "resilience", "label": "Resilience and HA", "weight": 15 }, { "key": "perf", "label": "Performance and protocols", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "hypervisor", "label": "Hypervisor integration", "weight": 12 }, { "key": "scale", "label": "Scale and topology", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "dr", "label": "Data protection and DR", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "security", "label": "Security", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "ops", "label": "Operations and automation", "weight": 8 }, { "key": "hardware", "label": "Hardware and deployment freedom", "weight": 5 }, { "key": "k8s", "label": "Kubernetes and containers", "weight": 5 } ], "groups": { "platform": "Storage inside a VM platform", "sds": "Software-defined storage", "ceph": "Ceph family", "k8s": "Kubernetes-native storage", "engine": "Open-source engine" }, "platforms": [ { "key": "ceph", "name": "Ceph (upstream)", "short": "Ceph", "kind": "engine", "group": "engine", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 22, "C": 67, "M": 0, "U": 11, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.25, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hardware": { "2015": 5, "2016": 5, "2017": 5, "2018": 5, "2019": 5, "2020": 5, "2021": 5, "2022": 5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Published annual cycle and four to six week point releases; the named release has landed between August and November since Quincy, and Squid went 11 months between 19.2.3 and 19.2.4" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 4, "Open tracker, public release notes and developer summits; no dated roadmap, Umbrella has no published date" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "Features announced in release notes ship with the release; Crimson and SeaStore have stayed previews since 2024-09" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "Several substantive capabilities per named release: MSR rules and IAM accounts in Squid, FastEC, SMB and NVMe-oF failover in Tentacle" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "About two years of backports per series, upgrades tested from the last two releases, no downgrade; the Reef 18.2.5 regression needed a hotfix and the Squid point-release gap broke the stated rhythm" ] ], "comm": null, "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "Standard RBD images (export to raw or qcow2), POSIX file system, S3-compatible object" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "rbd export, qemu-img and the NFS, SMB and NVMe/TCP gateways let data be copied out; no one-step export" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "Needs Ceph clients in the kernel or QEMU, or a gateway; VMware and Hyper-V reach it only through gateways" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0, "Any x86 or Arm server, fully offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Specialised operations skills; tooling (cephadm, Rook, dashboard) is open" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Anyone may build, package and sell support on it; Ceph Foundation membership is open in three tiers; no vendor programme with margins or certification" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Pools, RBD namespaces, CephFS subvolumes and RGW accounts with IAM (Squid); no portal or metering" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST manager API and dashboard; Rook for Kubernetes; Terraform and Ansible content is community-maintained" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "No vendor-neutral certification found; training comes from the packaging vendors" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Ceph scores as the deepest engine in this group because almost every capability a packaging vendor sells already exists upstream: erasure coding with FastEC, stretch mode, NVMe/TCP and SMB gateways, cephadm and Rook. What it lacks is exactly what the products add: a support contract, a vSphere plug-in, FIPS builds, a two-node option and anyone to call when the CephX keys need renewing. The security line sits at 3.5 because the 2026-08-19 fixes repaired a bypass in the authentication protocol itself and the project has no FIPS validation or anomaly detection. The one thing to check before relying on it is which stable series your packaging vendor ships and how far behind upstream its point releases run, because Squid reaches end of life around 2026-10-31.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/ceph", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "S3 (RGW) and CephFS serve as training data stores; no GPU data path, RDMA is not a documented mainstream option", "stack": "None", "ops": "None; the data availability score (Tentacle) is a rule-based preview", "agents": "REST manager API with tokens and a CLI agents can drive; no official MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "The project announced no AI feature between 2023 and 2026; a community blog post on using AI to brief remote hands (2026-10) is not a product feature." }, "ai_reading": "Ceph uses no AI in its own operation and offers none to operators; its role in AI is as the object and file store under other platforms. Agents can drive it through the REST API, and nothing more specific exists upstream.", "mom": 7.4, "credT": 19, "commT": null, "lockT": 7, "integT": 12.5 }, { "key": "ibm-ceph", "name": "IBM Storage Ceph (formerly Red Hat Ceph Storage)", "short": "IBM Storage Ceph", "kind": "product", "group": "ceph", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 13, "C": 38, "M": 19, "U": 0, "P": 31 }, "idx": 0.18, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "ops": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hardware": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Two releases a year kept since 2024: 7.1 (2024-06), 8.0 (2024-11), 8.1 (2025-06), 9.0 (2026-01), 9.9.1 (2026-06); lifecycle published per version" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Documentation and release posts are public; no public roadmap or tracker for the IBM product; the upstream tracker is open" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "NVMe/TCP went from technology preview (7.0) to VMware GA (7.1) in about six months; Crimson (since 8.0) and NFS over TLS (since 9.0) remain previews" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several substantive capabilities per release: vSphere plug-in and SRM in 9.0, BYOK namespaces and the CSI driver in 9.9.1" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "The owner transfer, two brand names for one lineage, a new V.R.M.F numbering scheme and consecutive-major-only upgrades add churn; the two plus one plus three year policy itself is long" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "No list price published; metric is TiB; no change in terms found since 2023, which cannot be confirmed without the price list" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Subscription only, four editions, Pro needs a separate RHEL licence; free Pro install limited; a 60 day trial exists" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "IBM direct, Business Partners and resellers; downloads need an IBM entitlement and images may become unavailable after a lapse unless mirrored" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Large public owner; the storage business moved from Red Hat to IBM in 2023 and the Ceph and ODF portfolio was merged into one IBM group" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Two years standard plus one year critical fixes per release; Extended and Sustained tiers cost extra; upgrades only between consecutive majors" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "Standard RBD, CephFS and S3; same engine as upstream" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "A crossgrade path between Red Hat and IBM builds is documented; moving to community Ceph is technically the same engine but outside the supported paths" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts required; VMware reaches it only through the NVMe/TCP gateway" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Any x86 or Arm server; Storage Ready Nodes and Call Home are optional" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Ceph skills plus IBM tooling (vSphere plug-in, Call Home, cephadm-ansible)" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "IBM Business Partner route and resellers; programme terms not read" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "RGW IAM multi-tenancy since 8.0, pools, namespaces, dashboard roles; no portal or metering" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST API and cephadm-ansible modules documented; no Terraform provider found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3, "IBM training and Advanced Technology Group webcasts; no exam-based certification found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "IBM Storage Ceph is upstream Ceph plus the pieces a VMware exit needs: a supported NVMe/TCP gateway since 7.1, a vSphere plug-in and Site Recovery Manager adapters since 9.0, FIPS through RHEL and a published two plus one year support cycle. That is why it scores above the engine on hypervisor integration, data protection and security while the data services line is identical. The costs are commercial rather than technical: subscription per TiB with no public price, RHEL hosts only, and one lineage sold under two brands after the 2023 transfer from Red Hat. Before buying, check which upstream Ceph release sits inside 9.9.1 and whether the 2026-08-19 CephX fixes have reached the fix update you will install, because IBM's pages do not say.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/ibm-ceph", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "S3 and CephFS as data stores for AI; 9.0 is positioned for watsonx.data lakehouse workloads, with no GPU data path feature", "stack": "None", "ops": "None; Call Home to IBM Storage Insights is telemetry, no AI assistance found", "agents": "REST API with tokens; no MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "IBM's AI statements for Storage Ceph are positioning (storage for watsonx.data and lakehouses); no dated AI feature was announced between 2023 and 2026." }, "ai_reading": "IBM sells Storage Ceph as the data layer under its AI products and has not put AI inside the product. Operators get the REST API and Call Home telemetry; there is no assistant, no anomaly model beyond Project Espial's ransomware work, and no agent interface.", "mom": 12.7, "credT": 17, "commT": 11.5, "lockT": 8, "integT": 13 }, { "key": "nutanix-aos", "name": "Nutanix AOS distributed storage (inside Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure)", "short": "Nutanix AOS", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Sharp opportunist", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 33, "C": 22, "M": 44, "U": 0, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.33, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "security": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Written policy of an upgrade family every six to nine months and updates every four to six weeks; 7.0, 7.5 and 7.6 kept it" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Forward-looking items carry when-and-if-available wording; release notes and the lifecycle table are behind login" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "FlashArray support arrived in NCI 7.5 within weeks of the promised year end; ONTAP, PowerStore and Agentic AI are pending; Cloud Native AOS has been a preview since May 2025" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Four external storage integrations, multi-strategy DR and NVIDIA certification inside 18 months" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "In-place upgrades, but 15 months of maintenance per family forces a steady upgrade pace" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "Last re-bundle in February 2022; encryption and the native key manager moved down into Pro with NCI 7.3; no repricing found since 2023" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Subscription only, every core in a cluster licensed, Starter capped at 12 nodes and RF2, sync replication gated to Ultimate or an add-on" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Software-only and OEM channels through Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, HPE and Lenovo; patches and release notes need a support login" ], [ "Owner stability", 1.5, "Independent public company, profitable in fiscal 2025, no ownership change" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "A new family about every 15 months to stay in the Maintained phase" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2.5, "VM disks live in the AOS fabric; AHV images export per VM" ], [ "Export path", 3, "Nutanix Move is inbound only; no documented outbound tooling" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "AOS, Prism and an NCI licence are always present; external arrays only from a named list" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2.5, "Qualified hardware from several OEMs; NC2 in the cloud is optional" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "Prism, ncli and AHV skills; a smaller pool than VMware" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Open programme with a service-provider track per the VM Platform Ledger; terms not re-read for this entry" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Prism projects and roles; Service Provider Central is in early access with GA stated for H2 2026" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "Prism REST API with Terraform and Ansible providers (provider status not re-verified this edition)" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "Nutanix certification programme (NCP and NCM tracks); pool smaller than VMware or Microsoft" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "AOS scores level with vSAN on data services, resilience and DR, and its one-policy DR in 7.5 is the deepest in the group. Since 2025 the engineering story is external storage: PowerFlex, FlashArray and soon ONTAP arrays serve AHV while Nutanix keeps the control plane, which widens topology choice without loosening the subscription. Commercial risk is moderate and the main cost is pace, with a new AOS family about every 15 months. A buyer should check the edition gates, because synchronous replication and Metro sit behind Ultimate or an add-on.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/nutanix-aos", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 3 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 1.5 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "NUS NVIDIA-Certified at enterprise level (2026-05-31): GPUDirect Storage over NFS with RDMA and pNFS on a 10-node all-NVMe reference design", "stack": "NCI 7.5: NVIDIA NIM microservices qualified; Nutanix Enterprise AI exists but was not verified for this entry; the Agentic AI solution is early access", "ops": "Data Lens 2.0 GA (2026-04-07): ransomware detection analytics for NUS; no operator assistant found", "agents": "Documented Prism REST API; no MCP server or agent interface found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 5, "ga": 3, "preview": 1, "pending": 1, "dropped": 0, "note": "NIM qualification, NVIDIA certification and Data Lens 2.0 shipped; the Agentic AI solution is early access and RDMA for S3 is due later in 2026." }, "ai_reading": "Nutanix has made its file and object tier AI-ready with NVIDIA certification and GPUDirect over NFS, which is more than most storage layers in this Ledger have shipped. On the operations side there is only ransomware analytics, and no agent interface exists. Check whether the AI items you need run on AOS block storage or only on NUS, because the certification covers NUS.", "mom": 6.5, "credT": 17, "commT": 11.5, "lockT": 14.5, "integT": 13 }, { "key": "s2d", "name": "Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct and Azure Local storage", "short": "Storage Spaces Direct", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Integrated stack", "grade": "A", "driver": "P", "mix": { "V": 29, "C": 29, "M": 6, "U": 0, "P": 35 }, "idx": 0.45, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "dr": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hardware": { "2015": 0, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Monthly Azure Local releases on a published table since 2025; Windows Server LTSC every two to three years" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Public what's new and release tables on Microsoft Learn; no dated roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "Rack aware clustering went preview to GA in 11 weeks and iSCSI SAN in 8; confidential VMs, GPU management and add node remain previews" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "SAN support, disaggregation, iSCSI and rack aware clustering inside six months" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Windows Server keeps ten-year support, but Azure Local must update every six months, stretched clusters were dropped without an upgrade path and the product was renamed twice" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3, "Billing moved into Azure in 2504 and three price tiers arrived with SAN support in 2026; Azure Hybrid Benefit applies only to L1 hyperconverged" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Datacenter edition for Windows Server; an Azure subscription, Azure Arc and catalogue hardware for Azure Local; L3 pricing by account representative only" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Enterprise Agreement, CSP and twelve OEM hardware partners; OS download from the Azure portal" ], [ "Owner stability", 0.5, "Stable owner, no acquisition behind the product" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Azure Local releases are supported six months and billing continues until the resource is disconnected; Windows Server 2025 is supported to 2034" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "VHDX is an open specification and ReFS is readable by any Windows host; VM configuration is binary" ], [ "Export path", 2.5, "Hyper-V export per VM; Azure Migrate is inbound only" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Windows Server Datacenter, Failover Clustering and Hyper-V always; Azure Local adds the Azure subscription and Arc" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 3, "Windows Server S2D runs offline on approved servers; Azure Local needs catalogue hardware and contact with Azure at least every 30 days (blended)" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "Windows, PowerShell, Hyper-V and Azure skills are widely held" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Open Microsoft partner network and CSP; twelve OEM hardware partners" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Azure RBAC, Azure Policy and Arc VM self-service on Azure Local; Windows Server alone has none" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4.5, "ARM, Bicep, Terraform and Azure CLI for Azure Local; PowerShell for Windows Server" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "Microsoft certification tracks and the largest Windows skills pool; current track names not verified" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "S2D scores as a solid, single-hypervisor storage layer whose recent gains come from Azure Local topology work: rack awareness, availability zones and SAN options. It trails vSAN and AOS on DR and security because it has no immutable snapshots, no anomaly detection and lost stretched clusters in the move to 23H2. The two purchase routes behave very differently: Windows Server gives ten years of support offline, Azure Local gives monthly features in exchange for a six-month update window and per-core cloud billing. A buyer should check which tier a planned design lands in, since adding external storage moves the whole cluster to L2.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/s2d", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2015": 0, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "2604: GPU acceleration GA for Azure Local VMs (DDA and GPU-P); RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell supported from 2603; GPU metrics in 2605", "stack": "Edge RAG enabled by Azure Arc in preview, counted as half a step", "ops": "Windows Server 2016: rule-based Health Service; no ML analytics or assistant found", "agents": "ARM and Azure CLI control of Azure Local; no MCP server found (year grade C)" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 3, "ga": 1, "preview": 2, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "GPU acceleration shipped; GPU management from Azure and Edge RAG are previews." }, "ai_reading": "Microsoft's AI effort on this platform goes into GPU sharing for VMs, which is now GA with live migration, rather than into the storage layer or into operating it. Edge RAG is a preview and no agent interface exists. Check whether the GPU you plan to use is on the Azure Local support list, because support arrived model by model.", "mom": 3.1, "credT": 17.5, "commT": 11.5, "lockT": 12, "integT": 16.5 }, { "key": "odf", "name": "Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation", "short": "OpenShift Data Foundation", "kind": "product", "group": "ceph", "since": 2020, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 19, "C": 50, "M": 19, "U": 0, "P": 13 }, "idx": 0.21, "domains": { "data": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "resilience": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "dr": { "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4.5, "Three releases a year aligned to OpenShift minors, each with a published lifecycle row: 4.18 (2025-03-11), 4.19 (2025-07-28), 4.20 (2025-11-18), 4.21 (2026-03-09), 4.22 (2026-07-09)" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Release notes label technology and developer previews; no public roadmap; the subscription guide sits behind a PDF" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "Six of eight previews checked reached feature status in four to eight months; RGW erasure coding took about 24 months; Metro-DR for VMs has no confirmed GA" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Mostly DR, security and operations items; one or two substantive storage capabilities per release, erasure coding GA only in 4.22" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Full support of about seven months on odd releases (4.21 ends 2026-10-09), EUS on even releases only, upgrades forced by the OpenShift calendar; Metro DR deprecated for external mode in 4.22" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "No public price; the product page and the lifecycle page disagree on whether stand-alone editions exist; the subscription guide was revised on 2026-10-06 with unknown content" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "Requires an OpenShift subscription; sold as the Platform Plus bundle or the Essentials and Advanced editions; no free edition" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Red Hat direct and partners; images and patches need a subscription" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "IBM-owned vendor; development moved to IBM Storage in 2023 while the brand stayed with Red Hat; IBM also sells its own Kubernetes storage (IBM Fusion)" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Three upgrades a year to stay in full support, or EUS on even releases at extra cost" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "PVCs on standard RBD and CephFS; VM disks are PVCs managed by the operator" ], [ "Export path", 2, "CSI snapshots, OADP and the DR operators; no ODF-specific export, and the Ceph tools sit behind the operator" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4, "OpenShift required; external mode requires Red Hat Ceph Storage" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1.5, "Bare metal, vSphere, clouds, Power, Z and Arm; OpenStack only in preview" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "OpenShift plus Ceph skills; odf-cli and operator CRDs" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Red Hat Partner Connect; terms not read for this edition" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "OpenShift projects, quotas and StorageClasses give tenants self-service storage; no storage-level metering" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "Everything is a Kubernetes CRD (StorageCluster and DR resources), GitOps-ready" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "Red Hat training and exams cover OpenShift storage; the current course list was not verified" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "ODF scores well on the things a KubeVirt estate needs and nothing else: Kubernetes-native management, Regional and Metro DR, per-VM failover through RHACM, and two-node fencing since 4.22. Erasure coding reached GA only in July 2026, there is no NVMe/TCP, iSCSI or SMB for anything outside the cluster, and the product cannot serve a second hypervisor. The lifecycle is the cost that buyers underestimate: full support runs about seven months on odd releases and the whole thing moves on the OpenShift calendar. Check the subscription guide before signing, because Red Hat's own pages disagree on whether stand-alone editions exist.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/odf", "ai": { "infra": { "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1.5 }, "stack": { "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0.5 }, "agents": { "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "4.22: S3 Vectors support for vector workloads on the object gateway", "stack": "None", "ops": "4.21: OpenShift Lightspeed knowledge integration through BYOK, technology preview", "agents": "Kubernetes API and CRDs that agents can drive with standard tooling; no MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 2, "ga": 1, "preview": 1, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "S3 Vectors shipped as a feature in 4.22; the Lightspeed integration has been a technology preview since 4.21." }, "ai_reading": "ODF's AI so far is S3 Vectors on the object gateway and a preview link to OpenShift Lightspeed; neither changes how the storage is run. Agents reach it through the Kubernetes API like any operator, which is a documented interface rather than a purpose-built one.", "mom": 17.7, "credT": 16.5, "commT": 13.5, "lockT": 11.5, "integT": 14 }, { "key": "linstor", "name": "LINBIT LINSTOR with DRBD (LINBIT SDS)", "short": "LINSTOR", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "A", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 12, "C": 71, "M": 6, "U": 6, "P": 6 }, "idx": 0.13, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 2, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Dated GitHub releases, LINSTOR minors every two to four months with patch releases in between; no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3, "Open repositories, public changelog and blog; removals announced one release ahead; no dated roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "Token authentication and the OpenShift Virtualization certification shipped as announced; the DRBD 10 preview of 2020 never became a release; 9.4 undated" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "1.34 and 1.35 each carried several capabilities; 2023 and 2025 were mostly maintenance" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Breaking changes most years: etcd removal and Java 21 in 1.34, no downgrade from 1.35, 9.3 dropping old kernels, 9.2 ending" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1, "GPL unchanged; a published Starter price; no change found since 2023" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1.5, "Any node count from two; Starter is priced, Plus and Enterprise by quote with a per-TB fee; GUI and RDMA gated to Enterprise" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Source is open; prebuilt packages and certified repositories only with a subscription" ], [ "Owner stability", 1.5, "Independent founder-led company since 2001; ownership undisclosed" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Subscription needed for packages and support; fixes land in public source first; upgrades free" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "LVM or ZFS volumes with a small DRBD metadata area; VM disks keep the hypervisor's format" ], [ "Export path", 1, "Standard Linux tooling; snapshot and backup shipping to S3 or another cluster" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1.5, "DRBD kernel module plus a Java controller and satellites; integration plug-ins are LINBIT or community maintained" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any Linux x86 server; RDMA transport needs an Enterprise licence" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "Linux, LVM or ZFS and DRBD administration; open CLI and REST API; smaller pool than Ceph" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Integration partners across hypervisors and clouds; reseller terms not published" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1.5, "Resource groups and storage pools separate workloads; Kubernetes namespaces via CSI; no tenant portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST API with tokens, Python client, Ansible inventory support, Kubernetes Operator and CSI; no Terraform provider found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "LINBIT training and documentation; no certification found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "LINSTOR scores as a strong, open block layer rather than a full storage system: N-way synchronous replication with quorum and failure-domain placement, snapshot and S3 backup shipping, and the widest hypervisor list in this group now that Red Hat has certified it for OpenShift Virtualization. The gaps are data services (no native deduplication or erasure coding), file protocols (only through the separate VSAN appliance) and key management. It is the lowest-risk purchase in the group: GPL code, a published entry price and a founder-owned vendor, offset by yearly breaking changes in the controller. A buyer should check the upgrade notes of every minor, since 1.34 and 1.35 both removed things.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/linstor", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "0.9.6: NVMe-oF layer; DRBD RDMA transport under an Enterprise licence; a 2026 vLLM on Kubernetes demonstration, no AI-specific validation", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "LINSTOR 1.0 REST API; token authentication in 1.34 (2026); no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "LINBIT has announced no AI features; a 2026 blog describes an AI-assisted experiment with DRBD in user space as an idea only." }, "ai_reading": "LINSTOR has no AI in the product and makes no AI promises; LINBIT uses AI tooling in DRBD development and wrote one exploratory blog post. The agent surface is the REST API with token authentication.", "mom": 4.5, "credT": 17, "commT": 8, "lockT": 5, "integT": 9.5 }, { "key": "pve-ceph", "name": "Proxmox VE hyper-converged Ceph", "short": "Proxmox VE Ceph", "kind": "product", "group": "ceph", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Steady upstream tracker", "grade": "B", "driver": "U", "mix": { "V": 8, "C": 38, "M": 8, "U": 46, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.14, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Follows upstream with a lag of about six months: Tentacle upstream 2025-11-18, Proxmox test repository 2026-01-09, stable option 2026-05-21; no dates published in advance" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public roadmap with a Ceph item, public release notes and forum announcements; no dates" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Squid and Tentacle arrived as announced; the ordered Ceph upgrade item is still pending; Squid support past September 2026 is undefined" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "Mostly version tracking and usability fixes; the EC pool command and rxbounce are the substantive Ceph items since 2023" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Published estimated Ceph end-of-life dates and an upgrade guide per step; the 8.4 Squid OSD crash and the minimum-Ceph-per-major rule add risk" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Same four tiers since 2013, about 6 percent a year since 2023; Ceph carries no separate fee" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 0.5, "Runs without a key; any quantity; all features in every tier" ], [ "Channel and access", 1, "Enterprise Ceph repository needs a subscription of any level; the no-subscription repository is open" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Small founder-owned company; the engine is foundation governed" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "The Proxmox VE major release and the Ceph major release must move together; upgrades are free" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "Plain Ceph: RBD images in raw and CephFS" ], [ "Export path", 1, "Standard Ceph tools; the cluster is plain Ceph and other clients can read it" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3, "pveceph, the GUI and /etc/pve/ceph.conf assume a Proxmox VE cluster; storage and compute share nodes" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any x86 or arm64 server; fully offline with the manual repository mode" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "Linux, Ceph and Proxmox skills; open tooling" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4.5, "Open Proxmox partner programme by application; vendor also sells direct at list price" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Ceph pools and Proxmox pools and roles; no quotas portal or metering" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "The Proxmox REST API covers Ceph services, OSDs and pools; Terraform and Ansible are community-maintained" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "Proxmox training with a certificate of completion; no Ceph-specific certification" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Proxmox VE Ceph is the easiest way in this group to get a working Ceph cluster: three nodes, a GUI wizard and one subscription that already covers the hypervisor. Its capability is upstream Ceph about six months behind, minus the gateways, so it serves only Proxmox VE and scores below IBM Storage Ceph and croit on protocols and hypervisor breadth while matching them on data services. Buyer safety is the best in the group, because the subscription is per socket with no Ceph fee and the cluster is plain Ceph underneath. The one thing to check is the Ceph release in your enterprise repository: Squid passes its estimated end of life around October 2026, and the Tentacle packages with the CephX fixes were not confirmed on Proxmox pages.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/pve-ceph", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "RBD and CephFS as VM and container storage; no GPU data path feature of the storage layer", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "Proxmox REST API with tokens covers Ceph management; MCP servers are community only" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "Proxmox announced no AI item for its Ceph packaging; platform-level AI is scored in the VM Platform Ledger." }, "ai_reading": "Nothing about Proxmox's Ceph packaging uses AI, and nothing has been announced. Agents can manage it through the Proxmox REST API, which is complete for Ceph services, OSDs and pools.", "mom": 6.8, "credT": 16.5, "commT": 7, "lockT": 6.5, "integT": 12 }, { "key": "portworx", "name": "Portworx Enterprise (Portworx by Pure Storage)", "short": "Portworx", "kind": "product", "group": "k8s", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 14, "C": 36, "M": 21, "U": 0, "P": 29 }, "idx": 0.2, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 1, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2015": 1, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 0.5, "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2015": 0.5, "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 4, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 5, "2024": 5, "2025": 5, "2026": 5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "A feature release every three to six months (3.5 in 2025-11, 3.6 in 2026-04, 3.7 in 2026-09) with a published support table" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Public release notes and forum posts; no public dated feature roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "KubeVirt RWX block and sync DR announced 2025-04, early access 2025-06, GA 2025-09; Pure Fusion integration slipped past its H1 FY27 target and MCP connectivity is still planned" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several capabilities per feature release" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2, "Six months of support per non-EMR line and 18 months for one EMR a year; Essentials removed and capped at 3.2.2.1" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3, "Free tier removed 2025-02-10; new PX-KV and Edge SKUs; no public price list" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "Subscription only, quote based; 30-day trial is the only free option" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Public docs and operator images; support tied to subscription; partner terms not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 1.5, "Owned by a listed company since 2020; rebranded Everpure in 2026 with a strategy shift toward data management" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Most lines expire after six months; an EMR line must be chosen to get 18 months" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Standard PVCs; KubeVirt disks are raw or qcow2 images on PVCs" ], [ "Export path", 2, "CSI snapshots, CloudSnap to object stores and Portworx Backup; no export of VM disks to a non-Kubernetes target documented" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Needs a Kubernetes distribution and the Portworx data plane; KubeVirt platforms only" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Software-defined on any drives, cloud drives or vSphere; ActiveCluster, cross-array snapshots and realms need Pure FlashArray" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "Kubernetes plus pxctl and Portworx-specific tooling" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Sold direct, through the Pure channel and with Red Hat; programme terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Realms on FlashArray, namespaces and RBAC, tenant OpenShift clusters on OpenShift Virtualization" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "Operator, CRDs, pxctl, REST and gRPC API; Terraform provider not verified" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "Kubernetes certifications apply; Portworx-specific certification not found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Portworx is the strongest Kubernetes-native entry in this group on resilience, DR and Kubernetes depth, and since 3.4.0 it covers what a KubeVirt VM needs: shared RWX block for live migration and zero-RPO synchronous DR, both GA. Hypervisor integration is capped at 3.5 because only KubeVirt platforms are served, and the data services line stays at 3 because there is no deduplication, inline compression or erasure coding. The commercial side is where a buyer should look: the free tier is gone, most release lines are supported for six months, and several headline features need a Pure FlashArray behind the cluster. Check which release line is the Extended Maintenance Release before you deploy.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/portworx", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "Pure1 AI Copilot for Portworx GA per the Pure Q3 FY26 earnings release", "agents": "REST and gRPC API, pxctl and CRDs; MCP connectivity planned for Pure1 in fiscal Q4 2026, none for Portworx" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 3, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 2, "dropped": 0, "note": "Pure1 AI Copilot for Portworx is GA; MCP connectivity and the 2026 AI performance insights are pending." }, "ai_reading": "Portworx's AI story is Pure1's: a GA Copilot that answers questions about Portworx telemetry and an MCP connection that is still a plan. The storage itself has no GPU or AI-workload feature verified, and agents drive it through its CRDs and API like any other Kubernetes resource.", "mom": 27.2, "credT": 16, "commT": 13.5, "lockT": 12, "integT": 11.5 }, { "key": "vsan", "name": "VMware vSAN (inside VMware Cloud Foundation)", "short": "vSAN", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Rent extractor with a reference product", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 30, "C": 35, "M": 5, "U": 0, "P": 30 }, "idx": 0.43, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "ops": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "9.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2, 9.1 and 9.1.1 in 15 months and patches on the 8.0 line; dates are not published in advance" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Blog roadmap lists without dates; release notes public, some support content behind login" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "vSAN Max went GA 3.5 months after announcement and global deduplication 11 months after limited availability; ESA on hyperscalers, the AI assistant and the S3 object store are still pending or preview" ], [ "Velocity", 4.5, "9.1 alone lists 18 vSAN items; two substantive releases a year" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "About five years of general support per major and in-place upgrades; the 7.x end date moved, vVols were deprecated and the standalone product was withdrawn" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 5, "Perpetual to subscription in 2024, standalone product withdrawn, a 72-core minimum announced by a distributor and withdrawn in 2025, late-renewal surcharge reported" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 4.5, "Subscription only, VCF or VVF bundle only, 16 cores per CPU minimum, vSAN Max under VCF capped at 1 TiB per core before add-ons" ], [ "Channel and access", 3.5, "Patch downloads need an active entitlement; Broadcom partner terms were not readable from a Broadcom page (the VM Platform Ledger records an invitation-only programme)" ], [ "Owner stability", 4, "Acquired in November 2023 by a listed owner that reversed licensing, packaging and partner terms within its first year" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 4, "Subscription renewals only; perpetual holders keep running software without patches unless under contract" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3, "VMDK is readable elsewhere; vSAN objects are not, so leaving means a storage migration" ], [ "Export path", 2.5, "Storage vMotion to VMFS or NFS inside vSphere; no tooling toward other hypervisors" ], [ "Stack coupling", 4.5, "Runs only inside ESX, needs vCenter, and the licence is tied to VCF or VVF cores" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 3, "Compatibility guide and ReadyNodes; ESA production use needs certified NVMe; runs offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Proprietary tooling (vCenter, PowerCLI) with the largest skills pool in the field" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2, "Broadcom terms not verified from a Broadcom page; the VM Platform Ledger scores the programme as invitation-only" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "vCenter roles and VCF Automation; the vendor named \"deeper multi-tenancy\" as a roadmap item in June 2025" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "vSAN management API, Python SDK and PowerCLI; the Code Assist MCP Fling covers vSAN and vSAN Data Protection" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4.5, "VMware certification with a vSAN track and a large pool of certified engineers" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "vSAN scores as the reference for storage inside a single hypervisor: data services, stretched clusters, replication and the 9.1 protection features all sit at 4.5 against today's anchors. The scores it loses are structural. It serves ESX only, it cannot be bought on its own, and the licensing changes since 2024 give it the highest commercial risk in the group. A buyer should check the vSAN capacity entitlement against raw capacity across all clusters before signing, because the per-core TiB allowance and the vSAN Max cap decide the real price.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/vsan", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1.5 }, "agents": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "8.0: ESA single-tier NVMe data path; vSAN is the storage under VMware Private AI; AI protocol and secondary-storage features are roadmap only", "stack": "None verified for the storage layer; Private AI Services and AI Factory sit in VCF and their availability was not verified here", "ops": "9.1.1: AI Assistant for VCF in tech preview, counted as half a step", "agents": "VCF Code Assist MCP server is a Fling (0.1.1, 2026-10-05), counted as half a step; no GA MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 5, "ga": 0, "preview": 2, "pending": 3, "dropped": 0, "note": "The AI assistant is a tech preview and the MCP server a Fling; AI Factory, AgentMinder and the AI storage roadmap items have no GA date." }, "ai_reading": "vSAN's AI story is the NVMe performance of ESA under VMware's private AI stack; nothing AI-specific has shipped in the storage layer itself. The operator assistant and the MCP server exist only as a tech preview and an experimental Fling, so a buyer should count neither until Broadcom gives them a GA date.", "mom": 10.9, "credT": 17, "commT": 21, "lockT": 15.5, "integT": 13 }, { "key": "sansymphony", "name": "DataCore SANsymphony", "short": "SANsymphony", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder, slow on dates", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 21, "C": 36, "M": 21, "U": 0, "P": 21 }, "idx": 0.27, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "About one PSP a year with updates (PSP19 in 2024, PSP20 in 2025, PSP21 and PSP22 in 2026); dates not printed in the documentation" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2, "Documentation and support site public; no roadmap; release dates only on the support site" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Immutability and NVMe-oF shipped as announced; the AI management layer and StarWind integration slipped from fall 2025 to 2027" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Several capabilities per PSP: three-way mirror, locality, immutability, NVMe-oF, Proxmox and XCP-ng" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "Published upgrade-path table with forced stepping for old versions; Windows Server 2012 R2 dropped with notice" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "Perpetual licences replaced by term licences at an unpublished date between 2019 and 2026; capacity bands unchanged; no dated price change found" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Term only, capacity minimums per edition (10 TB for Business Essentials), the Backup Repository edition limited to two hosts; no free tier" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Direct, partners and distributors; downloads and licence requests through the support portal; evaluation on request" ], [ "Owner stability", 3, "Private owner with growth-equity financing in 2024 and five acquisitions since 2021; five products being merged into one control plane" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Updates and Premier Support only with an active term licence; Windows Server licences are a separate cost" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "Standard block protocols outward; proprietary pool layout inside, mirrors usable as plain LUNs only after removal from DataCore" ], [ "Export path", 2, "VM moves with hypervisor tools; no storage-level export tooling" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "Windows Server storage nodes, DataCore console and mirror model; any hypervisor in front" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Any x86 server and mixed arrays; CSP licences depend on Intelligence Service telemetry" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Windows administration plus DataCore-specific concepts (pools, SAUs, virtual disk templates); smaller skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Partners, distributors and a CSP licensing model; terms not published" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1.5, "Host and user roles; CSP metering through telemetry; no tenant portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "REST support, PowerShell, OpenStack Cinder, VASA and Proxmox plug-ins; no Terraform or Ansible provider found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "Training and historical certification courses; current programme not verified" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "SANsymphony earns the highest capability score in this group on the strength of a mature mirror model: metro-distance synchronous mirroring, three-way mirrors since PSP20, immutability since PSP21 and NVMe-oF to Proxmox, Linux and ESXi in 2026. Its two structural costs are unchanged: storage nodes run Windows Server, and the pool format is DataCore's, so leaving means moving VMs rather than disks. Commercial risk rose with the move to term-only licences and an owner that is folding five acquisitions into one platform on a slipping schedule. A buyer should get the PSP support window and the Windows Server licence cost in writing, since neither is published.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/sansymphony", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "PSP21 and PSP22: NVMe-oF over TCP as fast shared storage; no AI-specific validation", "stack": "None", "ops": "PSP20: Intelligence Service alerts; machine-learning bottleneck prediction on term licences (vendor claim)", "agents": "REST support and PowerShell cmdlets; the Data Freedom Platform agent layer is preview only, no public MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 3, "ga": 0, "preview": 1, "pending": 2, "dropped": 0, "note": "The 2024 financing promised AI integration without a product; the fall 2025 AI management layer became the Data Freedom Platform preview; the DAISY assistant has a webinar date and no GA statement." }, "ai_reading": "SANsymphony's shipped AI is analytics: telemetry-driven alerts and a bottleneck prediction feature that DataCore describes as machine learning. The agent control plane and the DAISY assistant are preview or announcement material, with GA promised for early 2027.", "mom": 10.4, "credT": 15.5, "commT": 14, "lockT": 10, "integT": 10 }, { "key": "ontap-select", "name": "NetApp ONTAP Select", "short": "ONTAP Select", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Slow follower, steadily maintained", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 9, "C": 45, "M": 27, "U": 0, "P": 18 }, "idx": 0.11, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 4.5, "2018": 4.5, "2019": 4.5, "2020": 4.5, "2021": 4.5, "2022": 4.5, "2023": 4.5, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "resilience": { "2015": 1, "2016": 3, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "ops": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Two releases a year on the ONTAP 9.x.1 rhythm; release dates are not printed" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "No roadmap; full release notes behind login; feature text public through the documentation source" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "No forward announcements to test; each release note item was shipped" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "Hypervisor qualifications, scale steps and key management; 9.12.1 had no Select-specific change" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "KVM removed then reinstated within two years; Deploy versions pulled from the support site; in-place ONTAP upgrades otherwise" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "Licence file format changed in 9.16.1; SnapLock and the onboard key manager changed default licensing in 9.17.1 and 9.19.1; prices not published" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Capacity licence plus support contract; MetroCluster SDS and software RAID need Premium; a lapsed subscription can stop the system" ], [ "Channel and access", 3, "NetApp and partners; downloads need an entitled support account and evaluation needs a support case for non-customers" ], [ "Owner stability", 1, "NetApp, no ownership change" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Support contract required for every upgrade; per-release windows not public" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2.5, "ONTAP volumes and aggregates; data reachable over NFS, SMB, iSCSI and NVMe/TCP" ], [ "Export path", 2.5, "SnapMirror to any ONTAP system including cloud; leaving ONTAP means a file or LUN copy" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "Runs as a VM on ESXi or KVM over any datastore; the Deploy VM and its mediator are required" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Intel or AMD x86 with a RAID controller, software RAID or vSAN; runs offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "ONTAP skills are common in storage teams; tooling is NetApp's" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "NetApp partner programme; Select-specific terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "ONTAP storage VMs give tenant separation (grade C for this entry)" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 4, "ONTAP REST, Deploy REST API and Ansible modules (not re-read this edition)" ], [ "Skills and certification", 4, "NetApp certification tracks and a large ONTAP skills pool" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "ONTAP Select scores highest in the group on data services because it carries the full ONTAP efficiency, QoS and snapshot set, and its DR and security rows have grown with SnapLock, ransomware detection and KMIP. It scores lower on resilience and scale because it is a storage VM in HA pairs up to 12 nodes with no erasure coding, and on hypervisors because only ESXi and KVM are listed. Release dates are not published, which is why credibility is middling. A buyer should confirm the support window of the release they deploy, since that table sits behind login.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/ontap-select", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0.5, "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 0.5, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "NFS and block storage for VMs; no GPUDirect, RDMA or AI validation for Select", "stack": "None", "ops": "9.16.1: Autonomous Ransomware Protection, NetApp's ML-based anomaly detection, with manual model updates", "agents": "ONTAP 9.6 REST API and Ansible modules (year grade C); no MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 1, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "Autonomous Ransomware Protection is the only AI item and it shipped in 9.16.1." }, "ai_reading": "The only AI in ONTAP Select is ransomware anomaly detection inherited from ONTAP, and it ships with manual rather than automatic updates. There is no AI infrastructure story for the VM-based product. Check whether the array-side ARP features NetApp advertises are the same ones available on Select.", "mom": 6.5, "credT": 13.5, "commT": 12.5, "lockT": 12, "integT": 14.5 }, { "key": "lightbits", "name": "Lightbits (Lightbits Labs)", "short": "Lightbits", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2019, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 12, "C": 71, "M": 12, "U": 6, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.13, "domains": { "data": { "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "scale": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "dr": { "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "A dated minor every two to three months from 3.8.1 (2024-04-24) to 3.20.1 (2026-08-09); STS and LTS streams described without a calendar" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Public release notes with known and fixed issues; no roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Few forward announcements; Ubuntu and Okta shipped as announced; cross-cluster DMS clones have stayed in preview since 3.13.1 and the Proxmox plug-in is still Tech Preview" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Security and operations steps in most releases; protocol and DR breadth grows slowly" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Support covers the latest release and the two before it, which is six to nine months on the STS stream; LTS durations not published; upgrades from the previous three lines" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Public per-TB price; no history of changes found" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Subscription per TB with support bundled; no perpetual or free option" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Public docs; packages from a vendor repository; partner terms not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "Private, venture and strategic backed since 2016; a new AI product line in 2026; no acquisition found" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Must stay within the latest three releases unless on the LTS stream" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "Standard NVMe/TCP namespaces any Linux or ESXi initiator can mount; proprietary on-disk layout" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Any host can read the volumes; no export tool needed" ], [ "Stack coupling", 1.5, "Works under VMware, Proxmox VE, OpenStack and Kubernetes; needs dedicated NVMe storage servers" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1.5, "Standard NVMe servers on RHEL family or Ubuntu 24.04; optional AWS and Azure" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "lbcli and Ansible on top of standard NVMe/TCP" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Direct plus OEM and service provider routes; programme terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Projects, OpenStack multi-tenancy and QoS, in-band authentication per host" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "REST API, lbcli and Ansible roles; Terraform provider not found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "Not found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Lightbits is the most regular shipper in this group, with a dated release every two to three months and a public price, and its security line has risen fastest since 2024 with encryption at rest, key rotation, in-band authentication and identity federation. The limits are breadth: one protocol, no stretched cluster, no DR orchestration, and a hypervisor list where only ESXi and OpenStack are GA while Proxmox VE sits in Tech Preview. The scores hold the data services line at 3 because inline compression was not verified in the release notes. A buyer should ask for the LTS stream's version and support window in writing, because the support guide only covers the latest three releases.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/lightbits", "ai": { "infra": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 }, "agents": { "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "3.14.1: experimental lbcli ask (preview, half step); later status not found", "agents": "REST API and lbcli; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 2, "ga": 0, "preview": 1, "pending": 1, "dropped": 0, "note": "lbcli ask has been experimental since 3.14.1; Inferra was announced on 2026-09-09 as a separate product." }, "ai_reading": "Lightbits sells block storage to AI clouds but has no AI feature of its own in GA: the lbcli ask assistant has been experimental since April 2025 and Inferra, the KV cache engine announced in September 2026, is a separate product. Agents get a documented REST API and nothing more.", "mom": 18.1, "credT": 15.5, "commT": 11.5, "lockT": 8.5, "integT": 11 }, { "key": "croit", "name": "croit (Ceph management and support)", "short": "croit", "kind": "product", "group": "ceph", "since": 2017, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "C", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 27, "C": 47, "M": 7, "U": 20, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.33, "domains": { "data": { "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "scale": { "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "dr": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 4 }, "hardware": { "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4.5, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "k8s": { "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "Year-month version labels show a near-monthly rhythm (v2605, v2607, v2608, v2609), but the posts carry no dates and no schedule is published" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "Release posts only; no roadmap, no public tracker, documentation unreachable on 2026-10-15" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "No dated promises to check; experimental items are labelled as such" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several substantive items per release in 2026: SMB rebuild, S3 multisite, Enhanced variant, NVMe-oF failover" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Backend language rewrite, a new Core and Enhanced split and a skipped Squid in one year; no support windows published" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "No public price or metric; a second edition appeared in 2026 with no statement on cost" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Licence required for any SLA; terms not public; no free tier found" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Direct sales and consulting only; pricing page 404 and documentation 503 when checked" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "Small founder-owned company with no outside capital; stability depends on three people" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Unknown; the Core image runs upstream Ceph and monthly releases suggest frequent but small updates" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 0.5, "Stock Ceph: RBD, CephFS, S3" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Core is upstream Ceph and Enhanced can switch back to Core without data migration; leaving croit for plain Ceph is not documented" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "PXE-booted immutable OS images replace cephadm; the management node is a single x86-64 component" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Commodity x86 and Arm servers; croit also sells servers; no cloud attach" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "croit UI, REST API and templates on top of Ceph skills" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2, "No partner programme found; croit itself is a Proxmox Gold Partner and sells direct" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Pools, RGW multisite, SMB users and groups; no self-service portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "REST API, event scripts and configuration templates; no Terraform or Ansible content found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "croit offers consulting and training; no certification" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "croit delivers upstream Ceph with a management layer that moved fast in 2026: NVMe-oF with gateway failover, a rebuilt SMB gateway, S3 multisite and an Enhanced build of Ceph, all within five releases. Its capability therefore tracks the engine closely, and the half steps it loses are where croit's own pages do not confirm what the engine can do, such as stretch mode, mirroring in the UI and encryption at rest. The scores carry the lowest evidence grade in the group because the vendor publishes no prices, no support windows and no release dates, and its documentation was unreachable when checked. Ask for the licence terms and the support policy in writing before anything else.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/croit", "ai": { "infra": { "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0.5 }, "ops": { "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "S3 and CephFS for data; no GPU data path", "stack": "aiplane, an OpenAI-compatible gateway to models, agents and MCP tools, sold as a separate AGPL-3.0 product that does not mention the storage platform", "ops": "None shipped; croit describes internal AI support triage and an internal MCP server over its interface, with no statement that either is a product feature", "agents": "REST API and event scripts; an MCP server is described as internal, product status unclear" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 3, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 2, "dropped": 0, "note": "aiplane is released; the MCP control server and the support triage are described as internal tools with no shipping statement." }, "ai_reading": "croit uses AI inside its own support process and sells a separate model gateway, but the storage product itself has no AI feature and no official agent interface beyond the REST API. If the internal MCP server ships, the agent strand should be re-scored.", "mom": 11.5, "credT": 14.5, "commT": 12, "lockT": 7.5, "integT": 9.5 }, { "key": "longhorn", "name": "SUSE Longhorn (storage of SUSE Virtualization)", "short": "Longhorn", "kind": "product", "group": "k8s", "since": 2020, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 18, "C": 82, "M": 0, "U": 0, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.18, "domains": { "data": { "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "resilience": { "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2020": 1, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "scale": { "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "k8s": { "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "Minors in 2025-09, 2026-01, 2026-06 and 2026-09, about every four to five months, with patch lines; no published calendar" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public repository, issue tracker and release notes that name planned items; no roadmap page" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "V2 engine went from Technical Preview (1.11, 2026-01) to GA (1.12, 2026-06) in four months; fast V2 cloning slipped from 1.12.1 to 1.13; Harvester still ships V2 as Technical Preview" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several substantive items per minor since 1.10" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "One year of upstream support per release; Kubernetes minimum jumped to 1.34 in 1.13; hotfix images for 1.10.0 and 1.11.0; Harvester 1.9.0 notes advise against upgrading" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Maintainer concentration", 3, "SUSE engineers run the releases and the README routes support bundles and vulnerability reports to SUSE addresses; 595 contributing organisations in the CNCF record" ], [ "Backer health", 2, "Backed by SUSE, private under EQT since 2023; CNCF Incubating since 2021-11-04; contributors down 5 percent year on year" ], [ "Licence-change risk", 1, "Apache 2.0 under CNCF ownership, which blocks a unilateral relicence" ], [ "Abandonment signs", 0.5, "Four minors in twelve months and 1.12.2-rc1 on 2026-10-15" ], [ "Security response", 2, "Vulnerability reports go to SUSE; 1.13 gives the CSI service account cluster-wide read on Secrets by default; no public advisory process read" ] ], "risk": "sustainability", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Replica directories managed by Longhorn; VM images enter as qcow2 or raw through CDI" ], [ "Export path", 2, "Backups to S3 or NFSv4; Harvester 1.8.0 moves VM disks to external CSI storage without downtime" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Requires Kubernetes 1.34 or later for 1.13 and a KubeVirt platform for VMs; no classic hypervisor" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "x86_64 or ARM64; Harvester recommends YES-certified hardware; ARM64 V2 has a known NVMe stuck IO" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "Kubernetes, Rancher and KubeVirt skills; longhornctl" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Open-source download; SUSE channel terms not read" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Namespaces, Kubernetes quotas and Rancher RBAC; Harvester enforces roles in the backend since 1.8" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "CRDs, Helm and longhornctl; a Harvester Terraform provider was not verified" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "SUSE and Rancher training exists; Longhorn-specific certification not found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Longhorn scores as a solid Kubernetes volume manager that became VM storage because SUSE built a hypervisor on it. The data services and scale lines stay low because it has no compression, deduplication, QoS or two-node mode, and the performance line is held back half a step because the V2 engine that is GA upstream since 1.12.0 ships as a Technical Preview in Harvester 1.9.0. Resilience and operations have improved most since 2025, with multi-replica rebuilds, topology-aware placement and V2 live upgrades. The one thing a buyer should check is which Longhorn version their Harvester release pins and whether that release is a Prime or Stable version SUSE supports in production. Sustainability risk is modest because the CNCF owns the project, but the people who ship it work for SUSE.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/longhorn", "ai": { "infra": { "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "Kubernetes CRDs and the Longhorn API; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "No AI item has been announced for Longhorn; the vGPU and MIG features SUSE lists belong to SUSE Virtualization." }, "ai_reading": "Longhorn has announced no AI feature. Agents can drive it through its CRDs like any Kubernetes resource, and the GPU features SUSE markets sit in SUSE Virtualization, not in the storage.", "mom": 14.3, "credT": 17.5, "commT": 8.5, "lockT": 11, "integT": 12 }, { "key": "storpool", "name": "StorPool Storage", "short": "StorPool", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 7, "C": 57, "M": 21, "U": 14, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.08, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0.5, "2016": 0.5, "2017": 0.5, "2018": 0.5, "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "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" ] ], "comm": [ [ "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" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "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" ] ], "integ": [ [ "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" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "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.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/storpool", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "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_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "REST JSON API with Python bindings; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "No AI item has been announced; the vendor names AI cloud customers only." }, "ai_reading": "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.", "mom": 15.1, "credT": 15, "commT": 11, "lockT": 8.5, "integT": 10 }, { "key": "powerflex", "name": "Dell PowerFlex", "short": "PowerFlex", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Sharp opportunist, thinly documented", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 8, "C": 38, "M": 46, "U": 0, "P": 8 }, "idx": 0.08, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4.5, "2026": 4.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "Roughly one major a year from 2019 to 2024 and 5.0 in 2025; no published rhythm and no GA dates on public pages" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "Specification sheets and blogs only; release notes behind login; no roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 2.5, "Few dated promises to test; the Nutanix integration shipped, the 5.0 GA date is still not published and the Nutanix template for Dell Private Cloud has no status" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "5.0 is a rearchitecture with erasure coding, NVMe/TCP and immutable snapshots in one release" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2, "Three product names since 2013 and no in-place upgrade from 4.x to 5.0" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "Gen2 licences arrive with 5.0; the metric and any price change are not published" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "Dell PowerEdge nodes in standardised configurations; no free tier; software-only only on AWS and Azure" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Dell direct and Dell partners; release notes and patches behind the support login" ], [ "Owner stability", 1, "Dell Technologies since the EMC merger; no recent change" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Reaching 5.0 means a fresh deployment and a node wipe; support windows not published" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3, "Volumes are distributed in a proprietary layout; hosts see standard block devices" ], [ "Export path", 3, "Host-level migration of LUN-like volumes; no export tooling" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3, "Proprietary SDC kernel client or NVMe/TCP on the host side; storage nodes run only listed Linux flavours or the embedded OS" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 3.5, "Dell PowerEdge nodes in practice; the 5.0 sheet names no third-party servers; runs offline" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3, "PowerFlex Manager and Dell-specific operations; a small skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "Dell partner programme; PowerFlex-specific terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Protection domains and role-based access; no self-service portal found" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3.5, "REST APIs on a containerised PowerFlex Manager; Terraform and Ansible modules not verified this edition" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "Dell certification exists; PowerFlex track not verified" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "PowerFlex scores on scale and hypervisor breadth: it is the one product in this group that serves ESXi, Hyper-V, KVM and AHV, and 5.0 brings erasure coding and immutable snapshots. It loses points for what Dell does not publish. No GA date, no support window, no licence metric and no third-party server list could be found, and the 5.0 generation needs a fresh deployment. A buyer should ask Dell for the 5.0 release date, the ESXi 9 support plan and the upgrade route for existing 4.x systems before planning around the new engine.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/powerflex", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "5.0 specification sheet lists compute nodes with NVIDIA L4, L40S, H100 NVL and AMD MI210 options; no GPUDirect or storage-side AI validation found", "stack": "None", "ops": "Dell AIOps for Observability pairs with PowerFlex (specification sheet); analytics only, no assistant verified", "agents": "3.5: PowerFlex Manager REST API; no MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "No dated AI announcement for PowerFlex was found in the sources read." }, "ai_reading": "PowerFlex serves AI only as fast block storage under GPU compute nodes; Dell's AI observability sits outside the product. Nothing AI-specific has been announced for the storage layer, so there is no say-do record to check.", "mom": 8.8, "credT": 12.5, "commT": 13, "lockT": 15.5, "integT": 11 }, { "key": "smartx", "name": "SmartX ZBS (SMTX OS)", "short": "SmartX ZBS", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2019, "archetype": "Dependable builder, low transparency", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 30, "C": 50, "M": 20, "U": 0, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.3, "domains": { "data": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "dr": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hardware": { "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "About one major a year (5.1 in 2023-09, 6.0 in 2024-07, 6.2 in 2025-03, 6.3 in 2026-03); no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "Release notes behind a form; no public roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 2.5, "No dated pre-announcements to test; items appear in the blog when they ship" ], [ "Velocity", 4, "Several capabilities per release" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2, "No lifecycle policy found; 5.x to 6.x are major jumps" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "No public price or history; edition add-ons for replication and active-active" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3.5, "Subscription only, quote only, regional sites" ], [ "Channel and access", 3.5, "Documents behind a form or a Slack request; no public download; partner programme not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "Private, venture funded with undisclosed rounds; China-led with sales concentrated in China and APAC" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Lifecycle unknown" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 3, "Proprietary on-disk format; a migration tool from ESXi to ELF; no export tool found" ], [ "Export path", 3, "Not documented" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "ZBS serves vSphere, OpenStack and Kubernetes over standard protocols; ELF and CloudTower are proprietary" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Compatibility lists; no cloud attach found" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3.5, "CloudTower and ELF skills are scarce outside APAC" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3, "Self-Service Center and VPC features listed" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2, "Not verified on the pages read" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "Not found; skills scarce outside APAC" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "SmartX ZBS scores well on what it ships: four protocols from one system, VAAI-certified vSphere support, erasure coding since 6.0 and native synchronous VM replication since 6.3. The scores it loses are about what a buyer outside China cannot see: release notes behind a form, no lifecycle policy, no price, no documented API and a skills pool concentrated in APAC. Hypervisor integration is held at 3.5 because only ELF and vSphere are documented. The one thing to check is whether ZBS is sold and supported standalone in your region, with a written lifecycle, before planning it under anything other than SMTX OS.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/smartx", "ai": { "infra": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 1.5 }, "ops": { "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2019": 0.5, "2020": 0.5, "2021": 0.5, "2022": 0.5, "2023": 0.5, "2024": 0.5, "2025": 0.5, "2026": 0.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None in the storage; GPU passthrough, vGPU, MIG and vGPU HA belong to ELF and SKS", "stack": "SMTX AI Platform Enterprise Edition launched 2026-03 (vendor blog); integration with ZBS and GA detail not read", "ops": "None", "agents": "No public API documentation found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 1, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "The SMTX AI Platform is counted as launched on the vendor's word; no primary detail was read." }, "ai_reading": "SmartX launched an AI platform in March 2026 and ships GPU features in its hypervisor, but the storage itself has no AI role and no documented API an agent could drive. The AI platform's relation to ZBS was not described in the material read.", "mom": 13.3, "credT": 13.5, "commT": 14, "lockT": 14, "integT": 9 }, { "key": "jovian", "name": "Open-E JovianDSS", "short": "JovianDSS", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder for two-node sites", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 45, "M": 27, "U": 0, "P": 27 }, "idx": 0, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "perf": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "up30 to up33 over about a year; intermediate dates unpublished; the update centre shows only the latest build" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "Roadmaps visible to Platinum partners only; release notes link returns 404; knowledge base public" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Few forward announcements to test; the DSS V7 end of life was carried out as dated" ], [ "Velocity", 2.5, "NVMe-oF, SMB Multichannel, the VAAI plug-in and the Proxmox plug-in over two years, few headline items" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3, "Clear end-of-life dates per generation, but DSS V7 to JovianDSS needed a restore and old builds must step through up31" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Published USD and EUR price list; no change found; history not on the record" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Support mandatory, capacity-based extensions, an HA feature pack per cluster, clusters of two nodes only; any quantity, online store" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Online store and tiered partners; updates need an active support plan" ], [ "Owner stability", 1.5, "Founder-run independent company since 1998; ownership undisclosed" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Updates only with an active plan, small updates only in Premium and 24/7, re-activation after upgrades, reinstatement starts a new term" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "OpenZFS pools readable by compatible OpenZFS versions" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Standard protocols and ZFS replication; no migration tool needed, none provided" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Appliance OS with Open-E's cluster layer; plug-ins are Open-E components" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Any x86 server, certified list optional; product registration and re-activation after upgrades" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "ZFS knowledge plus the Open-E console; smaller skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 4, "Four published tiers with requirements, NFR licences from Silver, an MSP programme" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1.5, "AD and LDAP, per-dataset shares, a cluster-prefix property for several Proxmox clusters; no portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2, "REST API referenced in the knowledge base; no public API documentation, Terraform or Ansible found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 3.5, "OECE engineer and OECSP sales certifications with published course pages" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "JovianDSS scores on data services and protocols, which OpenZFS and a long SAN and NAS history supply: deduplication, compression, snapshots, FC, iSCSI, NFS, SMB and now NVMe-oF from one box, with metro mirroring between two nodes. The ceiling is the two-node cluster: no scale-out, no failure domains, and hyperconverged use only through a virtual appliance. Open-E publishes prices and partner terms, which is rare in this group, and hides its roadmap and release notes, which is not. A buyer should confirm the mandatory support cost over three years and the two-node limit against the planned host count.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/jovian", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "NVMe-oF and 100GbE all-NVMe certified clusters; no AI-specific validation", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "REST API referenced in the knowledge base; no public API documentation or MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "Open-E has announced no AI features." }, "ai_reading": "JovianDSS has no AI features and Open-E has announced none. The agent surface is a REST API that is referenced in support articles rather than documented publicly.", "mom": 4.8, "credT": 13, "commT": 10.5, "lockT": 7.5, "integT": 11 }, { "key": "blockbridge", "name": "Blockbridge", "short": "Blockbridge", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2017, "archetype": "Dependable builder with a quiet core", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 64, "M": 14, "U": 21, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0, "domains": { "data": { "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "resilience": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "perf": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 2, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "security": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "ops": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "k8s": { "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "Dated Proxmox driver releases about every six weeks; core releases undated except 6.1, and none in the 14 months since" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1.5, "Public KB version history for the driver; no roadmap; core release dates not shown" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Almost nothing announced ahead; the 2022 NVMe/TCP preview reached GA in core 6.0" ], [ "Velocity", 2.5, "Core 6.1 carried several items in 2025; 2026 work is driver compatibility and fixes" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "No support policy published; upgrades documented per driver release; core dates unclear" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "No public price or history; per TB per month reported by users" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Quote only; enterprise NVMe or SSD hardware required" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Direct sales only found; KB, guides and driver documentation public; download terms not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Small private company since 2010; ownership not disclosed; no acquisition found" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Support bundled in the reported per TB per month model; no published windows" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "Standard iSCSI and NVMe/TCP block volumes; VM disks keep the hypervisor format" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Per-volume import and export since driver 3.6.0; hypervisor-level storage migration" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Needs a Blockbridge system plus a driver on each host, using the supported Proxmox storage API and no extra kernel modules" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1.5, "Any server vendor, but enterprise flash with power-loss protection only" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "Blockbridge CLI and REST API; small skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 1.5, "No partner programme found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Crypto-isolated tenants with a tenant UI, per-tenant networking and VLAN binding" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "Documented REST API, CLI, CSI driver and Proxmox driver; no Terraform or Ansible found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1, "No training or certification found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Blockbridge scores as a disaggregated block store tuned for Proxmox VE: a native plug-in with dated releases about every six weeks, NVMe/TCP since core 6.0, VAAI on vSphere and tenant isolation that suits service providers. It is held back by what the public record leaves out: the redundancy scheme across engines, the failure tolerance, the minimum system and how replication works are undocumented, so resilience and DR stay low with grade C. The core software has had no release since 6.1 on 2025-08-20, and the recent work is all in the Proxmox driver. A buyer should ask for the written redundancy design and failure behaviour before sizing a system.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/blockbridge", "ai": { "infra": { "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "6.0: NVMe/TCP shared block storage usable by GPU hosts; no AI-specific validation", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "Documented REST API and the bb CLI; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "Blockbridge has announced no AI features." }, "ai_reading": "Blockbridge has no AI features and has announced none. A documented REST API is the surface an agent could drive.", "mom": 8.5, "credT": 12.5, "commT": 12, "lockT": 8, "integT": 9 }, { "key": "simplyblock", "name": "simplyblock", "short": "simplyblock", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2025, "archetype": "Sharp opportunist", "grade": "C", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 20, "C": 40, "M": 30, "U": 10, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.22, "domains": { "data": { "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "resilience": { "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "scale": { "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "dr": { "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2025": 2.5, "2026": 3 }, "hardware": { "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2025": 4, "2026": 4 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "Frequent CalVer tags (26.2.7 to 26.3.2 within four months) with hotfixes days apart; no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2.5, "Public GitHub releases with notes; the docs release-notes page is empty; no roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 2.5, "Few dated promises; the DR set was announced 2026-09-29 as shipping without a version or GA label" ], [ "Velocity", 3.5, "Multi-cluster, backup CRDs and DR within one quarter" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 1.5, "CRD renames and parameter removals in the 26.4 beta; the old CSI repository archived; no support window published" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Short history; Enterprise price fixed for the term (vendor)" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Enterprise by quote, priced by worker-node CPU; free Community Edition without support" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Public docs and code; Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog and AWS Marketplace; partner programme not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 4, "Seed-stage company founded 2022 with 2.75 million USD raised" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Support lifecycle unknown; fast CalVer cadence" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Standard NVMe-oF namespaces; proprietary on-disk format" ], [ "Export path", 2, "Standard block devices at the host; no export tool" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2.5, "Kubernetes-first control plane, or a Linux install with sbctl; Proxmox VE through a Debian package" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1, "Any Linux server with NVMe; AWS and GCP" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "Kubernetes plus an SPDK-based CLI" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2.5, "Tenancy with QoS (vendor); Control Center RBAC" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "CRDs, REST API and sbcli; Terraform not found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "Not found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "simplyblock scores higher than its age suggests because its feature list, taken from vendor pages, already covers erasure coding, compression, deduplication, QoS and two NVMe transports. The scores are discounted where the evidence is thin: the September 2026 DR set has no version or GA label, the Proxmox plug-in has no tagged release, and the docs have no release notes, so grade C applies. Lifecycle stability is the weakest line, with CRD renames in the 26.4 beta and no support window. A buyer should run the live migration and metro replication claims in a proof of concept and ask for the support policy in writing before paying for Enterprise.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/simplyblock", "ai": { "infra": { "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "MLPerf Storage v2.0 submission and a GPU-utilisation benchmark on AWS (vendor claims); no AI-specific feature", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "Kubernetes CRDs, REST API and sbcli; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "Two benchmark results were published; no AI feature has been announced." }, "ai_reading": "simplyblock markets throughput for AI training with an MLPerf Storage submission and an AWS GPU-utilisation benchmark, both its own numbers. It has no AI feature, no assistant and no MCP server; agents get the CRDs and the REST API.", "mom": 4.1, "credT": 13, "commT": 13, "lockT": 9.5, "integT": 9.5 }, { "key": "virtuozzo", "name": "Virtuozzo Storage (inside Virtuozzo Infrastructure)", "short": "Virtuozzo Storage", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Sharp opportunist in a rebrand year", "grade": "C", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 15, "C": 15, "M": 54, "U": 0, "P": 15 }, "idx": 0.18, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "perf": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "ops": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 4, "7.3.0 (2026-03-31), 7.3.1 (2026-05-15) and 7.4.0 (2026-07-09) with about 20 hotfixes in 2026; 7.1 and 7.2 dates not found; no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2, "Advisory index and legacy guides public; new documentation blocked to automated reading; 2026 plans only in press releases" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "Unification announced 2026-02-26, rename delivered with 7.3, pricing detail published only on 2026-10-15; single kernel pending" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "Storage changes are incremental (erasure coding speed, healing dashboard, S3 features); new work is mostly GPU and packaging" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2, "Renamed twice in 2026, several minor lines maintained in parallel, lifecycle policy not read" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3.5, "New single pricing in 2026 and a move from usable physical TB to logical TB" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Subscription per core and per TB, storage only inside the platform; a freemium self-install exists" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Direct sales and an exclusive North American distributor; partner terms and patch access not found" ], [ "Owner stability", 3, "Private with undisclosed investors; new CEO and board changes in 2026 alongside a product re-bundle" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Lifecycle policy unread; several lines maintained in parallel" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "KVM VM disks on Virtuozzo's own distributed storage layout; exports as iSCSI, NFS and S3" ], [ "Export path", 2, "Standard protocols out; no export tool found" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Storage is a component of the platform and is no longer positioned standalone" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 1.5, "Commodity x86 servers; no cloud attach found" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "OpenStack plus the Virtuozzo admin panel" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Distributors and a service-provider focus; programme terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 3.5, "Native multi-tenancy and self-service through OpenStack projects (vendor claim); S3 project tenancy in 7.3 is CLI only" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "OpenStack APIs and CLI; Terraform through the OpenStack provider is an inference" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "No training or certification programme found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "Virtuozzo Storage scores on resilience: replicas or erasure coding up to 17+3 across failure domains, with degraded behaviour written down in the admin guide. It scores low on hypervisor integration because it serves the vendor's own KVM and OpenStack hosts, and the only guidance for vSphere is an older iSCSI recommendation. Commercial risk is raised by the 2026 changes: a rename, one pricing model now measured on logical terabytes where it used to be physical, a new CEO and a lifecycle policy that could not be read. A buyer should ask how logical TB is measured before comparing quotes.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/virtuozzo", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "7.0: GPU virtualization on the hosts that run the storage; S3 reads of 10 to 12 GB/s per node are a vendor figure; no AI validation of the storage", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "OpenStack APIs in Virtuozzo Infrastructure Platform; API access control announced with 8.0; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 2, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 1, "dropped": 0, "note": "GPU metering shipped in 7.3; NVIDIA R595 and vGPU 20 support was announced with 8.0 on 2026-10-15 without a stated GA." }, "ai_reading": "Virtuozzo's AI work sits in the platform around the storage: GPU virtualization in 7.0, GPU metering in 7.3 and NVIDIA vGPU 20 support announced with 8.0. The storage layer has no AI-assisted operations and no agent interface beyond the OpenStack APIs.", "mom": 5.6, "credT": 14, "commT": 15, "lockT": 11.5, "integT": 10.5 }, { "key": "starwind", "name": "StarWind Virtual SAN", "short": "StarWind VSAN", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Dependable builder under new ownership", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 13, "C": 33, "M": 27, "U": 7, "P": 20 }, "idx": 0.18, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3.5 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 4 }, "scale": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "security": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "Four builds between 2025-10-22 and 2026-09-18 after an eight-month gap; dated release notes but no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2, "Release notes and blog are public; no roadmap; the DataCore plans reach customers through press interviews" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "NVMe-oF and XCP-ng support shipped as announced in 2026; DataCore's fall 2025 management layer slipped to 2027 for StarWind" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "NVMe-oF GA, Proxmox and XCP-ng support and a Debian 13 rebase inside twelve months, otherwise fix releases" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "Offline node-by-node migration forced by the 2026-09 Debian rebase; ownership change; no published support window" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3, "Perpetual licences withdrawn for all but US federal customers after the 2025 acquisition, date not published; no price list" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Quote only, metered per usable TB, term licence by default; a free edition with unstated limits and a 30-day trial exist" ], [ "Channel and access", 2, "Direct and channel partners; free edition and trial behind registration; paid builds delivered with the licence" ], [ "Owner stability", 3.5, "Acquired in 2025 by growth-equity backed DataCore, a serial acquirer merging five products into one control plane" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3, "Support and updates only while the term licence runs; no published end-of-support dates" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Standard iSCSI, NVMe-oF, NFS and SMB outward; StarWind device images inside" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "VM-level moves with hypervisor tools and a free V2V converter; no bulk export of StarWind devices" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "Controller VM or Windows service plus a dedicated sync and heartbeat network; several hypervisors supported" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any x86 server; no cloud attach found" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "StarWind console, PowerShell and StarWindX; small skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3, "VAR programme and channel purchasing exist; terms not published" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1, "Per-LUN presentation only; no tenancy or portal" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2, "PowerShell and StarWindX; no REST API, Terraform or Ansible provider found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "No current certification programme found; free tools and a community forum" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "StarWind scores where small sites need it: a synchronous two or three node mirror that now serves vSphere, Hyper-V, oVirt, Proxmox VE and XCP-ng, with NVMe-oF added in 2026. It loses points on data services, security and data protection, partly because the product lacks them and partly because the public record does not document them; the evidence grade says so. The commercial picture changed more than the product in 2025: a new owner, term licences by default and a roadmap that merges StarWind into a platform due in 2027. A buyer should check the licence terms offered today against the perpetual contract they may hold.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/starwind", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "Build 20089: NVMe-oF shared storage usable by GPU hosts; no AI-specific validation", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "PowerShell and StarWindX library only; no REST API or MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 2, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 2, "dropped": 0, "note": "Both items are DataCore's: the AI-enabled management layer targeted for fall 2025 and the agent control plane that is to reach StarWind in 2027." }, "ai_reading": "StarWind has no AI of its own; the AI promises come from DataCore and have not reached the product. The control plane with an agent layer is in preview for other DataCore products and is not expected for StarWind before summer 2027.", "mom": 7.6, "credT": 13.5, "commT": 14, "lockT": 7.5, "integT": 7.5 }, { "key": "svsan", "name": "StorMagic SvSAN", "short": "StorMagic SvSAN", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Sharp opportunist at the edge", "grade": "B", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 31, "M": 69, "U": 0, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "perf": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "security": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "ops": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hardware": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 2.5, "SvSAN minors 6.2 (2018-06-13), 6.3 (2022-05-12) and 6.7 (2025-11-20) years apart; patch dates not published" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2, "Public lifecycle table with GA and end dates and a dated data sheet; release notes behind the support portal; no roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3.5, "SvHCI GA in summer 2024 as announced; the SvHCI 2.0 beta took about five months to GA; few SvSAN promises to test" ], [ "Velocity", 2, "SvSAN 6.7 is mainly hypervisor compatibility and performance; new capability goes into SvHCI" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 4, "Published five years of support plus two of guidance per release, with dates for 6.2, 6.3 and 6.7" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 1.5, "Per node capacity tiers, perpetual still offered; no change found since 2023, though no vendor price history is public" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 1.5, "Perpetual or subscription in six capacity tiers; two licences for a two-node cluster; caching and encryption are add-ons on perpetual" ], [ "Channel and access", 2.5, "Partner and OEM led; evaluation download public; patches, release notes and documentation need a support contract" ], [ "Owner stability", 2.5, "Independent private company; growth credit financing in 2024 and a CEO change in 2025; effort moving to SvHCI" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Long published windows, but patches need a contract and lapsed support is back-charged with a 20 percent penalty" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1.5, "Standard shared block storage to the hypervisor; SvSAN data layout inside the appliance is proprietary" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Storage vMotion or the hypervisor's own VM moves; no SvSAN export tool" ], [ "Stack coupling", 2, "A virtual storage appliance on each host plus a witness; runs under three hypervisors" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any x86 server on the hypervisor compatibility list; the Edge Control cloud console is optional" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2, "SvSAN GUI, vCenter plug-in and witness model; small skills pool" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Channel led with OEM deals (HPE, Supermicro, SNUC) and a new global partner portal; terms not published" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 1, "Not found" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2, "PowerShell script generation for multi-site deployment; no REST API, Terraform or Ansible found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "No certification programme found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "SvSAN scores where small sites need it: a synchronous two-node mirror with a shared witness, stretched clusters, FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption with KMIP key managers, and a published five plus two year support window per release, which few vendors in this Ledger publish. It loses points on data services and data protection, where the data sheet lists no snapshots, deduplication, compression or asynchronous replication, and on automation, with no REST API. Since 2024 most of the vendor's announcements concern SvHCI and OEM bundles, and SvSAN 6.7 was mainly a compatibility release. A buyer should price the caching and encryption add-ons on a perpetual licence and confirm which hypervisor versions 6.7 supports.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/svsan", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "PowerShell script generation only; no REST API or MCP server found" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "StorMagic announced no AI features for SvSAN or SvHCI from 2023 to 2026." }, "ai_reading": "SvSAN has no AI features and StorMagic has announced none. The only automation surface found is PowerShell script generation, so there is nothing an agent could drive through a documented API.", "mom": 3, "credT": 14, "commT": 10.5, "lockT": 7.5, "integT": 8 }, { "key": "xostor", "name": "Vates XOSTOR for XCP-ng", "short": "XOSTOR", "kind": "product", "group": "sds", "since": 2025, "archetype": "Dependable builder, young product", "grade": "B", "driver": "C", "mix": { "V": 10, "C": 50, "M": 30, "U": 10, "P": 0 }, "idx": 0.11, "domains": { "data": { "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "resilience": { "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "perf": { "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "hypervisor": { "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "scale": { "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "dr": { "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "security": { "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "ops": { "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hardware": { "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "k8s": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3.5, "XCP-ng 8.3 updates every few weeks with dated posts; XOSTOR changes ride on them without a version of their own" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 3.5, "Public documentation, GitHub and forum; no dated storage roadmap" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "XOSTOR went from beta (2024-10) to supported (2025-06) in eight months; QCOW2 reached GA for XCP-ng but not for XOSTOR" ], [ "Velocity", 2.5, "2026 brought fixes and database backups for XOSTOR; the storage feature work (QCOW2) landed outside it" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 3.5, "LTS until 2028-11-30 with a documented upgrade path from 8.2.1 pools; XCP-ng 9.0 undated" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2, "Published price card; a 2026 customer story mentions licensing changes without detail; no history on the record" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 2.5, "Minimum three hosts, Essential tier at a fixed price, 24/7 only with a Vates VMS subscription; the open-source base is free" ], [ "Channel and access", 1.5, "Open downloads and updates; partner programme open to MSPs, resellers, CSPs and distributors" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Founder-controlled; first outside funding in 2026 from a growth fund and a public bank" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2, "Updates free; support is an annual subscription; XOSTOR supported only on up-to-date pools" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 1, "VHD on DRBD and LVM; convertible with standard tools" ], [ "Export path", 1.5, "Xen Orchestra export of VHD and OVA; DRBD pools readable only through XCP-ng" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3, "XCP-ng 8.3 only, deployed from the Xen Orchestra Appliance, replication factor fixed at creation" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 0.5, "Any x86 server; no cloud attach" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 1.5, "XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra administration over standard Linux skills; LINSTOR and DRBD underneath" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "MSP, reseller, CSP and distributor types with a 2026 programme; terms not published" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Xen Orchestra resource sets and self-service at platform level (not re-verified); none in XOSTOR" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2.5, "Xen Orchestra REST and JSON-RPC API; Terraform and Ansible for Xen Orchestra not verified in this edition" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2, "Vates training and support; no certification programme found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "XOSTOR scores as a young, narrow product: a supported way to get shared-nothing replicated storage on XCP-ng without a SAN, and little more. Resilience and operations are solid for its size, because DRBD quorum and Xen Orchestra deployment do the work, while data services, protocols, security and scale sit at the basic level with hard limits (2040 GiB per disk, three to seven hosts, no encryption at rest). Vates publishes its prices and dates and shipped the beta to supported status in eight months. A buyer should confirm that the VHD disk cap and the fixed replication factor fit their largest VMs before building a pool.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/xostor", "ai": { "infra": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "Managed through the Xen Orchestra API; no storage-specific API or MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 1, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 1, "dropped": 0, "note": "The one item is the 2026-10 funding statement that the next platform will cover AI-related workloads." }, "ai_reading": "XOSTOR has no AI features and Vates has announced none for it beyond a funding statement about AI-related workloads on the next platform. Agents reach it only through the Xen Orchestra API.", "mom": 0, "credT": 16, "commT": 10, "lockT": 7.5, "integT": 10 }, { "key": "simplivity", "name": "HPE SimpliVity", "short": "HPE SimpliVity", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Integrated stack in transition", "grade": "C", "driver": "P", "mix": { "V": 0, "C": 10, "M": 40, "U": 0, "P": 50 }, "idx": 0, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 4, "2016": 4, "2017": 4, "2018": 4, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "perf": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 3.5, "2020": 3.5, "2021": 3.5, "2022": 3.5, "2023": 3.5, "2024": 3.5, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "scale": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "dr": { "2015": 3.5, "2016": 3.5, "2017": 3.5, "2018": 3.5, "2019": 4, "2020": 4, "2021": 4, "2022": 4, "2023": 4, "2024": 4, "2025": 4, "2026": 4 }, "security": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 }, "ops": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3.5, "2026": 3.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 3, "6.2.0.23 (2025-12-19), 6.3.0.94 (2026-04-07) and 6.3.0.98 (2026-05-19) in a public reference guide; no published rhythm" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 2, "Release reference guide is public; forward plans only in Discover keynotes" ], [ "Say-do", 3, "VM Essentials on SimpliVity was promised for Q3 2025 and the first dated build is 2025-12-19, so it may have slipped a quarter; StoreOnce Gen5 due Q3 2026 is unchecked" ], [ "Velocity", 2.5, "A second hypervisor in 2025; otherwise maintenance builds and packaging, few new storage features" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2.5, "No HPE bulletin read and trackers disagree on end dates; Hyper-V sales ended 2020; separate federations per hypervisor; renamed in 2026" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 3.5, "Perpetual licences ended 2025-07-07; term only; per node or per socket basis unclear; no price list" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 4, "HPE appliance nodes only, 3 or 5 year terms, channel only from 2026-07-01, VMware licences bought separately" ], [ "Channel and access", 3, "New business only through partners; downloads and compatibility data behind an HPE support account" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Large listed owner, but the product has been repositioned and renamed inside HPE's private cloud range" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 3.5, "Term renewals every 3 or 5 years and support tied to hardware generations with disputed end dates" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2.5, "VM disks keep the hypervisor format on SimpliVity datastores; on-disk layout and backups are proprietary" ], [ "Export path", 2.5, "Storage vMotion or VM Essentials migration to other storage; SimpliVity backups do not leave the federation" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "HPE software stack on ESXi or VM Essentials only, with a separate federation per hypervisor" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 4.5, "HPE ProLiant Gen10 and Gen11 nodes only" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 2.5, "VMware skills carry over; SimpliVity and Morpheus tooling on top" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 3.5, "Channel-only sales and a new unified HPE partner programme (2026-06); terms not read" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Morpheus provisioning wizards for VM Essentials; tenancy detail not read" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 3, "SimpliVity REST API and Morpheus automation; no Terraform provider found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 2.5, "HPE training exists but no current SimpliVity certification was verified" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": true, "reading": "SimpliVity scores on data efficiency and built-in protection: inline deduplication and compression across the federation, VM-level backups to local or remote clusters and RapidDR failover orchestration. It scores lowest on hardware freedom, since it runs only on HPE ProLiant nodes, and on security and Kubernetes, where no feature could be confirmed from the sources read. Since 2025 most changes are commercial: term licences only from 2025-07-07, channel-only sales from 2026-07-01, HPE Morpheus VM Essentials as a second hypervisor and a new name inside HPE's private cloud range. A buyer should get the end-of-support date for their node generation in writing from HPE, because third-party trackers disagree by more than a year.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/simplivity", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "agents": { "2015": 1.5, "2016": 1.5, "2017": 1.5, "2018": 1.5, "2019": 1.5, "2020": 1.5, "2021": 1.5, "2022": 1.5, "2023": 1.5, "2024": 1.5, "2025": 1.5, "2026": 1.5 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "Gen11 nodes: NVIDIA GPUs for VDI on the 325 Gen11 (QuickSpecs) and GPU passthrough in VM Essentials; no AI validation of the storage", "stack": "None", "ops": "None", "agents": "SimpliVity REST API (introduction date not sourced) and Morpheus APIs for VM Essentials; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 0, "ga": 0, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "HPE placed SimpliVity in the same stack as HPE Private Cloud AI at Discover 2026 but announced no AI feature for SimpliVity itself." }, "ai_reading": "SimpliVity has no AI features of its own; GPUs in the Gen11 nodes serve VDI and passthrough, not the storage. The agent surface is the SimpliVity REST API and the Morpheus APIs, with no MCP server.", "mom": 0.8, "credT": 13, "commT": 16, "lockT": 15.5, "integT": 11 }, { "key": "sangfor", "name": "Sangfor aSAN (inside Sangfor HCI)", "short": "Sangfor aSAN", "kind": "product", "group": "platform", "since": 2015, "archetype": "Market-window follower (grade C)", "grade": "C", "driver": "M", "mix": { "V": 13, "C": 25, "M": 50, "U": 0, "P": 13 }, "idx": 0.14, "domains": { "data": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "resilience": { "2015": 3, "2016": 3, "2017": 3, "2018": 3, "2019": 3, "2020": 3, "2021": 3, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "perf": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "hypervisor": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "scale": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "dr": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "security": { "2015": 2, "2016": 2, "2017": 2, "2018": 2, "2019": 2, "2020": 2, "2021": 2, "2022": 2, "2023": 2, "2024": 2, "2025": 2, "2026": 2 }, "ops": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 }, "hardware": { "2015": 2.5, "2016": 2.5, "2017": 2.5, "2018": 2.5, "2019": 2.5, "2020": 2.5, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 3, "2023": 3, "2024": 3, "2025": 3, "2026": 3 }, "k8s": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 2.5, "2022": 2.5, "2023": 2.5, "2024": 2.5, "2025": 2.5, "2026": 2.5 } }, "cred": [ [ "Cadence", 2.5, "About two versions a year per the vendor, but the visible sequence shows 6.10.0 in 2024-06 and 7.0.0 in 2026-09" ], [ "Roadmap transparency", 1, "No public release notes or roadmap; documents behind a support login" ], [ "Say-do", 2.5, "Not assessable; no dated pre-announcements were found" ], [ "Velocity", 3, "6.10.0 added RDMA, SPDK and HA 2.0; 7.0.0 lists Metro Cluster and replication items" ], [ "Lifecycle stability", 2, "No lifecycle policy found" ] ], "comm": [ [ "Price and licence volatility", 2.5, "No price list; reviewers describe perpetual and yearly licences and complex SKUs" ], [ "Purchase constraints", 3, "Quote only; storage only inside Sangfor HCI" ], [ "Channel and access", 3.5, "Documentation and downloads behind a support login; some support from China per reviewers" ], [ "Owner stability", 2, "Listed company with stable founders; China-led, with sanctions and procurement status for the buyer's jurisdiction unchecked" ], [ "Cost of staying supported", 2.5, "Reviewers report annual support of about 10 to 15 percent of licence cost; lifecycle unknown" ] ], "risk": "commercial", "lock": [ [ "Formats", 2, "QCOW2 disks per the China aSV page; OVA and OVF export listed" ], [ "Export path", 2, "OVA and OVF export; no documented bulk export" ], [ "Stack coupling", 3.5, "Storage only inside Sangfor HCI with aSV" ], [ "Hardware / cloud coupling", 2, "Software-based SKU on x86 or Sangfor appliances" ], [ "Skills and tooling coupling", 3.5, "Proprietary Sangfor tooling; limited command line on appliances; skills concentrated in Asia" ] ], "integ": [ [ "Partner programme openness", 2.5, "Large regional channel (more than 800 partners in Malaysia per CRN Asia); programme terms not found" ], [ "Multi-tenancy and self-service", 2, "Not found for HCI" ], [ "API and infrastructure-as-code", 2.5, "About 300 APIs claimed; documentation behind a login; no Terraform found" ], [ "Skills and certification", 1.5, "No certification found" ] ], "alt": null, "ranked": false, "reading": "Sangfor aSAN is listed for reference and not ranked, because no dated release since 2025-10-15 could be confirmed from a primary source. What could be read describes replicated HCI storage with two or three copies, SSD caching and tiering, RDMA and SPDK since 6.10.0 and a CSI driver since 6.2.0, used only under Sangfor's own hypervisor. The low credibility and high channel scores come from the closed record: release notes, lifecycle and documentation sit behind a support login, and some support comes from China according to user reviews. A buyer should get the 7.0.0 release notes and a written lifecycle before comparing it with ranked products, and check sanctions and procurement lists for their jurisdiction.", "report": "/reports/virtualization-storage-ledger-2026/sangfor", "ai": { "infra": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "stack": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 0, "2025": 0, "2026": 0 }, "ops": { "2015": 0, "2016": 0, "2017": 0, "2018": 0, "2019": 0, "2020": 0, "2021": 0, "2022": 0, "2023": 0, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 }, "agents": { "2015": 1, "2016": 1, "2017": 1, "2018": 1, "2019": 1, "2020": 1, "2021": 1, "2022": 1, "2023": 1, "2024": 1, "2025": 1, "2026": 1 } }, "ai_basis": { "infra": "None", "stack": "None", "ops": "6.10.0: HA 2.0 and DRS 2.0 forecast resource use 12 hours ahead (vendor claim); compute scheduling, nothing storage-specific", "agents": "About 300 APIs claimed by the vendor; documentation behind the support login; no MCP server" }, "ai_ledger": { "announced": 1, "ga": 1, "preview": 0, "pending": 0, "dropped": 0, "note": "AI forecasting in HA 2.0 and DRS 2.0 is counted as shipped on the 6.10.0 launch webinar; no release note confirms it." }, "ai_reading": "Sangfor uses AI forecasting for VM placement and HA in 6.10.0, which concerns compute scheduling. aSAN itself has no AI features on the record and no agent interface beyond a claimed API set.", "mom": 1.2, "credT": 11, "commT": 13.5, "lockT": 13, "integT": 8.5 } ] }