Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation program documentation (June 2026) states that “Customer is entitled to 1 TiB of vSAN capacity for each Core licensed for VCF.” Because vSAN pools the local drives of the ESX hosts in a cluster, the storage decision and the hypervisor decision tend to get made together, and teams weighing vSAN alternatives are usually weighing both.
This brief maps the realistic vSAN alternatives in 2026: staying HCI on vSAN or Nutanix, or decoupling storage onto external arrays from Everpure (formerly Pure Storage), NetApp or Dell, arrays that now integrate with more than one hypervisor. The core argument: pick storage for data gravity and exit optionality, not for whichever hypervisor you happen to run this year.
Comparing platforms? The VMware Alternatives Tracker lists licensing, published prices, free options and migration tools for each platform, dated against the vendor’s own pages.
What changed
Broadcom’s current program documentation sets the vSAN capacity included with each subscription. For VCF it is 1 TiB per licensed core, and “vSAN can only be aggregated and utilized across Cores where the vSphere in VCF is deployed.” The vSphere Foundation (VVF) document sets “0.25 TiB of vSAN capacity for each Core licensed for VVF.” Broadcom’s core-counting knowledge base article says vSAN capacity licensing “is based on the total raw physical storage (in TiBs)” contributed to vSAN clusters, and that customers “can purchase an additional quantity of vSAN capacity” above the entitlement. Because the count is raw, usable capacity is lower: Broadcom’s vSAN documentation notes that one failure to tolerate with RAID 1 “requires twice the virtual disk size.”
Meanwhile, the external storage vendors stopped being VMware-only. Nutanix made Dell PowerFlex the first external storage for its compute clusters, generally available on April 30, 2025, and took its Pure Storage FlashArray integration to general availability on December 10, 2025. At .NEXT on April 7, 2026, Nutanix extended that support from the //X and //XL to the //C FlashArray, and Dell PowerStore followed with NCI 7.6 on July 28, 2026. (Pure Storage is now Everpure.) NetApp ONTAP is the exception, announced but not yet shipping: Nutanix announced the NFS-based integration for AFF A-series and select FAS systems on April 7, 2026, and its September 29, 2026 blog says it is “planned for availability this Fall with an upcoming Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure release.” And the clock matters: the vSphere 8 end-of-support timeline sets a deadline for many vSphere shops.
Why it matters
Storage is where the switching costs live. Compute holds little state: you can migrate, rebuild or re-image your way off a hypervisor. Petabytes are harder to move. If your data sits inside vSAN datastores, it follows your VMware decision whether you like it or not. If it sits on an external array that more than one hypervisor can use, the hypervisor becomes a shorter-lived decision than the storage under it.
For a VCF subscriber, the comparison starts from one sourced fact: the subscription already includes 1 TiB of raw vSAN capacity per licensed core, and capacity beyond that is purchased separately. Count that included capacity before pricing an external array against it.
Path 1: Stay HCI with vSAN under VCF, or Nutanix
vSAN is Broadcom’s software-defined storage for vSphere: it “aggregates local or direct-attached capacity devices of all ESX hosts in a cluster” into one shared pool. For a VCF subscriber, capacity up to the entitlement is already part of the subscription, so for a stable, VMware-standardized estate that plans to stay on VCF, using it is the straightforward choice. The risk is not technical: the more data lands in vSAN, the more data has to move if the estate ever leaves vSphere.
Nutanix is the other HCI answer, and the recent twist is that it’s no longer HCI-only. AHV plus AOS gives you a vSAN-like operational model with a different licensing counterparty: Nutanix says NCI licenses are “purchased and applied on the number of physical CPU cores capacity in your deployment.” Nutanix now also lets you attach external storage rather than forcing everything into its own distributed fabric, and the brief on Nutanix external storage as a VMware exit ramp covers that shift in depth. Nutanix fits shops that want the HCI operating model without VMware licensing; it does not fit shops with heavy vSphere-specific tooling they aren’t ready to rewrite, and the migration is still a real project.
Path 2: Decouple onto external arrays
The decoupling case rests on one fact: the major array vendors now integrate with the hypervisors people are actually migrating to.
Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) FlashArray has been generally available with Nutanix since December 10, 2025. Each virtual disk maps 1:1 to its own array volume (per the Nutanix Cloud Bible), so users can “apply array services like snapshots and QoS at the virtual disk level.” In April 2026 Nutanix added the //C FlashArray and synchronous disaster recovery, and Nutanix Move 6.3 adds zero-copy migrations that clone VMware vVol disks inside the same FlashArray. Everpure’s Evergreen model (“ongoing, non-disruptive upgrades,” per the launch post) suits an array meant to outlive the hypervisor above it. Strong fit: shops that want one storage platform under vSphere today and AHV tomorrow. Weak spot: the AHV integration is young, generally available only since December 2025.
NetApp ONTAP systems such as AFF and FAS counter with breadth. NetApp says ONTAP supports “NFS, SMB, FC, FCoE, iSCSI, NVMe, and S3,” and NetApp publishes Proxmox VE and OpenShift Virtualization solution guides. The caveat: the Nutanix integration is planned rather than shipping, so treat it as a future option until Nutanix announces general availability. If your estate mixes VM storage with large file workloads, ONTAP can serve both from one system. The cost is complexity: ONTAP’s flexibility means more configuration choices to learn. The Everpure vs NetApp comparison breaks down where each wins.
Dell brings two options. PowerFlex is software-defined storage that the Nutanix integration reaches through Dell’s SDC (Storage Data Client), and Nutanix positions it for “large mission-critical environments where scalability and performance are essential.” It was the first external storage Nutanix integrated with its platform. PowerStore, Dell’s all-flash array, joined with NCI 7.6 on July 28, 2026, over NVMe/TCP, with deployment automated through Dell Private Cloud. Both fit Dell-standardized shops, and PowerFlex is aimed at large estates rather than small ones.
Side-by-side: the three storage paths
| vSAN under VCF | Nutanix AOS | External arrays (Everpure, NetApp, Dell) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fits | Committed VCF shops using the included capacity | HCI operating model without Broadcom | Data gravity, mixed or changing hypervisors |
| Hypervisor coupling | Total: vSAN pools the drives of ESX hosts | High, but external storage support loosens it | Low: vSphere, AHV through Nutanix integrations, and Proxmox VE over iSCSI or Fibre Channel |
| Licensing model | 1 TiB per VCF core included (raw); more is purchased | Subscription per physical CPU core (NCI) | Bought separately from the hypervisor |
| Exit optionality | Weakest: data moves when you leave | Moderate: external storage support helps | Strongest: array outlives the hypervisor |
| Watch out for | Entitlement TiBs are raw, not usable | Migration effort, vSphere tooling rewrite | Paying for capacity a VCF subscription already includes |
The honest downsides of each path
Staying on vSAN means your storage exit cost grows with every TiB you land there, and your DR and data protection tooling stays tied to vSphere.
Decoupling isn’t free either. If you hold a VCF subscription, an external array adds storage spend on top of vSAN capacity the subscription already includes. Array-based estates need SAN or dedicated Ethernet fabric skills that many HCI-era teams let atrophy. And multi-hypervisor integrations are young: the Nutanix and NetApp integration is NFS-based and not yet generally available, and the FlashArray integration with AHV, generally available since December 2025, has fewer production miles than long-standing vSphere integrations. Nutanix as a middle path carries its own migration tax. Nobody exits this decision clean; you’re choosing which costs you can live with.
What to do about it
Three rules of thumb:
- If you’re staying on VCF: use the included vSAN capacity, but consider keeping new data-heavy workloads (databases, file shares, analytics) on storage more than one hypervisor can use, so the amount of data tied to vSphere doesn’t grow.
- If you’re shrinking your VMware footprint substantially: move storage first. Land data on an external array with AHV and Proxmox support before you migrate compute, because data gravity is the exit blocker, not the hypervisor.
- If you’re undecided: avoid storage purchases that lock you to a single hypervisor, and ask each array vendor for its current, dated support status with AHV and the other hypervisors on your list, in writing.
The one-liner for the steering committee: storage decisions now outlive hypervisor decisions, so make the storage call for the estate you expect to run at the end of the array’s life, not the one you licensed years ago.
Frequently asked questions
Is vSAN included with VCF?
Yes. Broadcom’s VCF program documentation says “Customer is entitled to 1 TiB of vSAN capacity for each Core licensed for VCF,” and the VVF document sets 0.25 TiB per core. Additional capacity can be purchased. Broadcom counts vSAN capacity as raw physical storage, so usable capacity depends on your data protection choices, such as RAID 1 mirroring or RAID 5 and RAID 6 erasure coding.
What are the alternatives to vSAN in 2026?
It depends on your exit posture. For shops staying on VCF, the included vSAN capacity is the default. Shops leaving VMware can choose Nutanix AOS for a like-for-like HCI model, or external arrays (Everpure FlashArray, NetApp ONTAP, Dell PowerFlex or PowerStore) when data gravity and multi-hypervisor flexibility matter more than operational simplicity.
Can Nutanix use external storage instead of its own HCI storage?
Yes. Dell PowerFlex has been generally available since April 30, 2025, Everpure (formerly Pure Storage) FlashArray since December 10, 2025, with the //C added in April 2026, and Dell PowerStore since NCI 7.6 on July 28, 2026. NetApp AFF and select FAS systems over NFS are announced but not yet generally available; Nutanix’s September 29, 2026 blog says the integration is “planned for availability this Fall.”
Is HCI still cheaper than a SAN?
There is no general answer. For a VCF subscriber, vSAN capacity up to 1 TiB per licensed core is part of the subscription, so the comparison is that subscription against an array purchase plus whichever hypervisor runs above it. Price both for your own capacity, refresh cycle and hypervisor plans.
Enterprise Techie sends vendor-honest analysis like this once a week. Get the brief by email, free.
Buying? Start from RFPhub’s free Virtualization Platform RFP template.