VMware VSAN enables pooling both storage and compute resources from host computers that run Vsphere. Using VSAN, we can create distributed datastores across multiple hosts. Provisioning is very simple, thanks to Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM). The performance of these datastores is very high, due to the SSD based caching mechanism. In addition, VSAN seamlessly integrates with Vsphere and vCenter.
My favorite VSAN feature is the “Resiliency”, or the protection against multiple failures that has been baked into the product. VSAN leverages all standard RAID features to ensure that data loss is simply not possible. Multiple copies of data are stored, spread across multiple hosts. SPBM enables admins to define availability and protection on a per-VM basis, rather than a one size fits all approach. Even the number of copies of specific data items can be defined. Thus disks, controllers, networks, and entire systems can fail, but there is no loss of data or performance.
Systems continue to run in spite of a failure, enabling a highly available and resilient system.