How to Eliminate Future Storage Refreshes with an Enterprise-Class vSAN

A storage refresh is often a costly and time-consuming process, forcing IT teams to evaluate, purchase, and migrate data every few years. The traditional approach of investing in dedicated storage arrays or single-vendor hyperconverged systems locks organizations into rigid, short-term solutions that require expensive forklift upgrades whenever performance, capacity, or workload requirements change. Even so-called “forever storage” includes a forever subscription cost that, over a few years, exceeds the price of a new system. (Funny how that works)

Instead of repeating this cycle every three to five years, IT teams should consider a long-term, future-proof storage strategy. By implementing an enterprise-class vSAN that supports multiple types of hardware, various storage media, and diverse workloads, organizations can eliminate the need for future storage refresh projects.

Why Traditional Storage Refreshes Are Unsustainable

Most IT teams today follow a traditional storage refresh cycle driven by one of these factors:

• Aging hardware that can no longer meet performance or capacity demands
• End-of-life (EOL) support for proprietary storage systems
• New workload requirements that require significant infrastructure upgrades
• Unpredictable growth that outpaces current storage capacity

The problem with traditional storage architectures—whether dedicated all-flash arrays, hybrid storage, or legacy vSAN implementations—is that they often require vendor-specific hardware and have inflexible scaling models. These limitations force IT teams into a never-ending cycle of storage refreshes, replacing entire systems rather than expanding and evolving existing infrastructure.

How an Enterprise-Class vSAN Eliminates Storage Refreshes

An enterprise-class vSAN is designed to adapt and scale over time, eliminating the need for forklift upgrades and storage refreshes. Instead of relying on vendor-specific appliances or monolithic storage arrays, an advanced vSAN:

• Integrates with the hypervisor instead of being a VM of it. Storage is not a second-class citizen and does not have to deal with the multi-hop nature of running as an application inside a VM.
• Supports multiple hardware types – IT teams can mix and match servers, storage devices, and GPU-powered nodes from different manufacturers.
• Works with diverse storage media – High-performance NVMe, cost-effective SSDs, and large-capacity HDDs can all coexist in the same system.
• Handles multiple workload types – High-performance computing (HPC), AI/ML training, VDI with GPUs, and large-scale data archives can all run within the same vSAN.
• Adapts to New Hardware – Uses narrow AI, it can adapt to new hardware instead of inserting specific support in the code. As a result, it can support hardware over a decade old while simultaneously supporting hardware released within the last month.
• Allows seamless scaling – Adding more nodes can expand capacity and increase performance incrementally, avoiding disruptive migrations.

Implementing a highly flexible, multi-purpose vSAN means that IT teams no longer need to rip and replace their storage every few years. Instead, the storage system evolves with the business, continuously adapting to new technology trends and workload demands.

The Key to a Future-Proof Storage Strategy: Hardware and Workload Flexibility

An enterprise-class vSAN should be able to handle a wide range of workloads across different storage and compute configurations. This level of flexibility ensures that organizations never outgrow their storage solution.

High-Performance Workloads

For workloads requiring extreme low-latency, high-throughput storage performance, an enterprise-class vSAN must support:

• NVMe storage acceleration for ultra-fast read/write speeds
• Parallelized data processing to eliminate storage bottlenecks
• High-speed networking to keep up with compute-intensive tasks

This capability is critical for industries like financial modeling, scientific research, and real-time analytics, where milliseconds matter.

AI and Machine Learning Workloads

AI and machine learning (ML) workloads consume vast amounts of data and require a scalable, high-performance storage infrastructure that can:

• Store and retrieve petabyte-scale datasets efficiently
• Optimize GPU acceleration for deep learning model training
• Dynamically adjust resource allocation for AI inference workloads

A future-proof vSAN must seamlessly integrate with GPUs and high-speed storage, ensuring AI/ML pipelines run without storage constraints.

VDI with GPU Acceleration

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workloads demand highly responsive storage, particularly when paired with GPU acceleration for graphics-intensive applications. An enterprise-class vSAN must:

• Support both CPU and GPU-powered virtual desktops
• Ensure low-latency performance for thousands of concurrent users
• Deliver cost-efficient scaling for growing VDI environments

This is especially important for healthcare, media production, and engineering industries, where high-performance virtual desktops are essential.

High-Capacity Workloads

Many organizations must retain large-scale data archives, backups, and unstructured datasets for compliance, analytics, or long-term storage. A future-proof vSAN should:

• Support multi-tier storage with HDD, SSD, and NVMe options
• Provide data tiering to optimize cost and performance
• Enable seamless expansion without migrating data between storage systems

With the right architecture, IT teams can scale storage indefinitely, ensuring they never run out of capacity.

VergeOS: A True Enterprise-Class vSAN That Ends Storage Refresh Cycles

VergeOS is a next-generation data center operating system that eliminates the need for future storage refreshes by:

• Supporting diverse hardware – Mix and match different manufacturers’ servers, GPUs, and storage devices.
• Leverage Existing Hardware – Solve two problems with one solution. Leverage your servers that used to run VMware to run VergeOS and permanently replace your storage controllers.
• Integrating multiple storage tiers – NVMe, SSD, and HDD coexist within the same system, with intelligent data placement.
• Delivering extreme performance scalability – Handle AI/ML, HPC, and high-transaction workloads without bottlenecks.
• Providing seamless workload flexibility – Run VDI, high-capacity archives, and real-time analytics on the same platform.
• Eliminating vendor lock-in – Choose hardware based on best price/performance, not compatibility lists.

Unlike legacy vSANs or traditional storage arrays, VergeOS allows IT teams to continuously evolve their infrastructure instead of replacing it every few years.

Conclusion: The Last Storage Refresh You’ll Ever Need

The days of frequent, disruptive storage refreshes should be over. Instead of buying another dedicated storage array or locked-down HCI appliance, IT teams should implement an enterprise-class vSAN that can evolve with their needs.

By adopting a solution like VergeOS, organizations can:

• Eliminate future storage refreshes by using a flexible, scalable vSAN
• Consolidate multiple workloads onto a single, high-performance infrastructure
• Support new AI, HPC, VDI, and high-capacity demands without replacing storage
• Scale performance and capacity on demand without forklift upgrades

The future of IT infrastructure is built for adaptability—and with the right vSAN, your next storage refresh can be your last.