vSAN and Your Storage Strategy After Broadcom
The Broadcom changes to VMware are usually discussed as a licensing problem. For anyone running vSAN, they are also a storage problem. The cost of your hyperconverged storage is now tied to your core count and your licensing tier, which quietly changes the case for keeping storage inside the hypervisor at all. Here is the storage view, vendor neutral, from people who have built on both vSAN and external arrays.
Most of the noise since the Broadcom acquisition has been about renewal quotes and per core subscriptions. That is the right thing to worry about, but if you run vSAN there is a second order effect that is easy to miss. Your storage is now licensed as part of the hypervisor, on the same per core terms, which means a decision you made years ago, to fuse compute and storage into one platform, now carries a cost structure you did not sign up for. This guide looks at that storage angle specifically, and at the question it forces. It does not rehearse the architecture of moving away from hyperconverged, that is a separate piece, it asks whether your storage should still be tied to your hypervisor licence at all.
What actually changed with vSAN under Broadcom
vSAN did not stand still while the rest of VMware moved to subscription. It moved with it. The practical shape of the change is straightforward, even if the detail is fiddly. Perpetual vSAN licences gave way to subscription, priced per physical core like everything else. A set amount of usable vSAN capacity is now included per core inside the two bundles, VMware vSphere Foundation and the fuller VMware Cloud Foundation, with the larger entitlement sitting in the higher tier. Capacity beyond that allowance is bought as an add on.
The effect is subtle but important. Your usable hyperconverged storage is now a function of how many cores you license and which tier you buy, not a separate line you size and price on its own. If your storage need per core is modest, the included capacity may cover you and the storage feels almost free. If your data footprint is large relative to your compute, you are into add on capacity, and the cost climbs in a way that is bound to your hypervisor contract rather than to a storage market you can shop.
The question is no longer just how much vSAN costs. It is what your storage cost is now attached to. Under the new model, your hyperconverged capacity rises and falls with your core count and your VMware tier, so your storage refresh, your storage growth and your hypervisor renewal have become one entangled commercial event rather than three decisions you can take separately.
Why your hyperconverged storage now costs what it does
When vSAN was bought outright and bundled with hardware in something like VxRail, the storage cost was largely a hardware and a one time licence cost. You refreshed it on its own cycle and the maths was self contained. Under subscription, three things changed at once. The licence became recurring, so it never stops. It became per core, so dense modern processors raise the bill even when your data has not grown. And the storage capacity became a tiered entitlement, so growing your data can mean buying more VMware rather than more disk.
For some estates none of this bites. If you run a balanced ratio of compute to capacity, sit comfortably inside the included allowance, and value the operational simplicity of one fused platform, vSAN can remain a sound and even economical choice. The point is not that vSAN is suddenly bad. It is mature, well integrated and genuinely good at what it does. The point is that the conditions under which it is the cheapest option have narrowed, and the only way to know which side of the line you fall on is to model your own numbers rather than assume the answer you reached three years ago still holds.
The question this forces: is your storage tied to the right thing?
Strip away the product names and the choice underneath is architectural. Hyperconverged storage ties your data to your hypervisor hosts and, now, to your hypervisor licence. That is elegant when the ratios fit and the bundle suits you. It is awkward when your storage and compute want to grow at different rates, refresh on different cycles, or live under different commercial pressure. The Broadcom change has not created that tension, it has made it visible and put a recurring price on it.
So the useful reframe is this. Ask what you want your storage cost to track. If you are content for it to track your VMware estate, core for core, vSAN inside the bundle is coherent. If you would rather your storage cost track your data and your chosen storage vendor, on a refresh cycle you control, then an external array starts to look less like a step backwards and more like a way to decouple two things that were only ever bundled for convenience.
Why some organisations are looking again at external arrays
We are seeing more estates put external storage back on the table, and the reasons are consistent. An external array, with hosts that run vSphere but keep their data on a dedicated platform, lets you step outside the vSAN tied portion of the licensing maths. Your storage capacity is then priced and refreshed as storage, in a competitive market with several credible vendors, rather than as an entitlement inside a hypervisor contract. You can scale capacity without buying more cores, and scale cores without buying more storage.
There are real trade offs, and honesty matters here. An external array reintroduces a SAN or network storage fabric and the operational model that comes with it, which is exactly the complexity hyperconverged was sold to remove. It is more moving parts, not fewer. For a small or simple estate that genuinely values the all in one model, that complexity may not be worth it. For a larger estate, or one facing a sharp uplift or a storage refresh anyway, the ability to separate the storage decision from the VMware decision is often worth the extra architecture. This is a judgement, not a slogan, and it turns on your scale, your data growth and your appetite for managing storage as its own discipline again.
The architecture of actually moving from a fused platform to separate hosts and an external array, the data mobility, the cutover, the SAN considerations, is a job in its own right. We cover that mechanics in our guide on disaggregating from HCI. This piece is deliberately about the strategy and the cost calculus that decides whether you should look at it at all.
How to think about storage independently of the hypervisor
The healthiest way to approach this is to separate two questions that the bundle has glued together. First, what do you want your hypervisor to be, and do you intend to stay on VMware. Second, where do you want your data to live and what do you want it to cost. These are genuinely different decisions, and the subscription model has obscured that by making one licence answer both.
Pull them apart and the analysis gets cleaner. Model your real usable capacity need and your growth, then price that need three ways: inside vSAN at your core count and tier, on an external array on the open storage market, and on your current path with no change. Add the operating model honestly to each, because the cheapest licence is not the cheapest outcome if it doubles your storage administration. The answer that falls out is specific to your estate, and it is often not the one you would have guessed from the headline renewal number alone.
Who should look again, and who should stay
There is no universal answer, but there are recognisable profiles. The right move depends on your scale, your data to compute ratio and where you are in your refresh cycle.
Lean toward staying on vSAN
Smaller or balanced estates that value simplicity
If your compute to capacity ratio sits inside the included allowance, your estate is modest, and the operational simplicity of one fused platform is worth real money to you, vSAN inside the bundle can still be the right and the cheaper call. Model it to confirm, then move on.
Look again at external storage
Larger or capacity heavy estates facing an uplift
If your data footprint is large relative to your cores, you are buying add on vSAN capacity, or you face a sharp renewal uplift and a storage refresh at the same time, the case for decoupling your storage from the hypervisor licence is strongest. An external array lets you shop storage as storage.
Use a refresh as the decision point
Anyone with an array or appliance approaching end of life
A refresh is the natural moment to decide, because you are spending anyway. Rather than buying the next appliance by reflex, price the external option on the same terms. The switching cost you would pay later is lowest when you are already replacing the kit.
What we would do first
Before any architecture decision, get the numbers honest. That means establishing your real usable capacity today and your growth trend, your core counts and your current VMware tier, and the included vSAN allowance against what you actually consume. From there, model the three paths above on a consistent basis, with the operating model costed into each. Only then does the storage versus vSAN question have a real answer rather than a hunch. If you are also weighing whether to stay on VMware at all, that decision sits alongside this one and is covered in our guide on whether to leave VMware, but keep the two separate in your analysis, because you can change your storage without changing your hypervisor.
How C4C helps
This is squarely our ground. We came from the storage market, we have architected and sold both hyperconverged platforms and external arrays, and we know how the vSAN entitlements and the array quotes are really built. We will model your storage cost across vSAN and the external options on a consistent basis, separate the storage decision from the hypervisor decision so each is made on its merits, and help you choose and execute the right path. We have no array to defend and no preferred destination, so the recommendation is the one that fits your estate and your numbers.
Rethinking your storage after the vSAN changes?
Send us your situation or your refresh and we will give you an evidence based view: what your storage really costs inside vSAN, what the external options look like on the same basis, and which path fits your estate. Independent, with no array to sell and no preferred vendor. We came from inside the storage market.
Prefer email? Reach us directly at hello@c4cgroup.co.uk.
Frequently asked questions
Does VMware vSAN still make sense after the Broadcom changes?
For many estates, yes. vSAN is mature and well integrated, and where it is bundled into licensing you already need, it can be effectively included. The change is that its cost is now tied to your core count and your licensing tier, so the question is whether bundling your storage to the hypervisor still suits you, not whether vSAN works.
How did Broadcom change vSAN licensing?
vSAN moved to the per core subscription model along with the rest of VMware. A set amount of vSAN capacity is included per core within the VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation tiers, and capacity beyond that is bought as an add on. So your usable hyperconverged storage now scales with cores and licensing rather than being priced on its own.
Is an external array cheaper than vSAN now?
Sometimes, not always. It depends on your core count, how much capacity you need per core, your performance profile and your refresh timing. The point is not that external is always cheaper, it is that an external array decouples your storage cost and refresh from the per core hypervisor licensing, which changes the comparison.
Should I move my storage off vSAN?
Only if the numbers and your workloads say so. For some estates vSAN remains the right answer. For others, especially those facing a large uplift or a refresh, an external array on disaggregated hosts can be the cleaner long term position. It is a decision to make on evidence, not a reflex.
What is the difference between this and disaggregating from HCI?
This guide is about the storage strategy and the licensing calculus, why the vSAN changes make external storage worth reconsidering. The architecture mechanics of moving from hyperconverged to a three tier design with an external array are covered in our disaggregation guide, which this links to.
Does leaving vSAN mean leaving VMware?
No. You can run vSphere on external arrays and step outside only the vSAN tied portion of the licensing maths. Decoupling your storage is a separate decision from whether you stay on the VMware hypervisor at all, which we cover in our guide on whether to leave VMware.