A major advantage of vSAN is that it is natively integrated with vSphere—in fact it’s the only vSphere-embedded storage solution available! As a result of this architecture customers benefit from management simplicity, high performance and a natural way to evolve to HCI. But up to now, that tight relationship also meant that vSAN releases were only available tied to major vSphere updates.
New Release Mechanism
Now, we have developed a new release mechanism to deliver vSAN innovation independent of a major vSphere update. This gives us more independence in pushing out new vSAN capabilities independent of a major vSphere release or update. The change is a testament to the rapid innovation pouring out of the VMware vSAN engineering team.
The new process allows us to introduce new vSAN features not only in major vSphere releases and updates, but now also through standard vSphere patches that occur much more frequently. What this means is that future vSphere patches may contain significant new vSAN features and capabilities that were previously reserved for major vSphere updates.
Continued Innovation
This is exciting news for current (and prospective) customers that are turning to hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) powered by vSAN in part because of the rapid pace of innovation and rich set of data services. Each vSAN release will now specify the appropriate vSphere release for accessing our latest features.
In the future if you are preparing to install a standard vSphere patch and see messages about new vSAN capabilities, now you’ll know it could mean a significant update to your vSAN environment. Before installing, be sure to understand the impact on your vSAN environment and proceed appropriately. And then of course grab a cupcake, close your eyes and pretend you just received an early birthday present!
Ready to modernize your infrastructure with vSAN, learn more about How to Get Started with HCI.
