---
# source: src/content/solutions/en/vmware/vmware-cloud-foundation/vmware-vsan.md
# route:  /en/solutions/vmware/vmware-cloud-foundation/vmware-vsan/
title: VCF Storage
tags: [storage, virtualization]
vendors: [vmware]
summary: The local disks in your ESXi hosts become one shared datastore. Storage managed in the vSphere client instead of in a second console.
photoNeed: "A vSphere or VCF console on a real screen at soulTec: a cluster view, a running task, an inventory tree, so the reader should recognise the UI"
stub: false
draft: false
kind: product
formerly: vSAN
editions: [vvf, vcf]
addon: false
sourceNote: "Broadcom, VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 and VMware vSphere Foundation 9.1: Feature Comparison & Upgrade Paths, read 2026-08-28"
vendorName: VMware VCF Storage
status: current
---

## What it is

vSAN aggregates the disks attached locally to ESXi hosts into a single datastore. As
software-defined storage it builds highly available storage for a vSphere cluster, managed
from the vSphere client.

Architecturally that is hyperconverged: compute, networking and storage in the same x86
servers rather than in separate tiers.

## Why it matters

Choosing storage is tedious, and much of the effort is not technical but the seam between
two areas of responsibility. With vSAN the storage sits where the virtualization already
sits, which is one console fewer and one alignment meeting fewer.

vSAN is also the intended storage for VMware Cloud Foundation, which largely settles the
question inside a VCF estate.

## What to watch

Hyperconvergence couples compute and capacity. Need only storage and you buy hosts with it;
need only compute and you buy disks with it. Where that ratio is permanently lopsided a
separate tier is cheaper, which is exactly what approaches like dHCI are for.