---
# 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.

## Management and use in VCF

When choosing storage, much of the effort comes from the seam between two areas of
responsibility. With vSAN the storage sits where the virtualization already sits and is
managed from the same console.

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, for example with dHCI.