Optimizing cost and performance
VMware environments follow a subscription-based capital expenditure (CAPEX) model that requires large upfront investments. Organizations maximize their initial investment through storage efficiency techniques including vSAN-based consolidation, deduplication, and compression. This approach demands careful capacity planning and periodic resource reallocation to optimize hardware utilization.
AWS operates on an operational expenditure (OPEX) model with pay-as-you-go pricing, eliminating large upfront investments. Organizations optimize costs through automated features like Amazon S3 intelligent-tiering, lifecycle policies, and multiple storage classes that automatically adjust based on access patterns. This model allows dynamic scaling aligned with actual demand rather than projected capacity, as summarized in the following table.
Aspect |
VMware |
AWS |
|---|---|---|
Storage efficiency |
Relies on traditional storage management techniques using datastores for consolidation and vSAN for deduplication and compression. VMware also offers thin provisioning to optimize initial storage allocation.
|
Provides automated efficiency through S3 Intelligent-Tiering that automatically moves data between tiers and incremental EBS snapshots that save only changed data. Lifecycle policies automate data transfers across storage tiers.
|
Resource allocation |
Requires upfront planning and static allocation of resources, which can lead to overprovisioning and periodic manual adjustments.
|
Follows an elastic scaling model where resources are allocated based on usage, with no need for upfront capacity planning or automatic scaling.
|
Analytics tools |
Uses vCenter and VMware Aria for analytics, focusing on predictive storage needs and capacity planning. |
Provides comprehensive tools like AWS Cost Explorer for cost analysis, Trusted Advisor for optimization, and CloudWatch for monitoring, along with S3 storage class analysis for usage patterns. |
Cost optimization |
Relies on manual approaches through storage resource pools and storage consolidation, requiring manual management of cost optimization.
|
Automates cost optimization through features like automated storage tiering and lifecycle policies. AWS also provides sizing recommendations and various storage classes to choose from.
|
As summarized in the following list, VMware provides built-in tools and integrations with third-party software for monitoring the performance of storage resources:
-
vSphere client and vCenter – VMware vSphere client and vCenter offer performance dashboards that monitor the health and performance of storage resources like datastores, vSAN, and VMs. These dashboards have metrics for latency, throughput, and I/O operations per second (IOPS), helping administrators identify bottlenecks and performance issues.
-
vSAN performance service – VMware provides a built-in vSAN performance service tool that monitors cluster performance, including disk group activity, network throughput, and VM performance, offering performance insights.
-
Third-party tools – VMware supports third-party tools for advanced monitoring and alerting. These tools provide historical data, custom reporting, and predictive analytics for storage performance.
Comparing storage performance between VMware and AWS
Optimizing VMware performance
-
Storage DRS – VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) balances workloads across datastores based on performance and capacity metrics, automating VM migrations to avoid performance bottlenecks.
-
vSAN optimization – VMware vSAN is optimized by adjusting settings like disk striping and cache policies while ensuring sufficient network bandwidth between cluster nodes. Additionally, IOPS limits can be set per VM to control resource allocation.
-
Thin and thick provisioning – In VMware, using thick provisioning can improve performance by pre-allocating storage, reducing the overhead caused by expanding thin-provisioned storage as data is written.
Optimizing AWS performance
-
Amazon EBS volume optimization – Choose io2 for high IOPS requirements or gp3 for balanced performance. Increase performance by resizing volumes or upgrading volume types without instance downtime. Configure standalone volumes or RAID arrays, create snapshots for backup, and migrate between Availability Zones as needed.
-
Amazon S3 performance – Use multipart uploads for large files, enable transfer acceleration for global transfers, and distribute requests across multiple prefixes to avoid throttling.
-
Amazon EFS throughput – Choose throughput for variable workloads or throughput for consistent high-performance requirements.
Capacity planning for VMware storage resources and AWS cost optimization tools
-
VMware capacity planning – Use vCenter and vRealize operations to monitor datastore usage and forecast storage requirements based on historical trends. Monitor thin provisioning carefully to prevent physical storage exhaustion.
-
AWS cost optimization – Use AWS Cost Explorer and Trusted Advisor to analyze usage patterns and identify cost-reduction opportunities. Implement Amazon S3 lifecycle policies to automatically transition data to lower-cost tiers like Amazon Glacier. Use CloudWatch to monitor resources and size EBS volumes based on actual usage.
Note
Amazon Glacier (original standalone vault-based service) will no longer accept new customers starting December 15, 2025, with no impact to existing customers.
Amazon Glacier is a standalone service with its own APIs that stores data in vaults and
is distinct from Amazon S3 and the Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes. Your existing data will
remain secure and accessible in Amazon Glacier indefinitely. No migration is required.
For low-cost, long-term archival storage, AWS recommends the Amazon S3 Glacier storage
classes
