VMware and many network evangelists try to tell you that sophisticated (=expensive) fiber SANs are the "only" storage option for VMware ESX and ESXi servers. Well, yes, of course. Using a SAN is fast, reliable and makes vMotion possible. Great. But: Can all ESX/ESXi users really afford SANs?

My theory is that less than 20% of all VMware ESX installations on this planet actually use fiber or iSCS SANs. Most of these installation will be in larger companies who can afford this. I would predict that most VMware installations use "attached storage" (vmdks are stored on disks inside the server). Most of them run in SMEs and there are so many of them!

We run two ESX 3.5 servers with attached storage and two ESX 4 servers with an iSCS san. And the "real live difference" between both is barely notable :-)

Do you know of any official statistics for this question? What do you use as your storage medium?