Inside vSAN’s Evolution: ESA, Global Deduplication & Native S3

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast from VMware Explore 2025, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with vSAN expert Pete Koehler to dig into the latest advancements in vSAN technology.

 

The conversation explores how vSAN design and operations have evolved, with networking now taking center stage over disk configurations as the platform moves fully to all-NVMe and ESA architecture. Pete Koehler shares insights on how VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) operations integrate with vSAN, highlighting the benefits of Broadcom’s unified product strategy under Hock Tan’s directive.

 

Key topics include:

• The surge in vSAN ESA adoption and how it’s meeting expectations

• Global deduplication at the cluster level for greater storage efficiency

• A tech preview of native S3 object storage built directly into vSAN

 

Whether you’re a VI admin, architect, or just curious about where VMware’s storage strategy is heading, this episode delivers valuable perspectives straight from the expert.