StorPool
Bulgarian high-performance distributed storage for virtualised workloads, integrating directly with Proxmox, OpenNebula and OpenStack
Quick Overview
| Company | StorPool Storage |
|---|---|
| Category | Virtualization |
| Headquarters | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Founded | 2011 |
| EU Presence | Yes - Bulgaria (EU) |
| Data Location | Your own infrastructure |
| Open Source | No |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes |
| Self-Hosting | Yes - runs on your own hardware |
| Main Features | NVMe distributed block storage, sub-millisecond latency, Proxmox/OpenNebula/OpenStack/Kubernetes integration, fully managed operation, live scaling |
| Pricing | Subscription per usable TB, quoted on request |
| Best For | Database, VDI and other latency-sensitive workloads on European virtualisation platforms |
| Replaces | VMware vSAN, Ceph (for latency-critical workloads), SAN arrays |
Detailed Review
StorPool solves the problem that appears once an organisation has chosen its VMware replacement and discovered that the bundled storage is not fast enough. Ceph is excellent for capacity and resilience, but for dense database or VDI workloads its latency characteristics can disappoint.
StorPool is a Bulgarian company building distributed block storage specifically for that case: NVMe-based, sub-millisecond latency, and integrated directly with Proxmox VE, OpenNebula, OpenStack and Kubernetes.
Performance as the Product
The engineering focus is consistent latency under load rather than headline throughput. For transactional databases and virtual desktops, predictable sub-millisecond response matters far more than sequential bandwidth, and it is where commodity software-defined storage most often falls short.
The system scales by adding nodes, with data automatically rebalanced, so capacity and performance grow together without a forklift upgrade.
Fully Managed by the Vendor
StorPool is unusual in that the subscription includes the vendor monitoring and operating the storage system for you, on your hardware. Firmware issues, rebalancing, capacity planning and upgrades are handled by StorPool's engineers rather than by your team.
For organisations that lack dedicated storage specialists — which is most of them, post-SAN — this removes the main practical objection to software-defined storage.
Integration with the European Stack
Native drivers for Proxmox, OpenNebula, OpenStack, CloudStack and Kubernetes mean StorPool slots into a European virtualisation stack without a translation layer. That combination — a Bulgarian storage vendor under an Austrian or Spanish hypervisor — is a genuinely European alternative to a vSphere and vSAN estate.
Limitations to Consider
StorPool is a commercial product with quoted pricing, so it is not the cheap option next to Ceph, which is free. It requires appropriate hardware — NVMe drives and a properly specified network — and it is proprietary, so you are dependent on a single vendor for a critical layer. For general-purpose or archival capacity, Ceph remains the more economical choice.
Who Should Use StorPool
Hosting providers, financial services and any organisation running latency-sensitive databases or virtual desktops on a European virtualisation platform, particularly where there is no in-house storage specialist to operate Ceph properly.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Consistent sub-millisecond latency
- Vendor operates the storage for you
- Native drivers for Proxmox, OpenNebula, OpenStack
- Scales without disruption
- Bulgarian vendor, EU jurisdiction
Cons
- Commercial pricing versus free Ceph
- Requires NVMe and a well-specified network
- Proprietary, single-vendor dependency
Alternatives to StorPool
Other European virtualization worth comparing before you decide:
Proxmox VE
Austria · Open-source KVM and LXC virtualisation with built-in clustering
XCP-ng
France · Open-source Xen hypervisor with Xen Orchestra management
OpenNebula
Spain · Open-source cloud and edge virtualisation platform
SUSE Virtualization
Germany · Hyperconverged infrastructure built on Kubernetes and KubeVirt
See all European virtualization or compare them directly against VMware vSAN on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Latency. Ceph is excellent for capacity and resilience but can disappoint on dense database or VDI workloads. StorPool targets consistent sub-millisecond latency and includes vendor-managed operation, which Ceph does not.
Yes, with a native integration, as well as with OpenNebula, OpenStack, CloudStack and Kubernetes. That makes it a natural storage layer under a European virtualisation stack.
StorPool does. The subscription includes its engineers monitoring and operating the system on your hardware, handling rebalancing, upgrades and capacity planning.
NVMe drives and a properly specified network. StorPool advises on sizing as part of onboarding, since undersized networking is the most common cause of disappointing distributed storage performance.
StorPool is built as a European alternative to VMware vSAN: Bulgarian high-performance distributed storage for virtualised workloads, integrating directly with Proxmox, OpenNebula and OpenStack. It will not be a like-for-like feature match in every respect, so check the review above for where the two genuinely differ before switching.
StorPool is one of several European Virtualization tools covered on this site. See the full Virtualization category page for how it ranks against its closest European competitors.