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Storage that comes with the
commitment

Four classes of shared datastores for your managed virtualisation. A datastore is the storage area shared by all hosts in a cluster; it is connected via NFS 4.1, iSCSI or NVMe over TCP. Each class specifies its IOPS limit (input/output operations per second), its latency commitment and the condition under which both apply. Billing is per gigabyte and month, above a minimum purchase per class.
Configure storagePrices and minimum purchase

This page describes the shared storage of the Private Cloud. Local NVMe in the host are part of the host class and are not billed separately.

Reference values
Highest rate
€0.1090$0.1264 per GB
Lowest rate
€0.0068$0.0079 per GB
Lowest minimum amount
€73.73$85.53 per month
Smallest order
1 TB
Largest datastore
512 TB
p99 latency, best class
0.4 ms
All rates net and per GB and month. Below the minimum purchase, the minimum quantity is billed, not the used quantity.
Datastore classes
4
NVMe, capacity, archive
IOPS per datastore
120,000
4 K random, 70/30
Latency p99
0.4 ms
from four queues
Protocols
3
NFS 4.1, iSCSI, NVMe/TCP

Four numbers before you read on

The pages on managed vSphere and hyperconvergence answer the same four questions in the same place. The second one is the one most frequently underestimated in quotes.

Cluster size
2 – 32 hosts
A datastore is attached to the cluster, not to the individual host. Under managed vSphere, this is 2 to 32 hosts, in a hyperconverged cluster 3 to 24 nodes.
Usable after mirroring
100%
You order usable capacity, not raw capacity. Triply replicated across two fire zones of the location — this is included in the rate of €0.0720$0.0835 per GB and is not deducted. In a hyperconverged cluster, it is the other way around.
Licence per core and month
€9.90$11.48 / €13.90$16.12
The rates of the two stacks to which a datastore is attached. The storage itself carries no licence — it is billed per gigabyte and month, from €0.0068$0.0079.
Who patches
ENTRONYX CLOUD
Hypervisor, BIOS and firmware, fabric switches, storage controllers — included in the GB rate. The guest file system and application data remain with you.

Four datastores, one storage network

All four classes are attached to the same storage network (the fabric) and are managed in the same vCenter or Cloud Director. What differs is the medium, protocol and the commitment we provide — not the operational path.

Datastore NVMe Performance

SAP-approved

NVMe over TCP for databases that depend on write latency.

  • NVMe/TCP
  • NFS 4.1
IOPS per datastore
up to 120,000
Latency p99
0.4 ms
Throughput
6,000 MB/s
Minimum commitment
2 TB

Redundancy: Triply replicated across two fire zones of the location

LimitThe IOPS guarantee applies per datastore, not per VM. A single guest only reaches it with at least four parallel queues; with one queue, around 28,000 IOPS remain.

€0.1090$0.1264 per GB and month

from €223.23$258.95 per month

Datastore NVMe Standard

The standard case: NVMe backend via NFS or iSCSI, for mixed guest workloads.

  • NFS 4.1
  • iSCSI
IOPS per datastore
up to 45,000
Latency p99
0.9 ms
Throughput
2,400 MB/s
Minimum commitment
1 TB

Redundancy: Triply replicated across two fire zones of the location

LimitFrom 24 concurrently active VMs on a datastore, the guaranteed latency drops from 0.9 ms to 1.4 ms. Larger environments are therefore split across multiple datastores.

€0.0720$0.0835 per GB and month

from €73.73$85.53 per month

Datastore Capacity

NVMe cache in front of HDD capacity — for file services and quiet volumes.

  • iSCSI
  • NFS 4.1
IOPS per datastore
up to 9,000
Latency p99
4.0 ms
Throughput
1,100 MB/s
Minimum commitment
8 TB

Redundancy: Erasure coding 8+2 in the location, cache triply mirrored

LimitThe NVMe cache covers 8% of the datastore size. Working sets beyond this pass through to the HDD tier; the 4 ms latency guarantee then no longer applies.

€0.0290$0.0336 per GB and month

from €237.57$275.58 per month

Datastore Archive

Cold capacity for powered-off guests, templates and exports.

  • NFS 4.1
IOPS per datastore
up to 900
Latency p99
25.0 ms
Throughput
350 MB/s
Minimum commitment
20 TB

Redundancy: Erasure coding 8+2, second copy in another EU region

LimitNot approved as an operational datastore. Running VMs must not reside here — the class accommodates powered-off guests, templates and OVA exports.

€0.0068$0.0079 per GB and month

from €139.26$161.54 per month

The commitments apply per datastore, not per virtual machine and not per host. If you want to push a single database to the limit, you get a dedicated datastore — otherwise it shares the queue with everything else that resides on the same LUN (the logical drive behind the datastore).

Three protocols, one fabric

The fabric is the storage network that connects all hosts to the datastores. Which protocol a class speaks over it is not a matter of taste: it follows from the medium behind it and the latency we can guarantee on it.

NVMe over TCP

The drive's command set runs unchanged over the storage network — without translation to SCSI and without the single queue that iSCSI has per target. Each virtual machine gets multiple queues on the same namespace.

This is exactly what the guaranteed latency of the performance class depends on. With a single queue, the gain over iSCSI remains small; the guarantee applies from four parallel queues.

1 of 4 classes · NVMe Performance

iSCSI

Block over TCP, one target per datastore. The hypervisor creates its cluster file system on it and manages the locks itself — this is the path that older guest operating systems and cluster software follow without modification.

It is connected via two paths on separate fabric switches. If one path fails, the second takes over without the target having to log in again; a path change is not visible in the guest.

2 of 4 classes · NVMe Standard, Capacity

NFS 4.1

File instead of block: the datastore is an export, every virtual disk a file within it. Thinly provisioned without intervention, and a single guest can be backed up or copied without going through the cluster file system.

Session trunking distributes a connection across multiple lines. Locks run via the server instead of the host — which is why NFS 4.1 is the protocol that all four classes speak.

4 of 4 classes · NVMe Performance, NVMe Standard, Capacity, Archive

Storage chassis pulled out on rails with open cover, containing rows of drives in a grid pattern.

Storage chassis pulled out on rails, cover open: rows of drives in a grid pattern.

Storage chassis

The upper limit is guaranteed, not the best-case figure

The values in the table are upper limits per datastore, measured with 4 KB random access in a 70 to 30 ratio of read and write. If you measure differently, you get different numbers — that is why the measurement profile is included.

Performance profile of the four datastore classes. IOPS and throughput apply per datastore and not per virtual machine. The latency is the 99th percentile (p99) over a 24-hour measurement window — 99 out of 100 measured accesses are below this.

Performance profile of the four datastore classes
ClassProtocolsIOPS, 4 K randomThroughputLatency p99Redundancy
Datastore NVMe PerformanceNVMe/TCP, NFS 4.1up to 120,0006,000 MB/s0.4 msTriply replicated across two fire zones of the location
Datastore NVMe StandardNFS 4.1, iSCSIup to 45,0002,400 MB/s0.9 msTriply replicated across two fire zones of the location
Datastore CapacityiSCSI, NFS 4.1up to 9,0001,100 MB/s4.0 msErasure coding 8+2 in the location, cache triply mirrored
Datastore ArchiveNFS 4.1up to 900350 MB/s25.0 msErasure coding 8+2, second copy in another EU region

Why a single machine rarely reaches the upper limit

A number like 120,000 IOPS comes from many simultaneously open requests, not from one fast one. A guest with a single queue waits for the acknowledgement after each request; the round-trip time over the storage network then limits it, not the medium.

The IOPS guarantee applies per datastore, not per VM. A single guest only reaches it with at least four parallel queues; with one queue, around 28,000 IOPS remain.

The same relationship applies in the other direction when many guests are on the same datastore. From 24 concurrently active VMs on a datastore, the guaranteed latency drops from 0.9 ms to 1.4 ms. Larger environments are therefore split across multiple datastores.

Measurement profile

Block size
4 KB
Access pattern
random, 70% read / 30% write
Queues per guest
at least 4 for the IOPS commitment
Latency measurement window
24 hours, 99th percentile
Unit
per datastore, not per VM
Range across all classes
0.4 to 25.0 ms

If an environment permanently exceeds the values, we split it across multiple datastores. This is the usual way in operations — booking a higher class does not help if the queue and not the medium is the bottleneck.

Every class has a minimum commitment. If you request less, you still pay it — right from the first invoice. The rates range from €0.1090$0.1264 to €0.0068$0.0079 per GB and month, the minimum amounts from €73.73$85.53 (NVMe Standard) to €237.57$275.58 (Capacity). The order of the two ranges is not the same.

Rates, minimum commitment and upper limit of the four datastore classes. All amounts net, billed per started month. The minimum amount is the rate multiplied by the minimum commitment — it applies even if you use less.

Rates, minimum commitment and upper limit of the four datastore classes
ClassRate per GB per monthSnapshots per GB per monthMinimum commitmentMinimum amount per monthUpper limit
Datastore NVMe Performance€0.1090$0.1264€0.0210$0.0244+ 19%2 TB€223.23$258.95256 TB
Datastore NVMe Standard€0.0720$0.0835€0.0140$0.0162+ 19%1 TB€73.73$85.53256 TB
Datastore Capacity€0.0290$0.0336€0.0060$0.0070+ 21%8 TB€237.57$275.58512 TB
Datastore Archive€0.0068$0.0079€0.0009$0.0010+ 13%20 TB€139.26$161.542048 TB

All amounts net. The lowest minimum amount corresponds to €87.74$101.78 incl. 19% VAT.

Example calculation for 4 TB

The same requested amount in all four classes. In 2 of 4 cases, more is billed than was requested — the minimum commitment applies before the rate even takes effect. The “billed” column shows the amount that actually goes on the invoice.

Example calculation for 4,096 GB in all four classes
ClassrequestedbilledStorage per monthwith snapshots
NVMe Performance4,096 GB4,096 GB€446.46$517.89€532.48$617.68
NVMe Standard4,096 GB4,096 GB€294.91$342.10€352.26$408.62
Capacity4,096 GB8,192 GB€237.57$275.58€286.72$332.60
Archive4,096 GB20,480 GB€139.26$161.54€157.70$182.93

Break-even points

From which requested amount the class with the lower rate costs less despite a higher minimum commitment.

Capacity vs NVMe Performance
from 2,180 GB
Capacity vs NVMe Standard
from 3,300 GB
Archive vs NVMe Standard
from 1,935 GB

Below these points, the seemingly more expensive class is the cheaper one. The rate of €0.0290$0.0336 per GB is of no use as long as 8 TB are billed.

Snapshots cost extra per class and are between 13% and 21% of the storage rate. They can be disabled, but not retroactively: what was not recorded cannot be recovered.

Two different things, two different windows

The snapshot is located on the same datastore and is used to roll back after a change. The backup leaves it and is used for recovery. Retention is between 14 and 90 days — different for each class, because the classes have different tasks.

Snapshot retention, backup window and snapshot rate per class. The rate is applied to the same calculated amount as the storage rate — including the minimum commitment.

Snapshot retention, backup window and snapshot rate per class
ClassSnapshot retentionSnapshot per GB per monthBackup window
Datastore NVMe Performance14 days€0.0210$0.0244Daily 22:00–04:00 CET, application-consistent via VSS or fsfreeze
Datastore NVMe Standard14 days€0.0140$0.0162Daily 22:00–05:00 CET, application-consistent
Datastore Capacity30 days€0.0060$0.0070Daily 21:00–06:00 CET, crash-consistent
Datastore Archive90 days€0.0009$0.0010Weekly Sat 20:00–08:00 CET

What happens in the backup window

  1. TriggerThe run starts in the agreed windowThe windows are during the night and differ per class. For Datastore NVMe Performance: Daily 22:00–04:00 CET, application-consistent via VSS or fsfreeze. There is no postponement — outside the window, the fabric bandwidth is committed to guest traffic.
  2. QuiescingApplication consistency via VSS or fsfreezeBefore copying, the guest is briefly quiesced: on Windows via the Volume Shadow Copy Service, on Linux via fsfreeze on the mounted file systems. Without this step, the copy is crash-consistent — it starts, but a database inside must roll back its log.
  3. CopyingOnly the changed blocks leave the datastoreThe first run transfers the used capacity, each subsequent one the difference to the previous run. Therefore, the change rate determines the duration of the window, not the total size of the datastore.
  4. ExpirationOld versions are removed after expiryRetention is defined per class and ranges from 14 to 90 days. Longer retention is not a snapshot setting, but a backup to a second region.

Further off-site

Backups to a second region, replication with a guaranteed RPO (Recovery Point Objective: the maximum time period lost in an emergency) and rehearsed disaster recovery are a separate tier. It depends on the same calculated capacity as the datastore.

Disaster recovery: RPO and RTO per tier

Not every class is attached to every stack

Which datastore class you can book depends on the virtualisation stack above it — the software layer comprising the hypervisor and management — and the location. Both are fixed before the first guest starts. Reattaching them later requires a migration.

Availability of datastore classes per virtualisation stack. A tick means the class can be booked under this stack. The columns list stacks, not certifications — all four classes can be integrated under the SAP stack, but only Datastore NVMe Performance is certified.

Availability of datastore classes per virtualisation stack
ClassKVM PlatformManaged vSphereHCISAP Certified
Datastore NVMe Performance
Datastore NVMe Standard
Datastore Capacity
Datastore Archive

Locations per class

A class can be booked where the appropriate storage fabric is located. The archive is available in the fewest locations because it writes its second copy to another EU region and needs a counterpart for this.

Datastore NVMe Performance3 locations
  • Frankfurt am Main fra1
  • Frankfurt am Main fra2
  • Munich muc1
Datastore NVMe Standard4 locations
  • Frankfurt am Main fra1
  • Frankfurt am Main fra2
  • Berlin ber1
  • Munich muc1
Datastore Capacity3 locations
  • Frankfurt am Main fra1
  • Frankfurt am Main fra2
  • Berlin ber1
Datastore Archive1 locations
  • Frankfurt am Main fra1

Cities listed twice are two separate data centres with their own fire zones and their own power supply — the prerequisite for triple replication within a location to be meaningful at all. Locations and fire zones

Who patches what

Platform operations are included in the rate per gigabyte and cannot be deselected. They end at a strict boundary: we work below the guest system, you work above it.

ENTRONYX CLOUD patches

  • Hypervisor
  • BIOS and firmware
  • Fabric switches
  • Storage controllers

Firmware maintenance requires a host evacuation. Without a second host in the cluster, this means downtime of up to 45 minutes per maintenance window.

You patch

  • Guest operating system
  • Middleware
  • Application
  • Application data

The file system in the guest, the application above it and the data within it remain in your hands. If you want to hand this over too, you can book a higher operations level.

A drive carrier pulled halfway out of its bay, supported by two guide rails. In the open bay, the backplane connector and two guide pins are visible; a copper-coloured indicator lights up on the front of the carrier.
Brushed steel panel of a plug-in unit, two countersunk screws, a narrow copper-coloured line of light on the left edge.

A maintenance window for the guests only arises where the cluster itself is touched — not at the storage. The smallest purchase of the fastest class is 2 TB; below this, the minimum quantity is charged, not the used quantity.

Select class, set quantity, see invoice

The configurator leads from the host class via the stack to the datastore. It shows the monthly invoice before you order — including the minimum purchase that applies below your requested quantity. All amounts net, without setup fee.

Configure Private CloudTo Private Cloud overview
Classes
4
Rate from
€0.0068$0.0079 / GB
from
€73.73$85.53 / month
IOPS up to
120,000