As healthcare institutions re-evaluate their strategies, Sangfor Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) has emerged not just as a viable alternative, but as a superior modernization path. By unifying compute, storage, networking, and security into a single stack, Sangfor HCI offers a robust solution that specifically addresses the critical needs of healthcare: uncompromised data protection, strict compliance, and simplified operations.
The Post-Broadcom Dilemma in Healthcare
The consolidation of the virtualization market has introduced volatility into hospital budgets that rely on predictability. Broadcom's shift to subscription-only models and the bundling of products like VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) have forced many institutions to pay for software features they do not need. The cost increases between 150% and 1000% compared with previous price. It impacts funds available for patient care technologies.
Healthcare leaders are now seeking a "Strategic Exit Plan", a way to modernize infrastructure while maintaining strategic control and interoperability. This is where the comparison between Sangfor and VMware becomes pivotal.
Sangfor HCI vs. VMware: A Strategic Comparison
While VMware requires a complex assembly of separate components (vSphere for compute, vSAN for storage, NSX for networking)—often with distinct licensing tiers—Sangfor HCI delivers an all-in-one architecture.
| Feature | VMware (Post-Acquisition) | Sangfor HCI | Healthcare Benefits |
| Licensing | 1. Subscription-only 2. Bundled suites (VCF) |
1. Flexible (Perpetual or Subscription*) 2. Per-socket pricing *Availability of licensing options may vary by region. |
Protects capital budgets (CapEx) and avoids recurring cost spikes. |
| Architecture | 1. Component-heavy 2. vSAN requires strict HCL |
1. Unified Kernel 2. Widely compatible with commodity x86 servers |
Lowers TCO by allowing hospitals to repurpose existing hardware. |
| Security | Reliance on third-party add-ons or complex NSX rules | 1. Built-in Security (aSEC) 2. Distributed Firewall 3. Correlation with other Sangfor security products |
Native protection for patient data without buying extra appliances. |
| Support | Focused on top-tier enterprise accounts | Localized, high-touch support for all tiers | Critical for hospitals requiring 24/7 immediate assistance. |
Uncompromised Data Protection: The Sangfor Advantages
In healthcare, "Data Protection" is synonymous with "Patient Safety." A system failure in the HIS (Hospital Information System) or a loss of data in the EMR (Electronic Medical Record) is unacceptable. Sangfor HCI distinguishes itself by embedding enterprise-grade Disaster Recovery (DR) and security directly into the infrastructure, rather than treating them as afterthoughts.
RTO and RPO Requirements for Healthcare IT Applications
| Applications | Criticality | Reliability Design |
| HIS/EHR/EMR | RPO=0/seconds RTO=seconds/minutes |
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| PACS | RPO=minutes/hours RTO=hours |
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| OA/others | RPO=hours/days RTO=hours/days |
1. Business Continuity with Active-Active Stretched Clusters
For hospitals with multiple campuses, Sangfor HCI supports Active-Active Stretched Clusters. This technology allows two data centers (e.g., a main hospital and a nearby backup center) to function as a single entity. Data is written synchronously to both sites. If one data center suffers a power outage or fire, services automatically and instantly continue running on the other site with zero data loss (RPO = 0) and near-zero downtime. Unlike the complex witness node requirements of legacy solutions, Sangfor's implementation is streamlined for easier deployment in healthcare environments.
2. Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
Traditional backups performed once a night leave a 24-hour gap where patient records can be lost. Sangfor's built-in CDP logs every I/O operation, allowing IT administrators to roll back the entire system to any specific second in the past.
Performance Optimized for Critical Care
Beyond security, healthcare applications demand immense performance. Medical imaging systems (PACS) generate terabytes of high-resolution files, while HIS databases process thousands of concurrent transactions.
Sangfor has engineered its storage virtualization (aSAN) to handle these specific workloads. Through Oracle RAC optimization and I/O Localization, Sangfor HCI ensures that critical database queries are processed locally on the server's flash storage, reducing latency significantly. This ensures that when a doctor pulls up a patient's history or an MRI scan, the data loads instantly.
Success Story: Empowering a World-Class Oncology Research Hospital
As a premier provincial cancer research center boasting the world's most advanced radiotherapy equipment and the highest volume of patient visits, this hospital carries a critical mission in national top-tier medical services and key research projects. With an annual outpatient volume reaching 700,000 visits, the hospital is equipped with cutting-edge technology, including Proton Therapy Systems and Photon-counting CTs. These advanced modalities place exceptionally high demands on the performance, capacity, and stability of medical imaging storage.
| Challenges |
| Following the introduction of new equipment in May 2025, including Photon-counting CT and Spectral CT scanners, the hospital faced significant infrastructure hurdles: Challenges Data Explosion: Daily imaging volume surged from 2 million to 3 million images, with daily storage requirements jumping from 1.1TB to 1.5TB. Performance Bottlenecks: Data uploads from the Proton therapy equipment caused lag in other business systems. The existing EMC Isilon storage suffered from frequent performance bottlenecks, severely impacting the efficiency of radiologists. Challenges Deployment Stalls: "Small file" storage performance was insufficient. Original factory testing by Philips showed copy speeds fell short of expectations, delaying the go-live of critical new medical equipment. |
| Configuration Highlights |
| Sangfor conducted a comprehensive analysis of the client's business workflows, data structure, storage, and network architecture to identify potential risks. Based on this assessment and the hospital's 5-year growth roadmap, Sangfor designed a high-performance HCI + aStor solution. Compute: 6x All-Flash HCI Nodes. Performance Storage: 460TB NVMe All-Flash Storage. Capacity Storage: 3.5PB Large-Capacity Storage. |
| Business Value Delivered |
| Future-Ready Infrastructure: By replacing aging legacy nodes with All-Flash HCI nodes, the hospital successfully migrated its PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) workloads. This modernization not only supports current needs but prepares the infrastructure for future applications, delivering an overall 30% performance improvement. Superior Diagnostic Experience: The All-Flash aStor nodes provide ultra-high IOPS and throughput. This ensures a seamless experience for uploading and viewing heavy imaging data from Proton and Photon-counting equipment, significantly boosting diagnostic efficiency. Flexible & Cost-Effective Scalability: Leveraging the software-hardware decoupling of HCI and aStor, the hospital can now enjoy linear growth in both capacity and performance during future expansions. This elastic scalability offers a more flexible and cost-effective storage strategy. Robust Reliability: The solution establishes a comprehensive protection architecture spanning disks, nodes, and clusters. This ensures the absolute safety of the storage cluster and guarantees the continuous, stable operation of mission-critical PACS services. |
The Path to Modernization
Migrating critical healthcare systems is a delicate operation, but it is no longer a leap of faith. The Sangfor Cloud Migration Tool (SCMT) allows for a smooth, "hot" migration of running virtual machines from VMware to Sangfor HCI. By synchronizing data in the background and requiring only a brief cutover window, hospitals can modernize their infrastructure without disrupting patient care operations.
For healthcare organizations navigating the uncertainties of the post-Broadcom era, Sangfor HCI offers more than just a replacement; it offers a strategic upgrade. By embedding data protection, ensuring compliance, and optimizing for medical workloads, Sangfor provides the digital immunity modern hospitals need to thrive.
