| Parameter | Array-Based Replication | vSphere Replication |
| RPO min/max | 0 up to max supported by vendor | 15 mins to 24 hours |
| Scale | Scales up to 5,000 VMs protected/2,000 simultaneously | Scales up to 2,000 VMs (protected & recoverable) per |
| recoverable per vCenter/SRM pair | vCenter/SRM pair | |
| Write order fidelity | Supports write order fidelity within and across multiple VMs | Supports write order fidelity on the disks/VMDKs that make up |
| in the same consistency group | a VM, consistency cannot be guaranteed across multiple VMs | |
| Replication level | Replicates at the LUN/VMFS or NFS volume level | Replicates at the VM level |
| Replication configuration | Replication is configured and | Replication is configured and |
| managed on the storage array | managed in the vSphere Web Client | |
| Array/ vendor types | Requires same storage replication | Can support any storage solution at |
| solution at both sites (eg. EMC RecoverPoint, NetApp vFiler, IBM SVC, etc) | either end including local storage as long as it is covered by the vSphere | |
| HCL | ||
| Storage supported | Replication supported on FC, iSCSI | Supports replicating VMs on local, |
| or NFS storage only | attached, VSAN, FC, iSCSI or NFS storage | |
| Cost | Replication and snapshot licensing | vSphere Replication is included in |
| is required | vSphere Essentials Plus 5.1 and higher | |
| Deployment | Deployment is fairly involved and | Deployment requirements are |
| must include storage administration and possibly networking | minimal. OVF at each site and start configuring replications |