What Does Virtual Storage Area Network Appliance Mean?
A virtual storage area network appliance (VSAN appliance) is a virtual SAN solution for virtualized computing environments. It is a storage solution that enables the use of unused or additional storage in one or more virtual servers accumulated and delivered as a SAN device.
A VSAN appliance is also known as a a virtual storage network appliance or virtual storage optimization appliance.
Techopedia Explains Virtual Storage Area Network Appliance
Designed to provide a virtual SAN solution for one or more virtual machine (VM) based servers, a VSAN appliance identifies the unused storage capacity for each VM and binds them together as a SAN appliance. The VSAN appliance is further utilized by all connected virtual servers, which are logically visible as a single SAN appliance.
A VSAN appliance is a controlled, software enabled SAN solution that is accessed and managed through a logical graphical user interface (GUI)-based interface. It is also supported as a native firmware option by some hardware-based SAN solutions.