Among the substantial challenges faced by IT teams is ensuring that virtual machines (VMs) can withstand physical server failures and hardware maintenance without downtime. The repercussions of a single server’s failure can be profound, potentially bringing down all virtual servers operating on it and resulting in significant application downtime.
StarWind Virtual SAN is designed to mitigate these challenges in a highly cost-effective manner. In this blog, we’ll break down how StarWind Virtual SAN addresses them, based on the comments of real users as published on PeerSpot, a buying intelligence platform for enterprise technology solutions. In particular, these users highlight StarWind Virtual SAN’s ability to minimize downtime while simultaneously reducing capital and operational expenses (CapEx/OpEx), decreasing hardware requirements, and providing best-in-class customer support.
Minimizing Downtime
StarWind Virtual SAN prioritizes business continuity, minimizing downtime and ensuring critical applications remain accessible and operational with its redundant and fault-tolerant architecture, helping ensure seamless operations.
Levente S., a System Engineer at SVEV, a small tech services company, explains, “The reliability of the virtual SAN plays a critical role in maintaining the stability and availability of my services. The redundant and fault-tolerant features in the virtual SAN architecture provide a resilient infrastructure that minimizes downtime and ensures a consistent and reliable service for my clients.”
Further solidifying this point, Daniel P., a Manager at a small wholesale/distribution company, shares: “StarWind has delivered nearly 100% uptime, eliminating downtime during production hours. This peace of mind is invaluable.”
Reducing CapEx/OpEx
Traditional approaches to VM storage often involve significant capital and operational expenditures related to physical shared storage devices and the support they require. One way StarWind StarWind Virtual SAN addresses this issue is noted by Edward W., a Technical Support Manager at Support IT, a small tech services firm: “We needed StarWind vSAN to be able to re-purpose average hardware for use in multiple virtual machine scenarios without having to outlay more CapEx on hardware… Fantastically, StarWind offered all that and more. It is rare in our industry to find something that takes efficiency to the Nth degree, and I am all about efficiency and saving people time and money. This is a great product.”
In addition, Christopher Morley, Founder and Consultant at Unified Microsystems, a small tech services company, highlights the tangible savings in both CapEx and OpEx resulting from hardware consolidation enabled by the solution: “We were able to reduce separate physical servers onto one hyper-converged cluster – this saved in OpEx and CapEx costs immediately.”
Reining In Hardware Requirements
StarWind Virtual SAN eliminates the need for dedicated SAN hardware, enabling businesses to optimize their existing infrastructure and reduce their overall hardware footprint. This translates to significant cost savings and simplifies management.
“I have been able to do more with less hardware. StarWind vSAN allows us to create a hyper-converged server cluster on a friendly budget without being locked into a specific hardware vendor,” notes Justin G., IT Supervisor at Area Agency on Aging Region 9, Inc., a medium-sized non-profit organization.
Similarly, a Regional Service Team Manager at a small tech services firm notes the advantages of a smaller hardware footprint, saying, “The reduction in hardware also meant that we were able to use their existing server room mounting hardware, as a new server and a new SAN would require a larger rack to be deployed as well.”
Exceptional Customer Support
Along with the positive effects on uptime and budgets, outstanding customer support is noted by PeerSpot reviewers as a distinguishing feature of the solution. They note that StarWind sets the bar high, offering proactive, knowledgeable customer service and support.
“I rate StarWind support 10 out of 10. They are fantastic. The StarWind team proactively alerts us about the latest firmware, including iDRAC and BIOS… The StarWind engineers are always knowledgeable and take control to ‘drive’ the session,” says a Senior Network Engineer at a midsized travel/leisure company.
In fact, “world class” is not out of place when describing StarWind’s service and support. As Spencer Lines, an Information Systems Manager at a small construction company, relates, “Their customer service and support have been world-class. There is no other company I’ve ever worked with that had the level of support and dedication that I’ve been able to experience with StarWind.”
Conclusion
StarWind Virtual SAN offers a compelling solution for businesses seeking to ensure operational continuity while reducing costs, optimizing their IT infrastructure, and knowing they have top-notch customer support in their corner. It is designed to help organizations create and manage cost-efficient and resilient virtual machine infrastructure.
