Clarion Forest VNA achieves cost savings of $10,000 by creating a highly available and scalable two-node cluster powered by StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN)

CHALLENGE

Before the deployment of StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), Clarion Forest VNA relied on a single HP P2000 G3 MSA SAN over iSCSi to support its virtualized environment running on VMware ESXi. However, as time passed, this infrastructure started to show signs of aging and needed replacement. The single SAN setup posed several risks, including a lack of redundancy and flexibility. 

The challenge was two-fold: the need for infrastructure renewal and the imperative of staying within budget constraints, as traditional SAN costs and VMware’s vSAN minimum node requirement posed limitations on both performance and finances.

StarWind offered affordable, SMB-friendly VSAN, all while only requiring 2 nodes! Slid in perfectly to our setup of 2 hypervisors.

Seth Weber, Network & Systems Administrator

SOLUTION

By implementing StarWind VSAN, Clarion Forest VNA achieved redundancy for its VMs, significantly reducing the risk of downtime and data loss. The StarWind solution offered the flexibility to start with just two nodes. This meant that it could scale its infrastructure as needed without major upfront investments.

StarWind VSAN proved to be a cost-effective alternative to traditional SAN solutions. The agency estimated savings of approximately $10,000, considering the cost of Gigabit NICs, HDDs, and the StarWind license compared to a full SAN appliance.