1
Introduction

HyperConverged

With 75% of server workloads being virtualized, virtualization is just getting started. VDI and SMB clouds have been growing rapidly during the last several years and still continue to. As IT is moving forward at an ever increasing pace, datacenters are becoming hyper-converged.

Explore StarWind VSAN —
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2
Problem

Problem of Expensive Dedicated Storage Hardware

  • Dedicated storage hardware is very expensive because it’s a dedicated server or more often a proprietary piece of equipment. Its upgrade and scalability options are very limited. Hardware storage also introduces significant OpEx increase over time: with every new hardware release vendors increase the service contract prices for legacy hardware support and even cease support for some hardware and announce its EOL (End Of Life) forcing customers to buy brand new hardware, even if the old one still worked fine for them.
  • Any dedicated storage solution adds fabric latency to all I/O operations. Even with high-performance 16/32 Gigabit Fiber Channel or 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet in place, every processed block makes a comparably big number of network hops until it reaches the actual disk.
  • Specially trained staff is required to manage hardware storage solutions. This does not play well with SMBs where there are no storage teams and at times the whole IT infrastructure is managed by one person.

Converged architecture has many drawbacks, including complexity, high cost and high I/O latency

3
Solution

HyperConverged Solution from StarWind

StarWind Virtual SAN is a pure software defined storage platform which eliminates the need for expensive dedicated storage hardware. StarWind Virtual SAN achieves this by installing the software on the same hardware as the hypervisor, be it Hyper-V, vSphere, or XenServer. VSAN leverages all benefits of the local storage like high performance and minimal latency. It is achieved by bonding all I/O to the local hypervisor node. This provides multiple benefits compared to a dedicated hardware solution:

  • Hypervisor reads from local storage only. High speed synchronization network links are used to replicate writes to the partner hypervisor nodes cache.
  • Cache is local, so the performance gain is much better compared to cache sitting behind slow network.
  • Hypervisor nodes don’t fight for LUN ownership, which increases performance and eliminates unnecessary iSCSI lock overhead.

Hyperconverged architecture optimizes hardware usage and accelerates performance

4
Conclusion

Complete the Hyper-converged Datacenter Puzzle with Virtual SAN

  • No expensive dedicated hardware is necessary: Storage is now a part of each hypervisor. Since Virtual SAN is hardware agnostic, customers can upgrade the hardware when they need it, not when they’re forced to do so. The support price remains static, allowing for stable OpEx and lower CapEx.
  • Also, I/O is never bottlenecked on its way to the storage. VSAN binds hypervisor I/O to local storage which gives outstanding performance and takes full advantage of Virtual SAN’s high performance caching.
  • Additionally, any system administrator can work with VSAN since it`s an easy and intuitive application, customers can get their virtualized environment up and running within seconds.
5
What The World Says About Us

StarWind included as Niche Player for the fourth consecutive time in 2021 Magic Quadrant™ for HCI Software



StarWind
Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software
reviewed April 5, 2021
Industry: Finance
Company size: 3b – 10b usd
01 / 10 Read more
reviewed Sep 13, 2021
Industry: Construction
Company size: <50m usd
02 / 10 Read more
reviewed June 12, 2021
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 50m - 250m usd
03 / 10 Read more
reviewed October 14, 2020
Industry: Education
Company size: <5,000 emp
04 / 10 Read more
reviewed March 16, 2021
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 3b - 10b usd
05 / 10 Read more
reviewed February 28, 2020
Industry: Finance
Company size: 1b - 3b usd
07 / 10 Read more
reviewed November 14, 2019
Industry: Finance
Company size: 1b - 3b usd
08 / 10 Read more
reviewed October 20, 2016
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 3b - 10b usd
09 / 10 Read more
reviewed September 1, 2021
Industry: Services
Company size: <50m usd
10 / 10 Read more
6
Success Stories

We are satisfied with StarWind. The support is really fantastic. Whenever any issue arises, the response is very prompt, and solution is immediate.

Srinivas Kouda, Company’s Representative

We were able to build 2-node storage clusters based on virtualization in 19 hypermarkets without any problems and with high cost-efficiency.

Vass Sandor, IT Infrastructure Leader

By being able to virtualize our environment with StarWind, we were able to retire some old hardware, get our services highly available, reduce power consumption and heat in our server closet.

David Gardner, Information Systems Manager

StarWind got us off the clustered environment, which was a big help. So, I could regain control of my storage and reclaim and redistribute the space we desperately needed.

Ryan Fulton, Company’s Representative

Price + Simplicity. StarWind vSAN offers great pricing and allows us to get work done without expensive custom hardware. It also makes getting back online quick and easy after an outage or hardware failure.

Aaron Hayes, IT Manager

We chose StarWind Mainly because of the cost compared to other vendors. Simplicity of setup was also a major factor and I like the fact that you don’t need a vendor certified engineer to perform the installation.

John Harris, Windows System Administrator,
Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Because of recommendations of older colleagues, with StarWind, we got a reliable storage with no additional hardware. There was a need to increase IT infrastructure performance and we saw StarWind as the most cost-effective solution.

Željko Medić, Director of IT Department

StarWind is the best storage product I have ever used! It satisfies and exceeds requirements.

Joe Gursky, Director of IT
7
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