StarWind’s solution is simple, scalable and reliable. I love how it works with VMware and really important for me, it’s affordable.
David Weisbrod, Founder, Macro Systems, Inc.
PROBLEM
Macro Systems not only provides products and services onsite, but also hosts more than 35 customer sites and web applications. It is therefore crucial that he has safe shared storage to ensure his customer’s data and business continuity and uninterrupted, 24×7 information availability. The company had been using a Linux NFS server, which did not provide a way to back up data, and migrated to two off the shelf Dell 2850 servers with Windows 2003 and a 32bit configuration. What the company really needed was a robust solution that would provide more storage and more business continuity. As a small company, it was critical that the solution they chose was affordable, and essential that the technology and performance was rock solid. Finally, it needed to support a VMware environment and be flexible enough to move to Vsphere 4 at a future date.
SOLUTION
Macro Systems chose StarWind’s Virtual SAN solution, which allowed Macro Systems to re-purpose its existing servers and turn them into networked storage while lowering their overhead. Macro Systems gained enterprise-class SAN functionality for VMware including performance, reliability, scalability and speed with near-zero downtime and seamless server upgrades and migrations. The solution allows Macro Systems to ensure continuous, mission-critical data protection between the two servers using synchronous data Mirroring, which eliminates a single point of failure and reduces downtime, and provides live Snapshots to capture a consistent state of the data stored on the SAN at any scheduled point-in-time to instantly recover and roll back data. There was no requirement to purchase any proprietary servers, storage or networking equipment. According to David Weisbrod, “The solution is simple, expandable and reliable. I love how it works with VMware and really important for me, it’s affordable.”
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Micro Systems is planning on moving to Jumbo Frames and multiple NICs to improve performance in the future and will continue to protect its data with StarWind Virtual SAN.
About the company
Macro Systems, Inc. provides custom programming and web development solutions to medium and large companies in the Minneapolis\St. Paul, MN area. Founded in 1985 by David J. Weisbrod as a Lotus 1-2-3 macro programming service, Macro Systems’ services now encompass a wide variety of products and services including hosting for websites and applications. Macro Systems also delivers custom training, consulting, and product integration to expanding technology markets and is well equipped to provide strength and leadership to engineer additional growth through the 21st century.
www.macrosysinc.com
Industry
Custom Programming and Hosting for websites and applications
Environment
• VMware servers
• Web Hosting
• Application Hosting
• Custom Programming
Business Benefits
• Expanded storage
• Business Continuity