Wigmore Academy Trust achieves 100% uptime and cost savings by implementing a fully supported, high-performance infrastructure with StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA)

CHALLENGE

Before implementing StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Wigmore Academy Trust was running a SAN with three nodes in a Hyper-V failover cluster. The equipment was aging, and renewing the SAN and adding new nodes would have been too expensive. The existing stack was also difficult to support. The IT team had limited time and expertise, so they struggled to maintain the infrastructure while also supporting users.

They needed something easier to manage, with reliable support and long-term value. The team evaluated several options from different vendors, but they were either too complex or didn’t provide the level of support the Trust needed.

We have had the StarWind HCI cluster in for over 4 years; it’s simply the best decision we have made as regards the school network. We have better performance, our uptime has been 100%, the support is the best I have worked with in over 15 years in IT.

IT Manager

SOLUTION

Wigmore Academy Trust chose StarWind HCI Appliance because it removed the burden of monitoring storage and cluster nodes, allowing the IT team to focus on user needs instead of constant infrastructure maintenance. The StarWind cluster has now been running for more than four years, delivering better performance and 100% uptime. StarWind ProActive Premium Support identifies and resolves issues before the school notices anything, which ensures smooth operations.

The Trust has also saved around £20,000 over five years compared to other procurement and support models. They plan to renew their current HCI Appliance and have already deployed StarWind at additional sites.