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Crawford County R-1 School District eases its one-person IT workload by creating an easily managed IT infrastructure with StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance (VHCI)

January 27, 2026
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Paul Kotila
IT Director and Information Security Officer. Has nearly 20 years of hands-on experience, managing and securing K–12 IT environments, specializing in EDR, SIEM/SOAR, and network defense.
IT Director and Information Security Officer. Has nearly 20 years of hands-on experience, managing and securing K–12 IT environments, specializing in EDR, SIEM/SOAR, and network defense.

CHALLENGE

Before deploying StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance (VHCI), Crawford County R-1 School District relied on standalone servers running Hyper-V. The setup lacked redundancy and scalability, which made it vulnerable to downtime and difficult to maintain. As a one-person IT department, troubleshooting single points of failure was both time-consuming and risky. Upgrading the infrastructure using traditional enterprise solutions wasn’t an option due to limited resources and complexity. The district needed a reliable and easy-to-manage platform that could deliver high availability without requiring extra staff. Finding such a balance between simplicity and support was a major challenge.

StarWind gave us enterprise-grade high availability and support at a price point our district could manage, which is invaluable for a one-person IT department.

Paul Kotila, IT Director and Information Security Officer

SOLUTION

Crawford County R-1 School District chose StarWind VHCI because it provided a highly available and easy-to-manage virtualization platform. By replacing the old standalone servers with a fully redundant StarWind setup, the district eliminated single points of failure and gained enterprise-level reliability. The new infrastructure is easy enough for one person to maintain while offering the scalability and performance needed to support future growth. StarWind’s support team plays a crucial role in ensuring smooth operation, providing quick assistance with any issues that may arise. With StarWind VHCI, the district achieved enterprisegrade availability at an affordable cost, allowing them to focus on education instead of constant infrastructure worries.

About the Company
Crawford County R-1 School District is a public school district located in Bourbon, Missouri. It has 843 students in grades PK, K-12 with a student teacher ratio of 12 to 1.
Region
NA (North America)
Country
United States
Industry
Education
Product
StarWind Virtual HCI Appliance
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