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NWG Solutions saves $40K on its IT operational expenses (OpEx) by deploying a high availability (HA) cluster powered by StarWind vSAN

February 19, 2026
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Bill Testerman
Systems Architect
Systems Architect

CHALLENGE

Before deploying StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), NWG Solutions operated a colocation data center built on standalone Hyper-V servers. These hosts ran customer apps that required continuous uptime, but storage was local to each server and lacked shared redundancy. As a result, routine patching or hardware maintenance caused unavoidable service outages for clients.

The company wanted to deliver enterprise-grade availability with live migration and failover, yet traditional SAN platforms were expensive and complex to manage. NWG Solutions also wanted to avoid the “inverted pyramid of doom” design, where many critical workloads depend on a single storage array. Without a shared and highly available storage layer, the existing Hyper-V environment could not be upgraded to a failover cluster.

StarWind VSAN was straightforward to install, easy to configure, manage and expand, and has been flawless in its operation. Not only did StarWind satisfy our needs, but we forget it’s even there sometimes! You can’t say that about many IT solutions!

Bill Testerman, Systems Architect

SOLUTION

NWG Solutions chose StarWind VSAN because of its polished, production-ready feature set backed by responsive support. By deploying StarWind VSAN on its existing Hyper-V hosts, NWG Solutions created a Hyper-V failover cluster without purchasing a dedicated storage array. The software mirrored local disks between servers, delivering shared storage with full redundancy at a fraction of the cost and complexity of a traditional SAN.

All existing workloads were migrated to the new StarWind VSAN datastore with zero downtime to customers. The environment now supports seamless maintenance, live migration, and automated failover. The solution saved the company $40,000 in upfront hardware costs and significantly reduced daily administrative effort. The platform is stable, easy to expand, and forms the foundation for a larger multi-node Hyper-V cluster as the company continues to grow.

About the Company
NWG Solutions is a Virginia-based IT services provider with offices in Charlottesville and Richmond. It delivers managed services, cloud hosting, cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 management, compliance support, and full-scope IT support, as well as sales, installations, and other related services.
Region
NA (North America)
Country
United States
Industry
IT & Services
Product
StarWind Virtual SAN
Inspired by Bill Testerman’s success? Want to improve business continuity for your business-critical apps and services?
Dmytro Malynka StarWind Virtual SAN Product Manager
We’ve got you covered! StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN) is specifically designed to provide highly-available shared storage for Hyper-V, vSphere, and KVM clusters. With StarWind VSAN, simplicity is key: utilize the local disks of your hypervisor hosts and create shared HA storage for your VMs. Interested in learning more? Book a short StarWind VSAN demo now and see it in action!