This setup has been bullet-proof for the last 18 months and the performance was for the most part better than expected. We have been very impressed with Starwind Software and have deployed it in a variety of similar configurations successfully since this project.
By Shayne Zaba, NICS Ltd. Director
PROBLEM
Since it became difficult to manage a huge number of servers, which were bought while a multi-site Architecture and Interior Design firm expanded, the company management contacted Network Integrated Control Systems (NICS) for assistance.
‘They came to us for a solution that would be centrally managed with storage and processing power separately scalable,’ stated Shayne Zaba, Owner and Director of NICS.
While looking for options to be deployed at the customer’s site, Mr. Zaba considered IBM (Storwize V3700) and LenovoEMC (VNX series). However, both companies came back with a quote of more than USD 70K per site.
SOLUTION
As a result, the company deployed StarWind Virtual SAN. So, currently, the client uses a Microsoft Hyper-V clustered hypervisor running on two Lenovo RD630’s with approximately 10 VMs and 12TB redundant storage provisioned by Supermicro Superstorage servers (with scale up capability up to 20TB).
Shayne Zaba mentioned, ‘This setup has been bullet-proof for the last 18 months and the performance was mostly better than expected. We have been very impressed by Starwind Software and have deployed it in a variety of similar configurations successfully since this project.’
‘After several months of comparing potential solutions, Starwind Software running on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 combined with Lenovo 2U servers and Supermicro Superstorage chassis became the obvious choice to maximize value, defined in this context as the lowest total cost of ownership and highest return on investment over a 5 to 10 year period,’ added Mr. Zaba.
About the Company
NICS Ltd. – computer and networking services for small to medium businesses.
www.nics.ca
Industry
Information Technology Consulting
Contact Person
Shayne Zaba, Director and Owner of NICS Ltd. – a visionary with experience across a wide range of software and hardware technologies, able to discover needs and inform technical solutions, with a long history of successful project implementations and satisfied client references.