Tryon International Equestrian Center improves guest services and cuts hardware costs by modernizing its IT infrastructure with StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA)

CHALLENGE

Before deploying StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Tryon International Equestrian Center was running its IT infrastructure on three aging hosts with 20 VMs on VMware in a non highly available (HA) setup. The hardware was outdated, performance was declining, and the lack of high availability left the environment vulnerable to downtime. However, achieving HA posed a financial challenge. Most solutions available on the market required a minimum of three nodes, significantly increasing hardware and licensing costs. After extensive research and testing, it became clear that without a cost-efficient two-node HA solution, upgrading to a modern infrastructure would not be feasible.

With StarWind, I was able to have an HA setup with only two nodes, which drastically lowered the hardware cost and made the upgrade possible financially.

Brendan McEnnerney, IT Manager

SOLUTION

Tryon International Equestrian Center chose StarWind HCI Appliance because it delivered a reliable and cost-effective two-node HA setup. Unlike competitors, StarWind enabled high availability without forcing the adoption of unnecessary extra nodes, which drastically reduced the upfront investment. Additionally, StarWind’s offer of refurbished hardware under full support further lowered costs, making the project financially viable. As a result, the organization not only modernized its infrastructure but also saved $25,000 over three years compared to alternative solutions. Today, the new environment runs seamlessly, delivering the performance, resiliency, and simplicity the IT team required.