1
?Indeed, why

Why StarWind?

StarWind is a one-stop virtualization shop for all the “building blocks” required to construct a full-stack data center infrastructure. We are most certain that the way we combine scalability with simplicity allows our customers to build and scale their environments according to their needs and not according to a limited set of options they're typically offered. Following this way, StarWind promotes hyper-convergence without condemning the traditional compute and storage architecture, being able to provide the customers with turnkey solutions fitted for their specific cases.

2
Because it's the future

Why Hyperconvergence?

A traditional IT infrastructure typically has multiple independent components, often from different vendors. This causes 2 common issues: first, each component requires dedicated management tools. And second: some tinkering is always required to make all components run together smoothly. These issues are partially solved by converged infrastructures (CI). Customer gets a set of separate compute, storage, and networking resources optimized for better interoperability. However, this approach doesn’t solve the administration complexity issues, requiring dedicated tools to manage different parts of the infrastructure. One more CI drawback is non-transparent scaling. Servers, storage, and networking equipment has to be scaled individually. Also, large amount of hardware leads to high CapEx and OpEx.

Yet, all these issues are completely resolved by hyperconverged IT infrastructure approach. Hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI) consolidate compute, storage, and networking resources within a single “building block”. HCI completely resolves the management complexity problem by leaving the “separate components – separate management” approach behind. You simply manage your VMs or applications, instead of dealing with each component individually, while the infrastructure does the rest for you. Ultimately, hyperconvergence grants transparent scaling options, providing the ability not only to scale up by adding more drives, memory, or CPUs, but also to scale out by adding cluster nodes. Also, since there is less hardware to purchase and no proprietary hardware to maintain, CapEx and OpEx become significantly lower.

Want additional information?

3
No more physical shared storage

Why Software-Defined Storage?

Software-Defined Storage (SDS) is a design where software (instead of hardware) determines storage performance, availability, and resiliency. It provides standard x86 hardware with features that were previously available only in a SAN (i.e., deduplication, replication, snapshots, server-side caching, and log-structuring). With SDS, you can add new features through software updates, not hardware replacement.

With SDS, you can focus on applications you want to run, and all the infrastructure resources will be allocated automatically according to requirements you set. SDS saves both your time and effort since there is no more need to manage hypervisor, storage, and networking separately.

What is more, SDS makes it easier to build solutions that fit a job by allowing you to switch from proprietary to commodity components. Thus, you get a broader choice of components that are well proven and give you better flexibility. At the end of the day, you really get what you want and not what some vendor is forcing you to buy.

Did software-defined storage pique your interest?

4
Flash Is About Cost-Effectiveness

Why All-Flash Exactly?

As you may (or may not) know, StarWind has recently announced that its StarWind HyperConverged Appliance model line will come as All-Flash only, beginning with March 2020. There are no ulterior motives to this decision, it is simply a logical next step when it comes to modern balanced performance/capacity HCI solutions.

Contrary to popular belief, the difference in the lifetime cost of deploying a solution based on SSDs compared to one of the HDDs is negated by the number of hard drives you’ll have to change as you keep using the solution. StarWind HCA All-Flash offers more capacity, better performance, and higher endurance while being cost-efficient.

Our new SSD-only-based hyperconverged platform means lower risk of failure in vibration and high-shock environments or extreme temperatures because Flash has no moving parts. The $/Gb factor between 10K HDDs and RI SSDs is the same, but there’s no risk of malfunction due to mechanical wear, Flash is “greener” and infinitely more performant.

See the SSD/HDD difference for yourself —

5
GUARANTEED BENEFITS FOR YOU

Flexibility and Simplicity

StarWind is a one-stop virtualization shop and the only provider for full-stack datacenter infrastructure you need. StarWind products are extremely easy to use.
A typical system administrator would do the job without any special storage network (SAN/NAS) management skills.

StarWind provides all the necessary building blocks covered by StarWind ProActive Premium Support and Analytics for true Software-Defined Datacenter with its ever-changing requirements during the lifecycle:
  • Software-Defined Storage (SDS)
  • Hyper-converged Infrastructure (HCI)
  • Storage appliances for primary and secondary (tier 2, 3, backup) purposes, Virtual Tape Library (VTL), etc.
  • Web Management Console to administrate StarWind infrastructure from any device anywhere in the world
StarWind products offer flexible hypervisor and OS-specific SDS choices to simplify multi-tenant configurations or during potential hypervisor switch:
  • Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, Red Hat KVM, Citrix XenServer
  • Microsoft Storage Spaces Direct (S2D) and VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN) support
  • StarWind Virtual SAN acting as a main or complementing Software-Defined Storage stack
StarWind stands behind its products and provides 24/7 support for all commercial versions, including pre-sale and post-sale:
  • Sizing, application, and data migration services included with every appliance
  • An unprecedented Premium Support plan that makes the customer’s cluster StarWind’s complete responsibility
  • StarWind ProActive Premium Support to resolve issues before you even notice them
StarWind hardware products are the definition of “turnkey” and “plug-and-play” solutions, which only require a minimal effort from the user to run:
  • The appliances come pre-built, pre-configured, and pre-tested by StarWind engineering team
  • No specialized staff is required on the customer’s side to install and configure the appliances, everything is pre-configured to a point where you just need to plug in the power and network cables.
  • The Сustomer’s IT team doesn't have to sweat on solution design, components purchase, building, configuration, testing, etc., thus saving time and money
StarWind offers a variety of different management methods in order to maximize user convenience:
  • StarWind Management Console as a web-based tool
  • Command line (CLI) with PowerShell scripts, SMI-S (Storage Management Initiative Specification) plugin for Microsoft SCVMM (System Center Virtual Machine Manager) integration, VMware vCenter plugin, Swordfish
  • All third-party management tools are eligible for BYOL policy, so there is no overpayment
StarWind maintains Bring Your Own License (BYOL) and existing hardware repurposing policies for its hardware and software products accordingly:
  • Previously purchased software licenses can be reused both for StarWind and third-party software, so the customer doesn’t pay twice
  • StarWind software runs on COTS hardware and deploys on an existing setup that meets requirements, eliminating the need for any additional purchases
  • StarWind products don’t initiate a vendor lock-in and easily integrate into different infrastructures
7
What The World Says About Us

StarWind included as Niche Player for the fourth consecutive time in 2021 Magic Quadrant™ for HCI Software



StarWind
Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software
reviewed April 5, 2021
Industry: Finance
Company size: 3b – 10b usd
01 / 10 Read more
reviewed Sep 13, 2021
Industry: Construction
Company size: <50m usd
02 / 10 Read more
reviewed June 12, 2021
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 50m - 250m usd
03 / 10 Read more
reviewed October 14, 2020
Industry: Education
Company size: <5,000 emp
04 / 10 Read more
reviewed March 16, 2021
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 3b - 10b usd
05 / 10 Read more
reviewed February 28, 2020
Industry: Finance
Company size: 1b - 3b usd
07 / 10 Read more
reviewed November 14, 2019
Industry: Finance
Company size: 1b - 3b usd
08 / 10 Read more
reviewed October 20, 2016
Industry: Manufacturing
Company size: 3b - 10b usd
09 / 10 Read more
reviewed September 1, 2021
Industry: Services
Company size: <50m usd
10 / 10 Read more
8
Success Stories

We are satisfied with StarWind. The support is really fantastic. Whenever any issue arises, the response is very prompt, and solution is immediate.

Srinivas Kouda, Company’s Representative

We were able to build 2-node storage clusters based on virtualization in 19 hypermarkets without any problems and with high cost-efficiency.

Vass Sandor, IT Infrastructure Leader

By being able to virtualize our environment with StarWind, we were able to retire some old hardware, get our services highly available, reduce power consumption and heat in our server closet.

David Gardner, Information Systems Manager

StarWind got us off the clustered environment, which was a big help. So, I could regain control of my storage and reclaim and redistribute the space we desperately needed.

Ryan Fulton, Company’s Representative

Price + Simplicity. StarWind vSAN offers great pricing and allows us to get work done without expensive custom hardware. It also makes getting back online quick and easy after an outage or hardware failure.

Aaron Hayes, IT Manager

We chose StarWind Mainly because of the cost compared to other vendors. Simplicity of setup was also a major factor and I like the fact that you don’t need a vendor certified engineer to perform the installation.

John Harris, Windows System Administrator,
Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Because of recommendations of older colleagues, with StarWind, we got a reliable storage with no additional hardware. There was a need to increase IT infrastructure performance and we saw StarWind as the most cost-effective solution.

Željko Medić, Director of IT Department

StarWind is the best storage product I have ever used! It satisfies and exceeds requirements.

Joe Gursky, Director of IT
9
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