Overview
Product Information on StarWind Virtual SAN
What is StarWind Virtual SAN?
StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing
Overall experience with StarWind Virtual SAN
“StarWind Virtual SAN: A flexible option to approach HCI on your own terms”
“Effective Utilization of Old Hardware Despite Limited Assistance Availability”
About Company
Company Description
StarWind is a prime mover in the domain of storage virtualization and hyperconvergence technologies, having been involved with the development and implementation of IT infrastructure optimization solutions before virtualization became mainstream. The company's unique development, StarWind Virtual SAN, is a software-defined storage solution which removes the need for physical shared storage like SAN and NAS. It works with any hypervisor, making it quite versatile. The company has added value to businesses across different sectors by offering enterprise features without hefty price tags, thanks to the development of the StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. This combines storage, computation, networking, and StarWind software into a hyper-converged platform. StarWind's solutions, including the Virtual SAN, have been certified for use with different systems like Windows Server and Citrix XenServer. Since its inception in 2003, many businesses globally have opted for StarWind's solutions.
Company Details
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Key Insights
A Snapshot of What Matters - Based on Validated User Reviews
User Sentiment About StarWind Virtual SAN
Reviewer Insights for: StarWind Virtual SAN
Deciding Factors: StarWind Virtual SAN Vs. Market Average
Performance of StarWind Virtual SAN Across Market Features
StarWind Virtual SAN Likes & Dislikes
The flexibility of storage options and potential savings it provides Helpful and knowledgeable support technician Low cost compared to competition
Installation is not too complicated and use of old hardware key
- Excellent value for money offering powerful features at a competitive price point - Flexible deployment on our existing hardware, this allowed us to repurpose our last gen hardware in a pilot / trial mode before becoming fully committed with purpose built hardware. - The feature-rich environment supports both enterprise level operations and experimental use cases, the hands on nature of the solution fostered real excitement among our team. - The free tier community support is a nice addition, despite being a paid support member it is a good resource, we have often found a solution to our problem or narrowed down the possible causes before engaging level 1 or 2 support.
Having to communicate through a rep instead of directly with a technician for support The storage volume it hosts becomes locked when the trial expires Limited scalability past three servers
A Little hard to find help
- We'd appreciate future versions to support direct installation onto bare metal, i.e. no need for a separate host OS or hyper-visor. - For severity 2 support issues, a faster response time would be beneficial to minimize operational impact. - On some StarWind supplied hardware environmental factors like hardware acoustics impacted the physical setup, though not a product fault, it was part of our implementation experience.
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Peer Discussions
StarWind Virtual SAN Reviews and Ratings
- IT ENGINEER<50M USDMiscellaneousReview Source
StarWind Virtual SAN: A flexible option to approach HCI on your own terms
I used the free version of StarWind Virtual SAN a few years ago to test some High Availability proof of concepts and then this year pulled the trigger on buying a 2-server node license. Both with the free version and the purchased one, I have been quite impressed with the product itself. Having an option for a virtual SAN hosted on servers is a configuration that not every organization might need. Many will go the route of just having hardware SANs. Whether utilizing existing hardware or if you want more granular control of your storage device utilizing this type of Virtual SAN can be a great option. In particular, with vendors pushing more and more "closed-box" server and storage systems where administrators cannot control the underlying architecture, an option like this is refreshing. With a 2-node setup we can utilize high speed server storage and cut out the need for more complex quorum arrangements and optical networking equipment. High Availability with just two servers and no additional hardware footprints to mix into my environment has been a major plus. Working with StarWinds support technicians (well just one technician, I've only talked to the same one each time I ask for help) has been a major plus as well. He was very knowledgeable and able to answer all of my questions. He even helped spot an underlying hardware issue with one of my devices while we were getting things setup. The only negative I have experienced so far is the difficulty at getting answers to my questions and setting up support calls in a simple expedient way. Communication with my sales rep can be slow at times and answers to my questions often end up forwarded through the rep, slowing and sometimes confusing the exchanges. Once a support call is set up though things go well. After two years of use now I can say that the product has continued to perform reliably and require almost no maintenance at all. The system has managed failovers without noticeable downtime when one of the hosts goes offline. - Integration Engineer1B-10B USDIT ServicesReview Source
Installation and Support Streamlined, Though Hardware Acoustics and Response Times Noted
Our transition to StarWind VSAN was remarkably smooth and rewarding, the product delivers impressive reliability, scalability and performance. From initial setup through daily operations, we've experienced consistent technical excellence and attentive support. The cost-effectiveness combined with strong guidance and training made the onboarding process seamless and confidence boosting. StarWind vSAN has proven to be a robust, highly capable solution that continues to exceed expectations. - IT ANALYST50M-1B USDBankingReview Source
Experience With StarWind Virtual SAN Shows Major Savings Yet Steep Learning Curve
Game-Changer for SMB Hyper-Convergence Our overall experience with StarWind Virtual SAN has been exceptional. - SYSTEMS INFRASTRUCTURE ADMINISTRATOR50M-1B USDManufacturingReview Source
Virtual SAN Offers Cost Savings and Improved Uptime Without onsite Physical Hardware Needs
The virtual SAN can save a considerable amount of money as there is no physical device needed to purchase, or to have parts to fail or break. This not only means a cheaper cost, but also a better uptime. We've had great success using a virtual SAN and it has easily filled all of our needs - IT ASSOCIATE50M-1B USDServices (non-Government)Review Source
Cost-Efficient and Easy-to-Deploy Virtual SAN-Solution.
It is a solution focused on easy of inplementation, which helps optimize costs. The most important aspect is that it does not depend on specific hardware, allowing it to be deployed on legacy equipment.