On the cutting edge of virtualization tide without breaking the bank
StarWind offers cutting-edge hardware and software virtualization and hyperconverged solutions. We were the first to make this initially Enterprise-class technology available to SMB and ROBO, who can save much money on it. The core software product, StarWind Virtual SAN, was one of the only "tickets" to virtualization for small deployments. Basically, it provided savings and operational simplicity where expensive complex setups once reigned, all thanks to in-house developed technologies, honed throughout years of service. The main benefits of StarWind Virtual SAN were ease of use and low price thanks to low hardware footprint, as well as many performance-related features.
The next step was basing a line of turnkey hardware products on the core software, in order to make StarWind a one-stop-shop and stop sending customers to hardware vendors. Getting top-notch commodity hardware and software from our partners at great discounts, we managed to go below the market price while maintaining the same functionality and performance. Thus StarWind aimed at SMB and ROBO again, the part of market where savings are of the essence. Additionally, StarWind employed a proprietary HDD-sized cloud gateway to initiate automatic and transparent data offloading to public cloud, like Microsoft Azure or AWS. This allowed the company to solve scalability cost issues for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure and develop an own approach to backup.
Cool Vendors for Compute Platforms, 2016
- Andrew Butler | George J. Weiss | Philip Dawson
- 26 April 2016
Key Findings
- All five vendors profiled in this research are selling solutions that orchestrate resources and deliver an abstracted service.
- Massive market hype and growing enterprise adoption of hyperconvergence (hyperconverged integrated system [HCIS]) and software-defined storage (SDS) have been a powerful magnet for entrepreneurs and investors who continue to target the market.
- The increasingly vibrant and congested HCIS/SDS market creates challenges for startups to truly differentiate themselves versus rivals, which is resulting in greater scrutiny and declining enthusiasm among the investment community.
- The focus for most new HCIS/SDS startups is shifting from a complete appliance-type hardware/software solution toward a software-only focus, where most seek close collaboration with one or more system vendors with established channels and end-user influence.
Recommendations
- Look to vendors, such as those included in this research, whose products aim to offer simplified and service-focused solutions when staff time and expertise are limited.
- Pressure all HCIS/SDS vendors (startups and more established players) to prove that claimed cost of ownership and functional benefits are viable and compelling, as proof is harder to demonstrate in a congested market.
StarWind Products
StarWind Virtual SAN
StarWind VSAN is software that eliminates any need in physical shared storage by basically "mirroring" internal hard disks and flash between hypervisor servers. It is designed for SMB, ROBO, Cloud and Hosting providers, who look to cut down virtualization expenses. There is less hardware to buy in general, consequently less money is spent on purchase and maintenance. The existing hardware is used with maximum efficiency, so there is no money wasted at all. Read more
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance
StarWind HCA is a turnkey hyper-converged platform. It unifies commodity servers, disks and flash, hypervisor of choice, data mover of choice and associated software into a single manageable layer. StarWind HCA is designed for SMB, ROBO and Enterprises, who look to bring in quick deployment and operation simplicity to virtualization workloads and reduce related expenses. It supports scale-up by adding disks and flash, and scale-out by adding ready nodes. Additionally, StarWind HCA incorporates a cloud gateway that utilizes public cloud as an extra storage tier. It can be used for backup and DR purposes as well as for cost-efficient capacity scaling. Read more
StarWind Storage Appliance
StarWind SA is high-end storage built with "best of breed" commodity components: hardware (Dell servers, Intel flash, Mellanox network gear) and software (Microsoft OS, Veeam backup, ESET antivirus), assembled into one solution with StarWind VSAN virtual shared storage. It can serve as high-performance primary storage for server virtualization, VDI, database and Big Data scenarios, or secondary backup tier with optional gateway to Azure public cloud. Read more
