Azure Stack HCI vs StarWind HCA

It will be effective for an organization that is planning to deploy the application on the cloud and as well as on-premise. Organizations planning to work on hybrid-based can go for it blindly If looking for security it's an ultimate solution, being it is hybrid-based security is well enhanced.

I love my HCA for a 2 Hyper-V cluster, not sure how well it scales past 2. I know they have a solution for it, but it seems like it could be a bit cumbersome. Physical setup was easy, software required some hand holding with support, however they are very knowledgable and were able to get us setup without any major issues.

• Azure Stack HCI operating system
• Windows Admin Center
• Hyper-V-based compute resources

• It is extremely easy to set up, it comes with most options pre-configured for you. But the support group will walk through your entire setup and migration.
• It is monitored by StarWind 24x7. Instead of issues being reactive with the monitoring I'm hoping things will be more proactive.
• The performance has been outstanding. I think disk was our main limiting factor with our hold hardware.

• Interruptions are there when the connection is low.
• Improvement needed on Integration feature.
• A lot of issues were faced while implementing.
• Documentation should be clear and straightforward.
• Improvement needed on Documentation.

• Support team has slight accent but is not too difficult to understand.
• Emphasis on security can be improved. Things like default passwords were not changed initially until requested.
• Can't really think of much else...If I had to split hairs...on reboots sometimes it took a while to sync with the other node. Max was 30 minutes, but 99% of the time it's 3-4 minutes.

It is very simple to use and just simply works. We have had zero issues with our HCA appliances. In the future, we will likely look into a 3-node cluster instead of a 2-node for increased storage space and speed. From quote to implementation, it was a very simple and straightforward process.

Easy to set up initially and use.

In the 3 years that we have been using the StarWind HCA's, we have not experienced any downtime or unplanned outages. It has been the opposite that I was able to keep all systems/VMs up and running when I needed to upgrade the StarWind SAN software and firmware of the Dell hardware that are the virtual hosts/hyperconverged appliances.

Anytime we've been notified about a node going down is usually on us rebooting or incorrectly shutting down the machine. Each time that this has happened support has emailed us almost instantly to check on things and provide support if required.

Very simple, all you need is a day's worth of time to install the hardware, get the vSAN up and running, and start moving over workloads.

We can deploy the application into windows and Linux virtual machines in the datacentre, Azure service. It provides the latest security, performance, and hybrid capabilities, which now include Azure Arc enablement and new management scenarios through the Azure portal. GPU enablement and maximizing performance of we can go virtual desktop infrastructure.

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance was the only option that offered the performance, reliability, and high availability that we were looking for. It's also the solution that is tailored for small organizations and removes a lot of the complexities and extra components needed to make HCI work. The competitors each offer a solution that probably would have worked but none offered a solution that was within our budget.

• The upside is the integration feature.
• Pricing is a little higher.
• When compared with another platform, Azure Stack HCI is performing/ functioning brilliantly.

• Our CIS software has some poorly optimized SQL logic. Our old Failover Cluster w/ a VNXe3200 SAN would take up to 7 seconds to pull a customer's records up. It now takes only 1-2 seconds. Our front office has been much more pleasant since their install.
• I would only rarely have to interact with our blade switches and VNXe SAN, so I wouldn't necessarily retain the knowledge of how to configure them. Each time I'd need to make a change, I'd have to refer back to my documentation. That's no longer an issue I have to deal with.
• The rack footprint for our cluster went from 14U to 4U, and we were able to achieve it with much less network cabling and with lowered power requirements.