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StarWind HCA vSAN Post-Purchase Review
October 07, 2021

StarWind HCA vSAN Post-Purchase Review

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)

We use StarWind vSAN to support the IT needs across the entire company. It allows us to provide high-performance computing and storage to the business needs (i.e.: VMs, apps, desktops, etc.). It also reduces our IT complexity in hardware and maintenance.
  • High performance storage.
  • Great customer service and support.
  • Simple to deploy.
  • Reduced single points of failure.
  • Documentation.
  • Reduced IT maintenance.
  • Increased infrastructure redundancy.
  • Reduced hardware/rack wiring complexity.
StarWind proactive support gives us "another set of eyes" to watch over our system to catch anything we might miss, especially on something as critical as the compute and storage that runs our business.
No downtime as of yet.
We compared against just general servers + SAN solution from Dell. StarWind had fewer single points of failure, reduced hardware, and better performance.

Do you think StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)'s feature set?

Yes

Did StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) again?

Yes

vSphere, Veeam Backup & Replication
I would suggest any SMB who hosts their own IT infrastructure and has at least a moderately knowledgeable staff to use StarWind HCA. It is easy to initially set up and has very little daily maintenance.

Using StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)

45 - All.
1 - General IT knowledge. General vSphere knowledge. General hardware knowledge.
  • Compute
  • Storage
  • Reduced single points of failure
  • General IT infrastructure needs
  • Disaster Recovery, offsite
Easy to set up, easy to use. Nothing bad I can say about it.

Evaluating StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) and Competitors

Yes - Dell VRTX all-in-one compute and storage, and prior to that a nodes, network, and SAN system. We replaced primarily because our warranties were expiring although we did want better performance and more resiliency as well.
  • Price
  • Product Usability
Ease of use with good support at a reasonable price.
Wouldn't change anything.

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) Implementation

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.
  • Implemented in-house
Not sure - N/A
  • None

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes. We purchased it to have an extra set of eyes on the infrastructure since we have a small staff and limited time to monitor the HCA/vSAN constantly.
Every time. Pre-purchase discussions, customizing the hardware, initial setup, and resolution of issues.

Using StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Convenient
Feel confident using
None
  • Initial setup.
  • Daily usage.
  • Power loss graceful shutdown.
  • Testing.
Easy to set up initially and use.