Item: StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use StarWind to provide shared storage for my hypervisor cluster servers, it solves and addresses the business problem of having to manage additional shared storage solutions and the complexity of networking this requires, my use case is the norm for many IT professionals in this current day and time, and I confirm it does everything they advertise after extensive testing it performs as well as any other solution, with the added benefit of low deployment timeless management overhead and a monitored system by StarWind directly.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Storage Sharing
Perfect for cluster hypervisor solutions
24x7 monitored system

Cons

Return on Investment

Less power usage in datacenter
Less physical kit
Lower cooling requirements overall in datacenter

Support Rating

This has benefited me as I have less worry about the system having any downtime or have to worry about if my staff members see problems as StarWind will call my engineers directly to ensure everyone is made aware of any issue that may arise or has already happened and need someone to physically intervene.

Reliability and Availability

I have experienced no downtime whilst we have used StarWind HCA's I hope this continues and if there were to be downtime I am sure StarWind support will be the first to notice and raise it directly with our internal team with support on how to resolve the issues faced.

Alternatives Considered

Dell EqualLogic PS Series

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is a complete different beast to storage solution such as Dell EqualLogic PS Series equipment as it allows for all storage to be housed locally to the processing server, having less kit to have to maintain in turn using less power and less cooling, whilst keeping costs lower

Key Insights

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

Other Software Used

Dell PowerEdge VRTX, Barracuda CloudGen Firewall (formerly NG Firewalls), Cisco 550X Series Stackable Managed Switches

Likelihood to Recommend

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) is well suited in scenarios where you required a fully replicated, fast storage solution for cluster hypervisor host platforms whilst being directly attached without the need for any network-attached storage or additional hardware, allowing for seamless Virtual Machine migrations along with additional data security and lower power consumption to boot.

Comments

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StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA) one of the best solutions