Artur Eichmann - PeerSpot reviewer
Systemadministrator at WebID
Real User
Top 10
Well-priced, allows for live migrations, and offers good storage
Pros and Cons
  • "The product runs wonderfully and has already gone through several failure tests."
  • "What would have to be done urgently is the adaptation of the hardware to the configuration."

What is our primary use case?

We are running a small Windows server farm with VMware, and we have chosen StarWind as our solution. It is a hyper-converged cluster connected with 25 GB. The servers themselves are located in different locations to increase security in case of failure. Also, the servers are connected to a server switch cluster to create additional protection. Only the standard servers were set up, such as the domain controller, file server, and app server. The backup strategy was implemented with Veeam and amounts to a synthetic full backup procedure located locally and performed on tape drives.

How has it helped my organization?

We had an old server infrastructure from two major vendors that ran without flaws yet were no longer state of the art and thus reached its limits in terms of memory and processor for large projects. 

In addition, the support for the servers was expiring, and we wanted a solution that would allow a live migration in real-time. After extensive research, we decided on StarWind. It has the advantages of a storage solution yet is priced much more attractively than the competition (when considering hardware in the premium range). 

What is most valuable?

We were looking for a solution that would allow live migration, however, we didn't want to spend a lot of money. We wanted an attractively priced system that offered all the advantages of a storage solution and not the disadvantages of having a highly available environment 365 days a year that would not allow any downtime. That's why we chose StarWind. It offered us a hyper-converged independent cluster with a complete package. A VM can be migrated directly in real-time in the event of a failure, and if a complete failure is imminent, a switch is made to the backup with 25 GB. 

What needs improvement?

There is not much that could be improved. StarWind was affected by the delivery problems typical for the market and could not be improved by different partners. 

What would have to be done urgently, however, is the adaptation of the hardware to the configuration. We could only decide on a model that was in the upper premium segment, although we only needed standard specifications. Therefore, we have a solution that is a bit too performant concerning our requirements. That said, this also allows us to try something out. The price was excellent, so we accepted it. 

Buyer's Guide
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution since April 2022 as part of a project. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product runs wonderfully and has already gone through several failure tests.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Regarding the hardware, there are still delivery problems, however, the software can be attached to any backup or cloud solution.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't had a chance to contact support yet; the consultation process through to implementation is great.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We switched due to the fact that our old infrastructure was in dire need of improvement and it was old.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was done with the help of StarWind. There were a few things that needed to be considered and unfortunately were not communicated by StarWind.

What about the implementation team?

The connection was made by StarWind and a partner of StarWind integrated the solution very well and very quickly.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

StarWind is a good and cheap provider that sells high-quality products. That said,  you shouldn't always look for the cheapest price or the cheapest hardware. Sometimes you get a bargain in the higher segment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other providers of a pure storage solution and purchased them with StarWind. We couldn't get anywhere close to StarWind in terms of price.

What other advice do I have?

Absolutely compare the infrastructure. It should be modernized.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Systems/Network Administrator at Storm Industries, Inc.
User
Top 20
Simple and easy to manage with helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "The setup was easy to deploy, and management is simplified compared with traditional SAN solutions."
  • "An emphasis on security can be improved."

What is our primary use case?

We needed a cost-effective and simple solution to replace our traditional SAN/server setup. 

Before StarWind, we were running a two-node cluster with a single SAN. Obviously, the storage was a single point of failure and we wanted to avoid this in our next solution.  

The StarWind deployment consisted of one two-node production environment and a second two-node test environment. With each of these two nodes, we accomplished full redundancy. Our production environment runs Hyper-V with 30 VMs and is used company-wide. Our test environment runs 15 VMs.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind Virtual SAN has been a great product for us. The setup was easy to deploy, and management is simplified compared with traditional SAN solutions. Redundancy is achieved at a fraction of the cost when compared to other solutions. We opted for premier support which includes StarWind software support, OS support, Veeam support, patching, and OS updates. 

In addition, our environment is proactively monitored 24/7. We've had experience with other solutions such as NetApp and Dell SAN, however, StarWind was by far a better solution for us. 

What is most valuable?

The most important feature for us is the simplicity of the product. We are a small IT team and can't afford to spend much time managing and maintaining the servers/SAN.  

With our old traditional SAN, we had to manage servers and a complex SAN system that was connected to switches and then back to the servers. These three pieces made it very difficult to manage. We could not manage this on our own and had to pay third-party vendors to manage it for us. With StarWind, we do it all ourselves with the help of tech support.  

What needs improvement?

When reaching out to support by phone they do have a slight accent but are not too difficult to understand. 

An emphasis on security can be improved. For example, things like default passwords were not changed initially until requested. 

Veeam support was available, however, we often went to Veeam direct for slightly quicker answers. I can't really think of much else, however, if I had to split hairs I'd say that on reboots sometimes it takes a while to sync with the other node. The maximum was 30 minutes, however, 99% of the time it was three to four minutes.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using StarWind Virtual SAN for about five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability was rock solid. We have never had any downtime. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We don't have too much experience with scalability as we only had one site. 

How are customer service and support?

Customer service is available 24/7 - which is great. They have more experience with the StarWind software than with other 3rd party software such as Veeam.  The language accent can be a slight issue as well, however, it's not too bad.  Other than that, they are very helpful and friendly.  

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had a traditional sever and SAN solution. It was very complicated to manage.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, however, it helps to have a good amount of experience for a smooth transition. Expert level is not required. That said, admin experience in a virtual environment is very helpful. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented the solution directly with StarWind. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Overall, the pricing was great with StarWind. Other solutions were two to eight times more expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other solutions such as Nutanix and the cloud (Azure). They were much more expensive.  

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
StarWind HyperConverged Appliance
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
ggazeley - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a construction company with 11-50 employees
User
User-friendly with great support and reduces downtime
Pros and Cons
  • "The customer service has been the most valuable feature of the product to me."
  • "The StarWind Command Center web portal could use some work."

What is our primary use case?

I'm the sole IT guy at a construction company of about 50 employees. StarWind HCA hosts all of our IT infrastructure other than the building's security and the phones. 

In total, we are running six Windows Server VMs (one DC directly on each of the nodes and four in the HA cluster). 

We have one of their hybrid systems (mix of SSD and HDDs) and I have all of the Windows server OS installs and databases on the SSDs with simple file storage on the HDDs. Since we self-host most things this is the backbone of our IT infrastructure.

How has it helped my organization?

When I joined the company, they were running everything off a single bare-metal server. The downtime was common, there were rampant issues, and backups were simple file copies on a schedule (no configuration backups).

As a jack-of-all-trades IT guy I knew that virtualization would be a massive boon in many aspects, but was intimidated at the prospect of building out a whole system from scratch myself.

StarWind's HCA proved to be an ideal solution. Support held my hand through the setup and configuration of the hypervisors and allowed me to easily migrate the company's ancient bare-metal server to a proper virtualized HA setup.

Downtime is almost non-existent now. Services are compartmentalized to different VMs and backups are full of images that could be spun up on the cloud in a pinch. 

What is most valuable?

The customer service has been the most valuable feature of the product to me. From the initial purchasing process to the initial setup and configuration to installing routine firmware updates years later. I've been consistently impressed with the quality of the support. It's easy to get a live person on short notice, and the reps always seem to know what they're doing.

Their software is also pretty user-friendly. After having support hold my hand a few times, I feel like I can almost completely manage everything myself. Still nice to know they're there to help, though.

What needs improvement?

So far, I haven't had any major complaints. If I had to think of some minor nitpicks, they would be:

1) Scalability. I'm not sure what I will do if we start running out of space. Presumably, we'll just have to buy a whole new HCA with more storage and move everything over. I'd recommend buying way more storage than you need to future-proof.

2) The StarWind Command Center web portal could use some work. It looks nice, however, I find it slow and clunky compared to just remoting onto the nodes and working in the OS. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is rock solid. We haven't had any downtime due to hardware/software issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is not ideal. That said, what physical on-prem solution is? No matter what product you choose you're going to have estimate your storage in advance and hope it lasts a good long while. If scalability is king, then a cloud solution is probably best.

How are customer service and support?

Support has been top-notch. Responses have always been same-day and they always seem to know what they're doing. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex. That said, support walks you through every step. I could never have set it up right on my own. 

What about the implementation team?

I did the setup in-house.

What was our ROI?

I couldn't give an exact number, however, considering how much downtime we used to have with our old system, I'm sure it has already paid for itself over the past three years.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
General Do It All at Western Idaho Cabinets, Inc.
User
Top 20
Excellent support with increased uptime and good monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "Repair efforts have been reduced to nearly nothing."
  • "I'd like a better UI and some limitations on "breaking it.""

What is our primary use case?

We went with StarWind HCA primarily for Hyper-V Clustering. 

We were having hardware issues that lead to downtime on our single server environment. 

We aren't "huge," so IT budgeting is tight. However, every dime spent on our HCA has been 100% worth it. 

Since implementation, we've had nearly no downtime. No downtime has been thanks to the HCA itself. I'll definitely go with StarWind when we're ready for a hardware refresh. It's a no-brainer. The prices are obviously more than we had been used to in the past. However, it's been worth the investment.

How has it helped my organization?

Uptime alone has been substantially increased. 

Repair efforts have been reduced to nearly nothing. 

Monitoring is provided free of cost to StarWind, which also reduced expenses.

In instances where we had issues outside of the HCA, StarWind support has gone above and beyond to help us diagnose Windows issues. 

I've been in IT for 15 years now, and you kind of expect to have to "work on things" as part of your job description. That said, we're 3 years in, and I have yet to "need" to work on anything with the hardware or software. It just works.

What is most valuable?

Support is the highest on my list in terms of great aspects. You simply cannot have issues, as they're on top of monitoring and resolution. 

Uptime is the second-best aspect of the product. The software solution is so solid, you don't really have issues; however, when you do, support is there to jump in and help you fix it. 

Honestly, with those two items, there's no reason to "not" use them. In my experience, you want your solutions to work, and when they don't, to get them fixed fast. It's a combo that StarWind has perfected and is the reason I don't even want to look anywhere else for other solutions.

What needs improvement?

I'd like a better UI and some limitations on "breaking it." Best practices ask you not to reboot both servers simultaneously, as it breaks the "heartbeat" between the servers. I didn't know that during my first week having it, and sure enough, I had some issues. Maybe there could be some notifications like "are you sure you want to reboot" or whatnot to prevent issues like the one I experienced. 

StarWind did release a VM that had some integration into the Windows cluster side of things. However, I found it easier to just use the Windows tools. Maybe if it was more robust, I'd use it. That's not the case at this point in time.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution since 2019.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We do not need to scale. Still, you can scale to more than 3+ servers in the StarWinds solution.

How are customer service and support?

Support is the best thing about StarWind. I can't praise them enough. The initial setup and purchase are a single point in time and support is ongoing. You need an amazing support team to have an amazing product. And StarWind is an amazing product.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not switch from something else. The adoption of this product was just a massive upgrade for our company.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy. The hardware came pre-configured, and support did the rest of the network-specific setup after we had the hardware installed. It was the best experience I've had with a vendor.

What about the implementation team?

StarWind support only employs experts. I have yet to deal with anyone on their support team that didn't know the product inside and out. It's really refreshing compared to other vendors I have to deal with.

What was our ROI?

We produce 15-20 full kitchens a day. The ROI was almost instant when you consider we had been down two days the month before.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing was a bit high. That said, it was on par with other solutions we looked into. It's worth it alone for the support.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

StarWind had me sold. I was looking at doing a SAN with two Hyper-V's, however, why buy additional hardware when it can be done more simply with the same results.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Information Systems Manager at Innotech W+D
User
User-friendly with proactive support and great notification capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "Product functionality and performance are wonderful."
  • "A possible thing is perhaps a customer portal to schedule a time with support online via a calendar."

What is our primary use case?

We use StarWind managed HyperV service for virtualized servers and redundancy servers. The StarWind support alerts us if there are any issues with the HyperV servers. Their phone support is professional and great.

The central management, redundancy, and 24/7 alert systems are managed via a service provider. This is a key component that we are looking for. The HyperV servers come preconfigured and the product sales specialist recommends hardware specs as needed for our environment. 

In case of updates for the firmware and StarWind software, StarWind support contacts us since it is managed service. They remotely do the upgrade - which is great. 

How has it helped my organization?

Our organization has improved via:

  • Internal/operational efficiencies via the central management
  • Improved compliance and risk management
  • Cost management
  • Product functionality and performance
  • Strong proactive customer service and support
  • Managed Support and service for the HyperV environment
  • Alert Notifications via email 
  • Redundancy and 24/7 alert system via the managed service provider
  • User-friendliness of the interface
  • Great phone support 
  • Managed updates such as Firmware and StarWind Software
  • Sales specialist recommendations in the case of hardware upgrades

What is most valuable?

Instead of having multiple servers and managing them separately, we could have redundant HyperV servers. This creates efficiencies in terms of the management of the servers.

The central management of servers and StarWind software that can show us the health status of the servers are great. 

Product functionality and performance are wonderful.

Customer support is proactive and contacts us if anything needs to be paid attention to with good follow-ups.

The user-friendliness of the interface is great.

Redundancy of Hardware via RAID and power system is good for critical environments. 

What needs improvement?

Overall, we are happy with the level of service, in the past due to time zone differences, getting to phone support later in the afternoon sometimes meant not getting a hold of second-level technical support on the same day, however, this has been improved in the past year. Normally we can get to first-level support immediately and then if an escalation is needed, we schedule a time with second-level support later. A possible thing is perhaps a customer portal to schedule a time with support online via a calendar.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for more than two years. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Systems Administrator at a non-profit with 11-50 employees
User
Top 20
Exceptional support, intuitive UI and simple software
Pros and Cons
  • "UI Options are simple and easy to find."
  • "The only area that the product could improve would be user training."

What is our primary use case?

We mainly use this as failover and to not have the expense for additional or separate storage. 

Our environment is pretty small and with less than 50 users. We only have two servers in the failover cluster that are part of Starwind Storage. 

Prior to Starwind, we always had to schedule maintenance windows and have all of our services down. Compared to before, our downtimes have decreased substantially and maintenance windows have almost been eliminated. Not to mention, I no longer have to come in on weekends.  

How has it helped my organization?

Prior to Starwind, we always had to schedule maintenance windows and have all of our services down. Compared to before, our downtimes have decreased substantially and maintenance windows have almost been eliminated. 

It's also been really great that we can schedule maintenance on the servers themselves during on-hours. Since we are able to migrate our VMs from one node to another, this makes it really simple. 

Of course, there is also the fact that if a node goes down, we have one to back it up and continue with our day without management worrying.

What is most valuable?

The software itself is actually really simple. There isn't much to it at all. 

GUI navigation is simple and intuitive. UI Options are simple and easy to find. 

From one single interface, I am able to connect and or disconnect to any of our servers and see their current status. 

The UI itself lets you add targets, devices, etc. You can view recent events, performance, etc. 

A nice feature that was recently added was the StarWind Command Center. It allows you to manage all of your clusters from a single point. 

What needs improvement?

There really isn't much to the software itself. It's not something I use on a daily basis and mostly only when needed. I'd have to say I am usually tinkering with the software maybe on a monthly basis, if that. 

The only area that the product could improve would be user training. I've had to learn most of the ins and outs by myself or by asking questions when I have to get tech support involved and that's pretty rare.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for five years.

How are customer service and support?

Support is top quality and their response is exceptional. It's probably one of the best supports I've dealt with. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, we did not use a different solution previously.

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward and not complex at all to set up. It did take a little bit of time for the setup, however, we never ran into any issues. 

What about the implementation team?

Implementation was done through a vendor.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost wasn't a huge issue for us as it was purchased as a bundle. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we looked at other options, however, we needed something ASAP and this was the best solution overall.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior IT Support Specialist at Seneca Family of Agencies
User
Works flawlessly with high availability and great expandability
Pros and Cons
  • "Their service is top-notch and if a node goes down they immediately are following up with us to make sure that everything is working smoothly."
  • "It would be nice to have some kind of GUI interface implemented to give you an overall view of the system's health at a glance."

What is our primary use case?

We needed a high availability solution for our mission-critical infrastructure. We wanted to minimize any potential downtime and make sure we had a redundant system in place. 

We are currently running three nodes that maintain our fleet of virtual machines. We are able to run the entire infrastructure off of two nodes so it makes patching very easy and we don't have to schedule downtime. The failover clustering works flawlessly and we can move virtual machines between all the nodes extremely quickly. 

How has it helped my organization?

The machines perform much better than what we were previously using; they are workhorses. We have had zero issues with them over the years we've been using the solution. Support is extremely helpful and the application is easy to set up and configure. 

It has also helped us to schedule less downtime as we're able to run all of our machines off of two nodes while we patch. Being able to live-migrate virtual machines from one box to another goes extremely quickly and is never noticed from the end-user side.

What is most valuable?

Having high availability is a must in our environment and works flawlessly. Their service is top-notch and if a node goes down they immediately are following up with us to make sure that everything is working smoothly. 

We have a massive amount of storage for future expandability. 

Being a small team the service that we receive from them gives us peace and mind and knowing that if something were to go wrong they would be able to step in and support us in getting the application back up and running as soon as possible.

What needs improvement?

We don't find ourselves using the StarWind Console it would be nice to have some extra features built into it. 

There doesn't seem to be anything upfront inside of it that would warrant us to monitor it or use its feature set. 

It would be nice to have some kind of GUI interface implemented to give you an overall view of the system's health at a glance - such as displaying critical events, storage space used/available, the health of the disks, etc. Other than that, in our time with the system, we haven't had any complaints or issues in our environment.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for the last three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The nodes have been extremely stable. We have had no issues over the last few years when using them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The machines work great and with the amount of storage we originally had purchased. We are in no danger of running out anytime soon.

How are customer service and support?

Customer service has been kind and professional and on top of their game. We're notified very quickly if they notice a node going down on their end.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were previously using VMware. The cost was extremely high so we wanted to move to something else. 

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was very straightforward with the engineers providing great support to get it implemented.

What about the implementation team?

We used our in-house team to install and then the vendor's engineers configured the application for us.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The setup cost and pricing were very competitive, even including service. That's why we went with StarWind.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We considered HyperV as an alternative and found StarWind.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Systems Analyst at The Bethany Group
User
Excellent support and documentation with flexible pricing
Pros and Cons
  • "Their support team is extremely helpful, and they are pretty friendly and knowledgeable."
  • "The only thing that can use improvement is the StarWind Management Console and Command Center."

What is our primary use case?

We are running the StarWind HyperConverged Appliances as our Hyper-V Cluster hosts. Our old solution was a three-node Hyper-V Cluster that hosted our VMs. We now have a two-node setup using StarWind HCAs that run/host our Hyper-V VMs in a similar Failover Cluster. This saves room in our Data-Centre and provides a modernized solution compared to what we used. The two hosts each have their own storage bays that host all the VMs and also use the StarWind software to store our VMs in CSVs, allowing us to have even more replication on top of the RAID-5 node runs.

How has it helped my organization?

StarWind's Appliance improved our organization by no longer having a single point of failure. Our previous solution had a separate storage bay where the StarWind HCAs each have their own bay that can hold all our VMs and run replication using the StarWind Software.

Our old solution only supported Gigabit connections, while the StarWind solution also supported 10GB. Each node runs two Mellanox interconnects and came with two 10GB ports for our usage. We now have two cables running from the nodes through to the rest of our network and have set up SET (Switch Independent Teaming) for our Hyper-V Cluster solution.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable thing I have found is the 24/7 Support. Their support team is extremely helpful, and they are pretty friendly and knowledgeable. They monitor your hardware and provide support when you migrate to the new service. 

During our migration, we have sent multiple requests for support and made changes that have caused the network connection to flap. Within minutes of the nodes flapping, we would have a new ticket open with StarWind with them requesting information about the downed Node(s) and asking us if we require any support on getting them back up. 

The team has benefited us and offered support and documentation for the migration and general inquiries about their Hardware/Software.

What needs improvement?

The only thing that can use improvement is the StarWind Management Console and Command Center.

The management console needs to be restarted each reboot, and you must manually reconnect to each node to see the status. If this could be an automated process or if it auto-connects when you start the program, that would be fantastic.

The Command Center is a great tool, but it stores the ISOs in one of the CSVs, meaning that each ISO uses a lot of storage space compared to one copy. Since each node runs RAID-5 and the two nodes are replicated using the StarWind software, we are essentially using over three times the storage. 

Also, it doesn't feel like the Command Center adds anything compared to using the OS's Hyper-V or Failover Cluster managers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, we've not had a single live down situation.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very scalable. Only half the slots for both Memory and SSDs were used when we built our complete solution.

How are customer service and support?

They have the best support I've experienced with any vendor I've worked with up until now. We're still only 2 months into using their hardware so we may see a change.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did use another solution. We switched because our previous solution was getting to EOL and the new solution offered by that company was more expensive than StarWind for similar builds. StarWind could offer more for less money than the other vendors who wanted more for less.

How was the initial setup?

HCAs came pre-configured and only required minimum input on our end to get up and running.

What about the implementation team?

I discussed and negotiated directly with StarWind.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The staff at StarWind are willing to negotiate. They will take a look at your system diagnostics and make a recommendation, and they will also ask if you have any specific needs/wants on top of the requirements and build you a customizable solution. 

Once you are at the quote stage, they are willing to negotiate with you if you have another vendor offering you similar products for a lower price. This was one of the major reasons we went with StarWind, as they were very open about it and have been very helpful every step of the way. 

Their website support chat will connect you to your assigned sales rep if they are available, and that means the "support" agent is someone who knows your needs well.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We took a look at all the big vendors, including HPE, Dell, Lenovo, and IBM.

What other advice do I have?

Make use of the support and staff at StarWind whenever you need it. They are extremely knowledgeable and friendly. They are staff that feels like they want you as a customer and want to keep you as a customer by offering you great support. For other companies, you must wait on call, whereas StarWind has 24/7 support, and they proectively reach out to you when they detect issues.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free StarWind HyperConverged Appliance Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.