Finally, StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance is available on Linux allowing you to save costs on Windows licensing. Being hypervisor-agnostic, StarWind VSA easily integrates into any IT infrastructure as a fully pre-configured virtual machine ready for deployment and operation. It simply installs in any existing environment requiring no specialized SAN skills and is managed using StarWind Web console or thick client allowing to control the entire storage infrastructure from a centralized console.
Join our Tap Room Meeting on April 27 11 am PT / 2 pm ET to see all benefits of the StarWind Linux-based VSA.
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/dedicated-live-demo-session

StarWind Virtual SAN Free allows deploying a 2-node cluster providing a highly available storage for your virtual machines to Hyper-V or ESXi hypervisor for free. When deploying multi VSAN Free nodes, the data is synchronized across the network between the nodes. StarWind VSAN Free can be deployed in a hyperconverged model where VSAN Free is installed on hypervisor nodes or in a disaggregated model with separated compute and storage resources. StarWind VSAN Free management capabilities include PowerShell, with StarWind Management console available as a 30-day trial.

Read the full article by Romain Serre, a Senior Consultant at Lyon to learn how to deploy a 2-node StarWind VSAN Free for VMware ESXi 6.5 on Windows Server 2016 Core Edition.

StarWind gets closer to Linux users by providing them with special Linux-based Virtual Storage Appliance version combining the underlying OS and preinstalled StarWind Virtual SAN, allowing to save money on Windows Licensing when it’s unnecessary.
StarWind VSA is compatible with any hypervisor, be it Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESXi, Xen or KVM and can be managed via a Web Management Console while additionally containing a StarWind vCenter plugin allowing to manage the product directly from vCenter Server.

Read the full article by Vladan Seget, IT and Virtualization consultant to learn more about StarWind Virtual SAN on Linux

AlwaysOn Basic Availability Groups (BAG) supported in SQL Server Standard Edition and AlwaysOn Availability Groups (AG) introduced in SQL Server Enterprise Edition were designed to create a replicated environment with improved failover capabilities. However, the two types provide different capabilities while also requiring different licensing costs.

Read the full article by Shashank Singh, Microsoft MVP, and SQL Server Architect to learn more about BAG and AG cost and functionality differences.

Migrating your VMs from one hypervisor to another may be quite a complicated task if there’s no decent virtual machine converter at hand. Fortunately, there are various V2V tools allowing to turn this process into a simple thing. But, when choosing a V2V converter, there are several factors you should take into consideration.

Read the full article to learn how to choose a V2V converter that will become a perfect fit for your needs.

StarWind is currently working on the new product - a flexible and customizable web-based platform which will allow users get the full control over their IT infrastructures from a single HTML5 graphical interface including S2D, Failover Clustering and Hyper-V. More information to be found in a nearby thread: https://mangolassi.it/topic/14114/help-starwind-to-pick-the-name-for-the-upcoming-product

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance utilizes Local Reconstruction Codes, Replication, and Grid Architecture to provide an ultimate fault tolerance rate while delivering sustained high performance. With StarWind HCA, the whole infrastructure remains operational even after multiple disk or node failures. In case a failure occurs, applications are automatically recovered to working cluster disks or nodes, allowing to easily withstand a failure of more than 50% of the cluster nodes.

Watch our video to learn how to get uncompromised resiliency with StarWind HCA
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/get-uncompromised-fault-tolerance-of-it-infrastructure-with-starwind-hyperconverged-appliance

With PowerShell, automatic deployment of Hyper-V VMs in Windows Server 2016 becomes a piece of cake
No doubts, commercial software for automatic VM deployment is great, but it may be too expensive comparing to the goals that need to be achieved. That’s where PowerShell kicks in. With PowerShell commands, the creation and configuration of Hyper-V virtual machines in Windows Server 2016 become a fairly simple thing. But, what is more important, you can create a script which deploys VMs of the same configuration automatically.

Read the full article by Boris Yurchenko, a Support Engineer at StarWind, to learn how to automate your VMs deployment with PowerShell in Windows Server 2016.

Installing an HTTPS certificate is just a tip of the iceberg. This certificate has a huge number of options that usually are hidden deep inside config files. Actually, these tiny details allow distinguishing a site that can be rendered vulnerable via HTTPS downgrade attack and the one that is really secure.

Read the full article by Gary Williams, a virtualization, storage, and Windows systems administrator, to achieve the highest security.

StarWind team will take the floor at Storage Field Day 15 to reveal new awesome backup storage technologies: Virtual Tape Library with Cloud and Object storage and backed by ProActive Support! Our speaking slot is the first in line: March 9, 8-10 am PT, don’t miss it!

For Livestream, go to https://www.facebook.com/TechFieldDay/ or watch on http://techfieldday.com/, Livestream.com - includes the entire event.

Common backups seem to lag seriously behind the production side of things due to using legacy hardware, creating a serious bottleneck and security compromise. StarWind Backup Appliance (BA) employs all-NVMe storage to provide the fastest possible backup and restore, as well as innovative software to ensure utmost security from ransomware.

See the video on Techday Network where Orest Lesyuk, a StarWind Solutions Engineer, talks about modern backup needs and concerns and how StarWind BA resolves them like no other alternative on the market.

The IT world is moving ever further into the cloud. Microsoft recently released Windows 365, which is supposed to be a simplified version of Azure Virtual Desktop. It’s marketed as “your PC in the Cloud,” which is mostly operable from Microsoft Endpoint Manager. There are many exciting things to expect from this launch, so you better get into it.
Read the article by Romain Serre, a Microsoft MVP, on the new Windows 365 and how to get started with your very own Microsoft PC in the Cloud correctly.

Customary HDD-based backup infrastructure takes a long time to backup data and even more to restore it. In the modern age of increasing cyber threats and data value, compromise for data loss is unacceptable. Our new NVMe-based backup solution brings near-instant speed to backup and restore, as well as simplified backup administration, making those issues obsolete.

Check out the white paper, describing the functionality, features, and benefits your business can gain with the new, state-of-the-art All-NVMe StarWind Backup Appliance.

DBeaver is an open-source, free multi-platform database management software. It’s also an SQL client for developers and database administrators that has a user-friendly UI. It can be used as an alternative for MySQL-Workbench and PGAdmin to work with various databases, like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Greenplum, and others.

Read the new guide by Karim Buzdar on how to properly install and configure DBeaver on Linux to help make your database administration routine more simplified.

Permolex Ltd., a Canadian manufacturing company, had a production environment running 24/7 365 days per year. Any significant downtime would have seriously hurt the company's image and workload. If the existing system failed or was down to perform required system updates and maintenance, its production data could be compromised and reputation damaged. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), Permolex Ltd. creates a failover cluster improving the security of client data and coming to naught the possibility of reputational risks.

Find out how Permolex Ltd. builds a highly available and fault-tolerant IT infrastructure stimulating its business growth with StarWind.

myCRE, Inc., an American cloud hosting provider, had a traditional VMware cluster with a physical SAN storage. High cost, low performance, and growth potential were the three main issues the company wanted to resolve, while not being tied to a specific hardware vendor/type. Using StarWind HyperConverged Appliance (HCA), myCRE, Inc. move to hyperconvergence, removing physical SAN limitations, gaining freedom of hardware and software choice, and ensuring a more granular growth of their VMware cluster at a lower cost.

Find out how myCRE, Inc. intensify IT infrastructure performance saving over $50,000 for business development with StarWind.

Azure recently released a Premium SKU (Stock-keeping-Unit) for its Firewall. Although Azure Firewall Premium is not as foolproof as Palo Alto or Checkpoint, it’s been getting more and more upgrades. This version is better-suited for connectivity control, with its new features like TLS inspection, IDPS, Web categories, and URL filtering.

Read the new post by Florent Appointare, a Microsoft Engineer, about Azure Firewall Premium in brief and how to deploy the solution to control your connectivity.

Well, it’s finally here: starting September 1, 2021, Windows Server 2022 is generally available! There’s a whole slew of new features and novelties present in the OS. However, most advancement is seen in enhancing security and hybrid cloud workload, catering to the modern shift to remote work and processing data at the point of inception.

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, on all the essentials you need to know about the new features in the recently launched Windows Server 2022.

Exhibit Options, an American full-service, custom design, and fabrication exhibit builder, had the issue of an unscaled IT infrastructure that did not allow for fast customer service processes. For this reason, it was looking for a solution that would balance the increasing workloads and provide the desired flexibility. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (VSAN), Exhibit Options gets an immediate boost to its IT infrastructure scalability and significantly improves customer service processes.

Find out how Exhibit Options gains agility in customer service processes by building a high-availability (HA) cluster powered by StarWind.

The recent release from StarWind takes an entirely new approach to backup overall. StarWind Backup Appliance (BA) combines components conventionally associated with performance enhancement and presents a totally novel backup solution. Near-to-instant backup. Ultra-fast restore. Low eco and hardware footprint. Great longevity.

Read the new article by VirtualizationHowTo on how StarWind BA removes any backup storage bottlenecks, fits any RTPO, and fully reshapes the efficiency of modern backup infrastructure.