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.

CanPay Software Inc., a Canada-based software development company, had outdated hardware resources, the maintenance of which added extra expenses each year. So, the company needed a refresh but at a price affordable for small businesses. Using StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), CanPay Software replaces its end-of-life SANs, goes all-flash, builds a hyperconverged IT infrastructure, and reduces its IT operational expenses (OpEx).

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

Microsoft Adaptive Cards are a platform-agnostic method of sharing and displaying information that cloud apps can openly exchange. In essence, this occurs as snippets of a chosen UI being generated by the user in JSON format. This file can then be delivered to another app where it’ll adaptively transform the data into a native UI that adapts to its surroundings.

Read the article by Nicolas Prigent, a three-time Microsoft MVP, on the functionality of and how to begin with Microsoft Adaptive Cards.

Previously, South Gibson School Corporation, the largest public school in Gibson County, Indiana, had an aged non-virtualized environment with a bloated hardware footprint. Management of the system with multiple servers was rather exhausting and cost-burdened. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), South Gibson School Corporation creates a high availability (HA) cluster, reduces the number of servers from 25 to 6, ensures simplified infrastructure management, and cuts high IT operational expenses (OpEx).

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

Having only the desired users access necessary services in Azure Production Subscription is vital to the security and smoothness of your IT environment operation. You can have your people working on new projects in a sandbox subscription. When you’re ready to transfer such projects to production, a set of easy steps will help you do that.

Read the guide by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer, on which steps to take to copy images between various Azure subscriptions.

Zikol, a North Macedonian construction company, wanted to ensure continuous business operations and get the opportunities for scalability as it grows. However, a workgroup environment restricted this process. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Zikol adds a shared storage layer to its IT infrastructure and deploys a high availability (HA) cluster, thus achieving 24/7 business operations.

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

Recently, at VMware EXPLORE 2022, the virtualization vendor announced a new product called VMware Aria. The new service is a multi-cloud management solution. It allows you to centralize multi-cloud operation in one console that has a single view for deployment, management, automation and cost management of your cloud-based environment.

Read the article by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, on the features and benefits offered by the new VMware Aria solution.

PROJECT Investment Group, a German real estate investing company, had problems with slow work, unreliability, and high maintenance costs of its SAN. The company was looking for a shared storage solution fitting the existing compute and storage separated scenario. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), PROJECT Investment Group creates an HA cluster, achieves scalability, ensures its business operations 24/7, and gains space to grow without compromising its IT infrastructure performance.

You can read about how StarWind could do the same for your company by following this link.

VMware recently announced a new way to enhance cybersecurity for Amazon Web Services cloud-based infrastructure — Advanced Workload Security for AWS. This new offer is based on the Carbon Black portfolio developed by VMware. It presents cloud-native endpoint security options that make cloud environments just as secure as on-prem ones.

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, on how you can improve your cloud-based environment cybersecurity with VMware Advanced Workload Security for AWS.

Performance, affordability, security, and fault tolerance are of utmost importance to the healthcare industry. As a widely recognized vendor that has satisfied the requirements of dozens of healthcare institutions, StarWind participates in the annual Healthcare IT Congress in Texas.

This StarWind webinar will focus on a “green” approach to IT infrastructure that can greatly improve budgeting for small- and midsize enterprises (SMEs). Powering a server rack or a full data center can result in high operating expenses (OPEX), due to a variety of both commonly known and hidden factors. Fortunately, you can save up a lot of that money annually by knowing all of them and going “green” on your IT.

Register now for the upcoming webinar to learn about simple tricks that can help you to build a truly “Green” IT infrastructure and increase overall energy efficiency.