In a previous article, we shared how to tighten the security in VMware ESXi at the hypervisor level. While that advice is welcome, ransomware can target various infrastructure levels. Particularly, it can target the shared datastores to which your hosts are connected and encrypt that data, rendering other operations impossible.

Read the new post by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, about various tips on how to elevate the security of your vSphere environment and better protect it from ransomware.

Wilson Electronics, an American telecommunications company, struggled with a lack of redundancy in its remote data centers. Buying a SAN storage device was not affordable due to budgetary constraints. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Wilson Electronics deploys a high availability (HA) cluster and ensures flawless operation of both data centers without spending a fortune on SAN storage devices.

Find out how Wilson Electronics saves near $55K in enterprise SAN storage costs thanks to StarWind vSAN.

Osquery is an open-source security compliance agent. It uses SQL to leverage a relational data model to describe a device. It’s great at providing all the contextual OS-related information you need in a simple, visually appealing form. Osequery is an all-time favorite compliance tool that is pleasant to use and great for security hardening.

Read the new guide by Karim Buzdar on how to properly install and use Osquery on Linux Mint and Ubuntu operating systems (OS).

IBAR Systemtechnik GmbH, a German engineering company, faced problems with low speed and limited performance and needed a highly available (HA) shared storage cluster to use it as a central data store. The company was looking for a cost-efficient virtual SAN solution suitable for Hyper-V. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), IBAR Systemtechnik GmbH unites its servers in one 2-node HA cluster, increasing the overall IT infrastructure performance.

Find out how IBAR Systemtechnik GmbH achieves 24/7 business operations thanks to StarWind vSAN.

Freestyle Orchestrator expands on the capabilities of Unified Endpoint Management in Workspace ONE. The latter is VMware’s intelligence-driven digital workspace platform. Freestyle Orchestrator is a low-code IT orchestration service that allows admins to build complex workflows attuned to their business’ dynamic deployment requirements.

Read the article by Alex Samoylenko, a virtualization pro, on VMware Freestyle Orchestrator functionality, benefits, and use cases explained in simple terms.

VMware Tanzu is an umbrella product that encompasses all the Kubernetes products available from VMware. Kubernetes is an open-source service for working with containerized applications. The Community Edition makes VMware Tanzu-powered Kubernetes services available to everyone.

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, on VMware Tanzu Community Edition background, why it’s important, which features it includes, and how to properly deploy it.

Archway School, a British secondary school, had out-of-support SAN that provoked constant extra costs on its maintenance. Replacement SAN solutions weren't cost-effective for their implementation size, as the price for a new SAN alone was similar to a new hyperconverged solution. Using StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Archway School replaces its aging SAN, reduces hardware footprint significantly, and goes all-flash, increasing the overall IT infrastructure performance, all at a reasonable price.

Find out how Archway School cuts down its IT operational expenses thanks to StarWind HCA

Microsoft Sentinel is a wide-range cloud-native security and event management service. There’s a variety of ways to manage and automate its services. One of such methods is infrastructure as code, where you can automate how Microsoft Sentinel will respond to alerts and incidents using a Playbook and Azure DevOps.

Read the article by Nicolas Prigent, a three-time Microsoft MVP, on how to correctly automate Playbook deployment in Microsoft Sentinel using Azure DevOps.

Deploying an Azure Virtual Desktop infrastructure (VDI) is only the beginning of the journey. Further, you'd need to provision applications to various users with varying authentication policies and rights. Don’t worry, the process is much easier than you might think: just a few clicks, and you’ll get the hang of it.

Read the guide by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer, on how to publish applications to your chosen Azure Virtual Desktop without any stress or hassle.

Windows 11 doesn’t only come with new features, bells and whistles, but also with specific prerequisites for installation. Even in terms of virtualization, if you wanted to install Windows 11 inside a vSphere machine, your ESXi hypervisor would need access to certain hardware to virtualize the Windows 11 guest VM (enhanced security steps).

Read the article by Brandon Lee, a virtualization expert, on Windows 11 TPM (trusted platform module) requirements and encryption when it comes to its deployment and functionality with vSphere.

This time, we zoom in on how the ZFS solutions available on the market can be used to deliver backup storage. You will learn about the idea behind modern backups, advice for compiling backup infrastructure, the advantages of ZFS for constructing resilient backup storage, and how to leverage ZFS for backup storage using StarWind SAN & NAS and Veeam B&R.

Watch this StarWind video to learn how you can build a solid and robust backup system by using ZFS to strengthen it with resilient backup storage.

The Westone Manor Hotel, an American SMB hotel, had an IT infrastructure with one Hyper-V server. So, server failure automatically resulted in application shutdown and loss of revenue. Being open 24/7, the hotel needed constant high availability (HA) of its mission-critical applications for taking card payments. However, the purchase of expensive SAN equipment was out of the question for an SMB because of a strict IT budget. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), the Westone Manor Hotel builds a two-node failover cluster and achieves 24/7 business operations.

Find out how the Westone Manor Hotel serves its clients on time with a fault-tolerant and reliable IT infrastructure powered by StarWind vSAN.

Microsoft constantly evolves and changes, and so do its products and features. This is especially relevant for the continuous expansion of Azure cloud and its hybrid cloud capabilities. This time, we’ll talk about the changes in names and functionality when it comes to products previously known under the Azure Defender and Sentinel umbrellas.

Read the new article by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, about the changes in names and features that happened in regards to Microsoft Security Applications.

You may need your Sentinel logs in long-term retention based on government requirements. Azure Log Analytics starts charging for such retention after 90 days have elapsed. However, you can use a Playbook that creates an Azure Storage account and, after 90 days, automatically moves such logs to cold storage to avoid retention billing.

Read the article by Nicolas Prigent, a three-time Microsoft MVP, on how to leverage a Microsoft Playbook to move Sentinel logs to Azure cold storage for retention automatically.

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American Care, Inc., a US healthcare provider, had a mixed VMware/Windows IT environment with one backup and two primary hosts that did not allow for fault tolerance and high availability (HA). Lack of failover Hyper-V cluster put at threat the company's mission-critical medical records. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), American Care, Inc. deploys an HA storage cluster and ensures medical data's constant availability.

Find out how American Care, Inc. saves over $20K on its IT operational expenses and eliminates the complexities of VMware administration thanks to StarWind vSAN.

Windows 365 is Microsoft’s recent twist on virtual desktop infrastructure. Microsoft also calls it “your PC in the cloud.” Initially, Windows 365 wasn't able to work with only Azure Active Directory (AD), requiring Hybrid AD Join. Now, this has been simplified, so you can easily connect your Windows 365 “PCs in the cloud” to "Azure AD only" in just a few steps.

Read the article by Romain Serre, a Microsoft MVP, on the simple process you need to follow to quickly join your Windows 365 instances just to Azure AD.

Kaonix Solutions Limited, a British managed IT services provider (MSP), lacked high availability (HA), clustering, and resilience caused by standalone physical servers and outdated technology. Hyperconvergence had to fix these pains, but all bumped into a limited IT budget. Using StarWind HCI Appliance (HCA), Kaonix Solutions Limited reduces its physical server footprint significantly, sets up a failover cluster, and accomplishes full-redundancy and high availability (HA) goals at no extra costs.

Find out how Kaonix Solutions Limited saves more than £6000 over the year on its IT operational expenses thanks to StarWind HCA.

Fitzstone Limited, a legal service provider in Trinidad and Tobago, had 2 aging, outgoing servers with VMware ESXi on top, hosting all the company’s virtual servers, and a SAN device. There was a situation when everything was based on a single point of failure (SPOF) and all the means of protection were built on this fragile foundation. The company was to look for a shared storage solution to create a failover cluster. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Fitzstone Limited moves to hyperconvergence and creates a failover cluster ensuring constant applications uptime.

Find out how Fitzstone Limited provides high data availability (HA) and redundancy for its server at a reasonable cost thanks to StarWind vSAN.

VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) is a neat piece of software to optimize your on-prem or cloud OS. Originally designed for VMware Horizon, OSOT is fully applicable to Windows desktop and Windows Server. It allows to eliminate unneeded settings, switch off features, clean up older junk from your OS, and otherwise enhance its functionality.

Read the new article by Vladan Seget, a virtualization expert, about how you can easily optimize your Windows OS performance thanks to VMware OSOT.