I've been looking into StarWind and found some positive feedback in this forum, but a lot of it is outdated. Can any current or recently former customers share their experiences with StarWind? I know they were acquired by DataCore earlier this year, but I haven't heard of any issues like the ones seen with Kasaya or any drop in support quality. We're planning an infrastructure refresh for next year, moving away from our 3 end-of-life Dell hosts, external Dell SAN, and 2 fiber channel switches while running VMware along with Citrix VDI. I've seen discussions where folks are considering leaving VMware (count me in!), and some mentioned Nutanix, which seems pricey for our small setup, especially for maintenance costs. StarWind offers a 2-node cluster at about a third of Nutanix's price with 3 years of support included. We're also thinking about using Hyper-V instead of Proxmox since we're primarily a Microsoft shop with a hybrid Azure environment. I'm not sure if StarWind supports Azure local, but it's not essential right now; I just want to replace our aging hardware without overspending.
2 Answers
I've been a StarWind customer for ten years with multiple clusters, and I can honestly say it's been fantastic, with zero issues. DataCore isn’t messing with how StarWind operates; everything remains the same. They’ve done a great job maintaining product quality even after the acquisition.
The impact of DataCore's acquisition on StarWind really hinges on how much of the original StarWind team remains intact. Personally, I’m a bit wary after reading some concerning info about DataCore—it seems they have partnerships with companies like Huawei and Lenovo, which gives me pause about their long-term direction. StarWind was once known for its excellent product and committed developers, and I hope they aren't compromised. That said, if you're a Microsoft shop, I’d still recommend considering Proxmox over Hyper-V for flexibility.
Thanks for the feedback! Which hypervisor are you currently using with StarWind?