Microsoft's Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) has been a key tool in managing updates across a network for quite some time. As keeping systems updated remains important, Microsoft created a new PowerShell import method that bypasses the issues with the Internet Explorer/Active-X combination.
Read the article by Brandon Lee, an IT Consultant, and find out how to input and customize the updates you are looking to import using the new PowerShell-driven import process.
South Gibson School Corporation, a K-12 school district, was burdened by a complex array of aging physical servers for different services and urgently required a more streamlined and efficient IT infrastructure. The school district needed a comprehensive solution that could consolidate its servers, enhance performance, and reduce maintenance complexities while remaining cost-effective. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), South Gibson School Corporation reduces the physical server count from 25 to 6, enhances performance, and ensures high availability through a consolidated setup of two physical SAN servers running StarWind and four Hyper-V servers.
It truly seems that you couldn't possibly find a person today who hasn't heard of virtualization technology yet. Considering its more efficient use of a physical machine's resources, there's no surprise whatsoever as to why it has become an industry standard for enterprise IT architecture. However, are you sure you know all there is to know?
Read the article by Alex Khorolets, a Technical Support Engineer, and take a deep dive into virtualization to learn just how integral it is to the way we manage IT resources.
Siemens, an airport logistics solutions provider, faced the need to enhance storage capacity while containing costs. The company required a solution that could modernize its IT infrastructure without disrupting operations. By implementing StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Siemens seamlessly integrates software-defined storage into its framework, enables efficient data distribution, ensures high availability, and ultimately transforms its storage landscape to meet evolving needs.
For quite some time, SAN (Storage Area Network) has been the go-to choice for provisioning storage for many organizations. However, NAS (Network-Attached Storage) is gaining more and more popularity.
Read the article by Diana Abo-Harmush, a StarWind Solutions Engineer, to discover the pros and cons of SAN and NAS network-based storage solutions.
Split Digital LLC, a U.S.-based cloud services provider, faced the challenge of accommodating its rapid growth while maintaining personalized software solutions and stringent security measures. To address this, the company required a scalable and secure IT solution that could seamlessly integrate with its existing infrastructure. Using StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Split Digital LLC creates a reliable hyperconverged environment and solidifies its reputation as a premium, customer-centric cloud services provider, capable of meeting unique client needs with agility and efficiency.
Lipman Insurance Administrators, a U.S.-based health insurance provider, grappled with the challenge of maintaining an expensive and inefficient mixed Windows/Unix environment, burdened by high hardware costs, inadequate redundancy, and a convoluted disaster recovery strategy. The organization required a robust storage solution that could seamlessly integrate with its existing Hyper-V environment. By leveraging StarWind Virtual SAN's (vSAN) hardware-agnostic approach, Lipman Insurance Administrators created a resilient storage cluster using SSDs and off-the-shelf server chassis. The new system significantly cut both hardware and operational expenses, delivered exceptional performance and scalability, and simplified disaster recovery planning and execution.
Originally, the users of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) had to choose between only two types of network plugins, namely Azure or Kubenet. Now, Microsoft has released an alternative that can do all the same things and more!
Read the article by Florent Appointaire, a Microsoft Engineer, on how and why would you want to deploy an Azure CNI Overlay cluster.
Traditional desktop setups holding you back? Enhance security, enable remote work, and improve IT efficiency with VDI.
Dive into the details of how VDI works, its benefits, and implementation steps in the new article by Pre-sales Engineer Anton Vovchuk for StarWind.
The Department of Finance (the Philippines) encountered a significant challenge with its existing IT infrastructure, especially when managing hypervisor servers, leading to inefficiencies and increased operational costs. The fragmentation within the infrastructure hindered resource allocation for critical government programs. By unifying commodity servers, disks, and flash storage with StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), the Department of Finance eliminates the fragmentation issue, reduces management complexities, builds a hyperconverged infrastructure, and optimizes its fiscal planning and welfare programs.
Azure users, rejoice! Hotpatching for Windows Server with Desktop Experience is now here, ensuring smooth and seamless updates for your VMs on Microsoft Azure. No need to stop processes or reboot - it's all about continuous efficiency.
Read more about this game-changing capability and how it enhances VM management on Azure in the new article by Brandon Lee, an IT Consultant, for StarWind.
Check out the recording of our recent webinar to learn more about the benefits, features, costs, and performance characteristics of SAN and Software-Defined Storage.
Watch our recent webinar recording: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/resource-library/software-defined-storage-time-to-say-goodbye-to-san/
Hallam Medical Ltd., a UK healthcare recruiting company, faced a critical challenge with its outdated SAN, experiencing performance bottlenecks and high read latency and impacting its ability to provide seamless healthcare services. The company was seeking a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solution that would improve performance and guarantee uninterrupted healthcare services. By implementing StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Hallam Medical creates a fully redundant all-flash SAN supported by expert engineers, achieves a seamless migration, optimizes performance, and enhances its operational efficiency to deliver superior healthcare services efficiently.
Explore the comprehensive guide to configuring vSphere Cluster Shared Storage with StarWind SAN & NAS.
Dive into the article by virtualization expert Brandon Lee to learn more.
Microsoft Dev Box, now GA, is an Azure service providing access to ready-to-code, project-specific dev boxes to enhance workflow and increase the agility of provisioning development workstations. Both developers and IT infrastructure admins can find it extremely useful.
Read the article by Brandon Lee, an IT Consultant, to learn how to leverage the benefits of self-service and on-demand development with Microsoft Dev Box.
Johnson's Construction Limited, a Canadian construction company, grappled with the limitations of non-redundant servers, which posed a significant risk of potential downtime and disruptions. Additionally, their existing storage options were constrained, hindering scalability and efficiency in managing their data. By deploying a failover cluster with StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Johnson's Construction Limited successfully creates a fault-tolerant infrastructure, eliminates single points of failure, and ensures uninterrupted operations even in the event of hardware malfunctions.
Every admin knows that manual infrastructure maintenance is a major headache. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to remedy that using PowerShell automation.
Read the article by Dmitriy Dolgiy, a Storage Consultant, about creating a function in Windows PowerShell and saving it as a module.
Struggling with non-redundant servers and limited storage options, GCL Diesel, a Canadian diesel service company, faced challenges in optimizing its IT infrastructure without exceeding its SMB budget. By implementing a StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN) based failover cluster, the company achieves cost-effective fault tolerance, enhances performance, ensures uninterrupted operations, and stays within its budget.
Connect it Networks, a Canadian telecommunications company, faced limitations in its IT infrastructure, hindering efficient service delivery. With the implementation of StarWind Virtual SAN (vSAN), Connect it Networks transforms it's IT infrastructure improving hardware resource utilization and performance.
Discover the key differences and advantages of each hypervisor type. From performance to security and ease of use, we'll guide you through the virtualization maze.
Read the ultimate hypervisors guide by Oleg Pankevych, pre-sales engineer at StarWind.