The New Version of StarWind Storage Software Is Improved by a Three-Node HA Architecture

BURLINGTON, MA, September 12, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- StarWind Software Inc., an innovative provider of storage virtualization software and VM backup technology, announced today the release of the new StarWind iSCSI SAN & NAS V6 and VMware Backup Plug-in Release Candidate.

The new version of StarWind storage software is improved by a three-node High Availability (HA) architecture that completely eliminates single point of failure and ensures business continuity with 99.9999% uptime and 50% higher performance*. Now, a high availability device can use different types of StarWind devices for storing data such as deduplicated device, thin-provisioned snapshot and CDP device, or DiskBridge device.

StarWind iSCSI SAN & NAS v6 introduces the N+1 configuration that allows for building an on-site two/three-node HA cluster with off-site replication. The built-in WAN Replication creates a "last resort" disaster recovery site that can be located miles away from the main datacenter. StarWind WAN acceleration technology is based on deduplication, snapshots, and compression, in which their combined power ensures 50x-100x reduction of transmitted data and allows for the use of a slow WAN connection.

Furthermore, among the enhancements are new features such as clustered scale-out NAS and data deduplication. Clustered NAS (NFS & CIFS/SMB) is configured on top of the highly available iSCSI SAN. StarWind consolidates file and block level data in the common storage pool, thereby creating unified SAN/NAS storage. Consolidated storage simplifies configuration and maintenance and increases storage utilization rates.

StarWind in-line target-site data deduplication allows for saving up to 90% of disk space. As a result, StarWind maximizes resource utilization and minimizes disk space consumption.

Along with a release of the new version of its main storage software, StarWind introduces a powerful VMware Backup technology that is included as a plug-in. VMware Backup Plug-in Release Candidate is a robust and multi-functional backup solution for easy and fast VM backup and recovery that delivers affordability, cross-hypervisor support, agentless architecture, and built-in global deduplication.
The VMware Backup Plug-in stores VMware virtual machine data in the original VMDK file format. Besides the full VM backup, this technology provides an incremental backup option. It stores only those blocks that have changed since the last backup operation and ensures a considerable reduction of storage space requirements. VMware Backup Plug-in is integrated with StarWind Centralized Management Console that enables managing backup and storage from a single window.

"Today, we are delighted to introduce the robust solution, unified SAN & NAS storage with a powerful VMware Backup Plug-in that accelerates the growth of your business, increases simplicity, and provides the unmatched efficiency of IT infrastructure," said Artem Berman, Chief Executive Officer of StarWind Software, Inc. "Today, in the world of tough competition, your business must stay up and running, and any downtime, whether unexpected or for planned maintenance, is incredibly costly and can be potentially devastating. Therefore, we continuously enhance our product to guarantee you truly zero downtime and absolute data protection."

*compared to 2-node configuration

About StarWind Software Inc.
StarWind Software is a global leader in storage management and SAN software for small and midsize companies. StarWind's flagship product is SAN software that turns any industry-standard Windows Server into a fault-tolerant, fail-safe iSCSI SAN. StarWind iSCSI SAN is qualified for use with VMware, Hyper-V, XenServer and Linux and Unix environments. StarWind Software focuses on providing small and midsize companies with affordable, highly availability storage technology which previously was only available in high-end storage hardware. Advanced enterprise-class features in StarWind include Automated HA Storage Node Failover and Failback (High Availability), Replication across a WAN, CDP and Snapshots, Thin Provisioning and Virtual Tape management.

Since 2003, StarWind has pioneered the iSCSI SAN software industry and is the solution of choice for over 30,000 customers worldwide in more than 100 countries and from small and midsize companies to governments and Fortune 1000 companies.