StorMagic SvSAN Reviews

Our use case is that we have small manufacturing sites that require some kind of edge technology to provide virtualization. Bigger platforms do not fit and are very expensive for these small sites. We chose StorMagic SvSAN because it is easy to implement and maintain as we do not have permanent IT staff on these sites.

StorMagic SvSAN has allowed us to create robust and cost-effective hyper-converged platforms on our edge manufacturing sites where reliability and high availability are critical for our production.

What we like the most is how easy it is to implement. I am able to bring fully functional virtual infrastructure in a matter of two hours with StorMagic SvSAN, compared to other technologies that are very complex. StorMagic SvSAN does not have hardware-specific requirements and is hypervisor agnostic, which makes it easier compared to competitors like HPE SimpliVity that are limited to specific hardware. This solution has allowed us to achieve unification and standardization across our sites, making it easy to install and maintain.

One area for improvement would be to enhance the Edge Control capabilities. Currently, it shows the VSA and hypervisors but doesn't offer much in terms of VSA configuration management. It would be beneficial to have a central place for configurations, similar to VMware vCenter.

We started implementing StorMagic SvSAN around two and a half years ago.

We have never had any problems with the instability of the platform. The stability of StorMagic SvSAN is excellent.

Scaling is very easy with StorMagic SvSAN. We can simply add more ESX hosts to a cluster and deploy additional VSA controllers without any issues.

The customer service and support from StorMagic are excellent. I rate them at a nine out of ten due to their prompt responses and effective solutions to our issues. It's also beneficial that we frequently work with the same support people, allowing for a familiar and efficient support experience.

Previously, we used various third-party SAN solutions. They produced downtimes and were overkill for our needs. StorMagic SvSAN helped us reduce maintenance costs and standardized our infrastructure.

The initial setup of StorMagic SvSAN is straightforward and can be completed in two hours, depending on the network and hardware readiness to deploy the solution.

The deployment and configuration of StorMagic SvSAN can be managed by a single individual, provided the physical infrastructure setup is complete.

StorMagic SvSAN helped us save around sixty percent on previous costs. Before, we incurred high expenses maintaining hardware and licensing for third-party solutions. In the long run, StorMagic SvSAN has been very cost-effective.

StorMagic SvSAN is very cost-efficient. The pricing model, based on the usable storage capacity, is simple and predictable. You know exactly how much each storage tier costs, and upgrading is straightforward.

We evaluated a few other solutions such as Proxmox, Sangfor, VMWare vSAN, and HPE Simplivity but they were too complex to implement and maintain and did not fit the needs of our smaller production sites.

I absolutely recommend StorMagic SvSAN for those looking to create hyperconverged infrastructure on smaller or midsize sites. I have not tested the solution on huge infrastructures, so I cannot comment on performance at that scale. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

As a small oil and gas company operating remote sites, including offshore oil rigs worldwide, we manage our software using StorMagic's SvSAN products. Each rig has a server running SvSAN to handle all software operations.

StorMagic SvSAN is flexible and easy to use. It is compatible with various hardware, including Cisco, HP, Lenovo, and Supermicro. The company is also flexible with its recommended specifications, allowing users to exceed them without issue. I have not encountered any problems with StorMagic SvSAN on any hardware vendor I have tried.

The cost of hardware required for StorMagic SvSAN is significantly lower than that of competitive solutions. Their licensing model, based on storage usage, offers flexibility and affordability. For instance, we utilize a two-terabyte license. Overall, StorMagic SvSAN's pricing is comparable to, if not more affordable than other options.

StorMagic SvSAN supports various storage types and brands within a cluster, accommodating past and current technologies. Over the years, we've transitioned from traditional spinning disks to SSDs and now utilize NVMe SSDs, with StorMagic seamlessly supporting each upgrade. While faster drives inherently deliver better performance, StorMagic has consistently functioned without issue across a range of drive types and brands.

Hardware flexibility is as crucial as cost, especially for a smaller company like ours that needs to adapt quickly. With hardware frequently changing, upgrading, and involving different vendors, maintaining flexibility and consistency is essential. Having a solution that works the same way across all vendors, whether it's Cisco or HP, significantly benefits our small support team.

Witness effortlessly manages up to 1,000 SvSAN clusters. While we haven't personally utilized that many, it has effectively handled our multiple clusters without issue. The software's hardware requirements are very flexible. It reportedly runs on platforms as small as a Raspberry Pi. We currently operate it on a small HP desktop computer with excellent results, and it scales seamlessly with the rest of our system.

The primary advantage is its two-host architecture, requiring only two hosts plus a Witness for full functionality. This contrasts with competitors who necessitate three hosts, significantly increasing costs. Avoiding the need for a third host translates to substantial savings, estimated at $20,000. Although StoreMagic's costs remain high, the ability to eliminate a host and its associated expenses results in considerable cost savings.

This Edge Control provides a simple, visually appealing dashboard for easy administration of all clusters. The well-designed interface ensures clear and understandable cluster management.

It provides immediate benefits after deployment.

StorMagic SvSAN significantly reduces downtime in our environment by allowing us to perform maintenance or system updates without disrupting user access. With SvSAN, we can seamlessly switch all running machines to a secondary machine, ensuring continuous operation and eliminating noticeable downtime for end-users. This has resulted in substantial savings on maintenance costs and provided peace of mind regarding system reliability.

StorMagic SvSAN helped us save costs by eliminating needing a third witness host. Their pricing has remained relatively consistent over the past ten years, with only a modest increase of about 10 to 15 percent. Despite this, their pricing is still very competitive, and they have been proactive in helping us find ways to save money. While I would always like to see even more cost savings, I understand that they need to make a profit as well. We've likely saved 30 to 40 percent annually by using StoreMagic, simply due to the cost reductions in hosting and maintenance time across multiple sites.

StorMagic SvSAN provides a hyperconverged high-availability solution with enterprise functionality, and that is all we use it for.

I appreciate SvSAN's user-friendly design and quick setup. Unlike other vendors that require multiple days for installation, SvSAN only takes 4-6 hours. Additionally, the perpetual licensing model is a significant advantage, especially for remote setups that often lack consistent cloud connectivity. StorMagic's licensing allows for independent operation, which is essential in these environments.

StorMagic SvSAN's documentation provides a recommended configuration, which is helpful for initial setup. It would be beneficial if they adopted the recommended configuration for other vendors and offered pre-built, pre-configured scenarios with best practices readily available on their websites. This would reduce reliance on support calls for basic configuration issues, saving time and improving efficiency.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for over ten years.

StorMagic SvSAN has proven to be a highly stable solution, significantly reducing downtime. Its ability to seamlessly migrate running machines to another host during maintenance ensures uninterrupted operations and a transparent user experience.

StorMagic SvSAN offers exceptional flexibility and scalability, seamlessly integrating with various hardware vendors we've tested.

The customer service and support are excellent. They are available twenty-four hours a day and very helpful whenever we call. They even know me by name, which makes me feel valued as a customer.

Positive

When I first started with StorMagic, I knew nothing about it and struggled a bit initially. However, their support was excellent, guiding me through the process step by step. Once I understood it, setting up became easy. The deployment takes three to four hours.

We have a team of five individuals with different roles, such as building the hardware, setting up racks, wiring, and installing software. However, the project can be managed by as little as one person.

StorMagic SvSAN is a cost-effective alternative to larger storage providers like VMware. While not the cheapest option, it offers comparable functionality for 20 to 30 percent lower than its competitors.

StorMagic SvSAN's storage capacity licensing model is easy to manage compared to competitors' CPU-based models. I contact our account manager whenever I need licensing assistance, and they efficiently handle our requests. They also proactively update our licenses and send email reminders about upcoming expirations and renewals. This excellent service has simplified license management and saved me considerable time and effort.

We evaluated StarWind, which is SvSAN's biggest competitor. Although StarWind's pricing is better and their support is good, we stayed with StorMagic due to our history with them and the consistent product they offer.

I would rate StorMagic SvSAN an eight out of ten.

I use StorMagic SvSAN for the virtualization of my storage. I mainly use it for the high availability at the small and remote sites that are not accessible to me.

The best part is how simple it is to use. There is really high availability with just two servers that I have, and it works really well.

I started seeing the benefits of StorMagic SvSAN almost immediately after the deployment. The improvements in uptime and confidence were clear right away, just after the deployment.

Some advanced features feel like they should be included by default, which are paid. The scalability is a bit limited for me.

The advanced features that could be included in the base version are the automation features and the synchronization features. They should be included in the default.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for about two years.

StorMagic SvSAN is really stable for the work that it has to do, and it does a really great job.

Very little maintenance is required from my end for StorMagic SvSAN. Once it is all set up, it is quite stable.

I find the scalability okay for the intended use only. It is not very vast beyond the complex environments that are already there.

Scalability is moderately scalable, but it cannot scale out of the extra environments that we have. It is not designed for the complex environments and the very large environments, which is the issue in scalability.

I have never contacted the technical support for StorMagic SvSAN other than when we were setting it up.

While we were setting it up, we were in touch with the support team. At that time, they were the ones who made everything really easy for us, and the setup of StorMagic SvSAN went really smoothly.

The initial deployment of StorMagic SvSAN was very easy for me. It took about just a few days for it, so it was not an issue at all.

I started seeing the benefits of StorMagic SvSAN almost immediately after the deployment.

It was done by one person only.

I find the pricing moderate. However, since some features should be given in the default price, I find it a little bit on the higher side with missing a few features.

The alternatives to this that I have used are VMware VSAN, which I evaluated and compared to this. I did not prefer that very much. I used that for about a six-month time frame, then I shifted to StorMagic SvSAN.

Thank you for your time, and have a good day. My overall rating for StorMagic SvSAN is 8 out of 10.

StorMagic SvSAN is deployed in ROBO locations for many clients worldwide, typically running on two VMware ESXi hosts. For example, I have configured StorMagic on HP servers.

We chose StorMagic SvSAN for its cost-effectiveness, ease of management, and straightforward installation and troubleshooting processes.

StorMagic SvSAN has no specific hardware requirements, but local drives on each server are necessary, starting with two or three. Since deployments range in terabytes, scalability is essential. StorMagic offers a flexible licensing model starting at 12 terabytes, allowing for easy expansion by purchasing additional licenses as storage needs grow.

StorMagic SvSAN offers cost-effective hardware requirements compared to competitors like VMware vSAN and Nutanix, which can be expensive. 

SvSAN boasts no hardware dependencies, allowing installation on various compatible servers from HP, which we are using, Dell, and others without specific hardware needs. This flexibility makes it an accessible and budget-friendly option. Additionally, the licensing costs for SvSAN are significantly lower than those of VMware vSAN.

We utilize the Witness feature on our third node, an HP StoreEasy NAS solution, where we perform configuration similar to a Windows Witness.

We have a dedicated witness, not shared among all sites. Each site has its dedicated witness.

StorMagic SvSAN is a cost-effective unified solution that has undergone rigorous testing and validation in our labs. We conduct thorough proof-of-concept trials before proposing this solution to customers, ensuring it is a reliable and robust option with minimal issues.

StorMagic SvSAN has saved us 20 percent of our time and costs.

We have not encountered any downtime caused by StorMagic SvSAN.

StorMagic SvSAN's most valuable feature is its simplicity, requiring only 30 minutes to install, configure, and deploy. Once the server and network stacks are configured, StorMagic can be added to the participating servers in the cluster. The system is ready for use within approximately 30 minutes after that.

The StorMagic console needs embedded monitoring capabilities to improve interoperability with other platforms. While StorMagic offers open APIs, direct integration with popular monitoring tools like GearOps or Grafana is lacking. Ideally, the console should provide plugins or similar configuration options for seamless integration with these tools, allowing users to easily monitor StorMagic using their preferred platform by simply inputting the IP address, username, and password.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for two to three years.

I would rate the stability of StorMagic SvSAN nine out of ten. I've observed that any issues tied to downtime are often related to hardware rather than StorMagic SvSAN itself.

StorMagic SvSAN is easy to scale. By adding more nodes to the existing setup, such as additional ESXi hosts into the cluster and deploying SvSAN on them, the system is ready to expand seamlessly.

The customer service and support for StorMagic SvSAN are exceptional. They respond rapidly to support requests and provide assistance beyond their scope.

Positive

The initial setup of StorMagic SvSAN is simple. After downloading the VSA OVA from StorMagic, we deploy it and perform some configurations to integrate it with ESXi, making it operational in under an hour.

The implementation team typically involves one person who is knowledgeable in administration. This task does not require extensive training or handover, making it manageable for a single engineer after two hours of knowledge transfer.

StorMagic SvSAN has delivered great benefits in overall cost-efficiency since it is an integral part of our complete solutions for clients.

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for StorMagic SvSAN are straightforward. Licensing is based on storage capacity, simplifying the process. Every twelve terabytes requires an additional license, making the model clear and easy to follow.

I would rate the cost a one out of ten with ten being the most costly.

Other solutions like VMware vSAN and Nutanix were evaluated. While VMware vSAN is deeply integrated with VMware products and Nutanix is resource-intensive, StorMagic SvSAN offers a lighter resource footprint with excellent integration with Center.

I would rate StorMagic SvSAN nine out of ten.

We have StorMagic SvSAN deployed in multiple locations, supporting thousands of users. Our business clients are medium-sized.

Upgrades require maintenance. Otherwise, the solution can run for years without intervention unless there is a hardware failure.

While less recognized than some larger competitors, StorMagic SvSAN offers a robust solution with excellent support.

I recommended StorMagic SvSAN, especially for ROBO infrastructures and similar businesses like banks, as it is indeed one of the best-dedicated solutions for such setups.

We use StorMagic SvSAN primarily to provide a cost-effective hyperconverged system for my clients using VMware. This reliable solution, designed for small and medium-sized enterprises, allows them to leverage various storage types and brands within a cluster without limitations.

We implement StorMagic SvSAN for our clients because it is a cost-effective solution that meets all their needs.

StorMagic SvSAN has lower hardware requirements compared to competitive solutions.

The StorMagic SvSAN has simple hardware requirements for getting started.

StorMagic SvSAN's flexibility allows clients to utilize any storage type and brand within a cluster without limitations.

The witness feature is great because it can handle up to 1,000 clusters.

We use the stretch cluster feature for all of our customers.

One of StorMagic SvSAN's biggest advantages is that it includes all features as standard, eliminating the need for add-ons. This comprehensive licensing model allows users to build both single-site and stretch clusters without incurring additional costs.

StorMagic SvSAN has improved my organization by offering a modern Graphical User Interface, ensuring reliability and minimizing maintenance efforts. The main strength lies in simplifying customer processes by reducing the need for additional storage systems, thus saving costs in server hardware procurement and maintenance.

We aim to achieve high availability, and 100 percent uptime, and StorMagic SvSAN helps us accomplish this.

StorMagic SvSAN is a cost-effective solution that eliminates the need for customers to purchase additional storage systems. Instead, they can utilize simple server hardware with sufficient disk capacity and high-performance disks, reducing overall expenses.

StorMagic SvSAN is a highly reliable option for customers with enterprise needs and tight budgets. It offers valuable features and excellent technical support.

While StorMagic SvSAN performs well, its scalability regarding CPU and server expansion needs improvement. Expanding beyond two nodes significantly increases licensing costs, potentially discouraging clients from growing their infrastructure.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for over six years since we started installations for end users.

StorMagic SvSAN has demonstrated flawless stability over the past six years, with no reported downtime, bugs, or glitches. This exceptional reliability makes it an ideal choice for organizations prioritizing stable and dependable IT infrastructure.

StorMagic SvSAN effectively scales storage, but scaling CPU and servers can be costly due to increased licensing fees beyond two nodes. This limitation may make it unsuitable for larger environments requiring high scalability.

StorMagic offers exemplary customer and technical support, ensuring excellent service and timely assistance that enhances my clients' experience.

Positive

For larger environments, solutions like Dell EMC VxRail, HPE SimpliVity, and Nutanix are suitable. However, StorMagic offers a more affordable option specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses due to its focus on a particular market niche.

Once the hardware is prepared, the initial deployment of StorMagic SvSAN is straightforward. However, since it is not a turnkey solution, preparing and configuring the hardware is crucial. Afterward, a single individual typically completes the deployment within a working day.

One person can perform the implementation unless physical server logistics require additional manpower. After the initial setup, further implementation tasks can easily be managed by one individual.

StorMagic SvSAN offers competitive pricing within the market. Its straightforward licensing model, based on storage capacity instead of CPU or VM count, simplifies cost management for both myself and my customers.

I would rate StorMagic SvSAN a nine out of ten.

Our company is based in Finland and serves small to medium-sized clients. In our organization, there are two of us who use StorMagic SvSAN.

StorMagic SvSAN requires regular software updates to maintain optimal performance and security.

StorMagic SvSAN is a solid choice for small to medium-sized businesses seeking an affordable, reliable, and highly supportive storage system. It performs well within its intended niche, though scalability regarding CPU and servers could benefit from improvement.

As a distributor, we primarily resell and implement StorMagic SvSAN for our customers and partners, specializing in storage solutions for the SMB market. We also collaborate with partners who have expertise in StorMagic.

StorMagic SvSAN is more user-friendly than other software-defined virtual SAN solutions, especially for smaller businesses.

It is capable of working on any hardware, making it cost-effective.

StorMagic SvSAN allows the use of any storage type.

The Witness feature, which can handle over 1,000 clusters, is helpful for our clients.

StorMagic SvSAN offers a distinct advantage over its competitors by including the stretch cluster feature. This functionality, not commonly found in rival products at cost, enhances data availability and disaster recovery capabilities.

It is not difficult to administer all of our storage clusters using Edge control. 

StorMagic SvSAN is the right management tool for StorMagic and enterprise customers, providing a cost-effective solution. It reduces downtime by about 40 percent.

StorMagic SvSAN offers cost savings compared to other software-defined virtual SAN solutions. It has significantly improved the organization by providing reliable support and straightforward configuration procedures, benefiting both my enterprise and SMB customers.

StorMagic SvSAN is a hyperconverged, high-availability solution with enterprise-grade functionality. Its vendor—and hardware-agnostic design makes it a cost-effective choice for businesses seeking high availability.

One of the most valuable features of StorMagic SvSAN is its user-friendly hyperconverged infrastructure. The solution stands out with its intuitive interface, straightforward configuration, and minimal system requirements. My customers are very happy with it and find it comparable to other products like Nutanix and VMware.

To enhance competitiveness, StorMagic SvSAN could benefit from improved enterprise modelling and increased scalability to cater to larger organizations. Additionally, expanded training opportunities for resellers, partners, and users would strengthen support and overall user experience.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for 20 months.

StorMagic SvSAN is a stable solution. I rate its stability as eight out of ten.

StorMagic does not have extensive scalability capabilities as it is tailored for SMBs. If catering to a bigger enterprise customer, scalability might be a concern. I rate its scalability at seven out of ten.

Support for StorMagic provides adequate assistance.

Positive

Before using StorMagic, I used VMware and Nutanix. I chose StorMagic because it is a cost-effective HCI product compared to other solutions like DataCore, VMware, and Nutanix while still offering the same level of flexibility and ease of use.

The initial setup of StorMagic SvSAN is straightforward. The deployment takes a few days with trained personnel.

The implementation team consists of my technical team who have experience with StorMagic SvSAN deployment.

Our client's return on investment with StorMagic SvSAN is approximately forty percent. It has saved time, money, and resources.

The pricing for StorMagic is okay, but as a distributor, I suggest some reduction. The licensing model is user-friendly, based on usable storage capacity, offering better value than competitors who base it on CPUs or VMs. The renewal is also cost-effective.

Overall, I recommend StorMagic SvSAN for SMBs due to its cost-effectiveness, simplicity, and competitive features like the Stretch Cluster.

Our organization has three users of StorMagic SvSAN. Our clients are of all sizes.

Maintenance is required on the hardware end.

I recommend StorMagic SvSAN to others. 

The benefits became more clear over time. I liked saving money per location. That extra 10,000 dollars we did not have to spend per location was great, but I did not initially realize how hands-off and easy it was going to be. Once it was set up and some time had passed, I saw that it just sat there, worked, and did exactly what it was supposed to do, and I did not have to think about it.

We use SvSAN's Witness feature all the time. I have read that it can handle up to 1,000 SvSAN clusters, but I have not pushed it to anywhere near that limit. It is great, and that is why you do not have to have a third server like you do with the VMware solution. Witness provides Quorum for the storage group that you are building, so you have two servers that contain the storage and are members of the group, and then you have this third member that is off-site. As long as that third member is reachable and the Witness can reach the two various members of the group, you have Quorum. It allows you to detect and respond to failure within a group if there is such a thing.

We only compared the capacity of Witness to similar features in competitive solutions, such as vSAN, in theory. The vSAN solution from VMware requires a whole separate third server, and that would be per instance. For every remote branch we have, we would have had to have another 10,000 dollar server as opposed to going with SvSAN where we could just have two servers and then have one Witness that services all of our StorMagic installations. It is not just per branch. That one Witness covers the whole enterprise, so it saved us a lot of money.

I believe that the use of StorMagic has reduced downtime. We have not had a whole lot of failures. It has saved us time, particularly, because I am able to do maintenance on the member servers without having to bring down an entire site. If I have those two servers running StorMagic, I can do maintenance on one of them while the other one uses StorMagic to keep presenting the shared storage and keep the virtual machines running so that I can do the maintenance I need to do. I have not used a competitive solution in the field, so it is a little bit hard for me to quantify the reduction.

StorMagic has helped us save on costs. It has saved us the server cost because we have to have one less server per site. We do not need the third server. That is an 8,000 to 10,000 dollars investment per site. It also saved us the cost of the 10-gig top racks that we would have had to use with other solutions. We did not have to buy that. I do not know exactly how much that is, but that is a significant expense as well. The fact that SvSAN allowed us to use a two-node cluster as opposed to requiring a three-node cluster with a 10-gig switch saved us significant amounts of money on hardware per location. Based on the rough pricing of the types of servers that we are using in the 10-gig switch, we saved at least 12,000 dollars per site because we used SvSAN.

StorMagic SvSAN provides a hyper-converged HA solution with enterprise functionality. The cost-effectiveness is great. It has saved us a lot of money on hardware, and I have had absolutely no problem convincing my bosses to continue using it because it does what it says it is going to do. It is a set-it-and-forget-it piece of software, and it saves us at least one-third on every installation we do with it just because of not having to buy that third server and 10-gig switch.

It is cliche to say it, but it really is a set-it-and-forget-it software. I set it up, and the few times I have had to call support have just been because I have not had to touch it for a while, and I forget how to do certain things. The part I like most about it is just that it does not require a lot of touch. It does exactly what it is supposed to do, and it is straightforward.

It could be a little bit more intuitive in terms of the way you set it up initially. The interface has recently undergone a revision. I have been using the new version for only a few weeks now. The older version of the web interface for StorMagic SvSAN was a little bit clunky and not as intuitive as it could be. The newer one is a little better, but it is still a little bit clunky in places.

I have not tried the centralized control called Edge Control. It probably addresses some of the issues that I have in terms of centralization and not having to log in to individual members in order to administer them. I have not used that yet, so I do not know how well that addresses the issues that I have. Currently, I have to log in to the individual StorMagic SvSAN members in order to administer them to update the software and see their status.

It has been about three years.

We have not had any lagging or crashing. We use SvSAN in a way that is not incredibly stressful on the product. It is a medium use case in terms of the amount of data that is flowing back and forth, but we have not noticed any lag or crashes based on SvSAN. When you get a power outage at a branch, that is not SvSAN's fault.

We have only used it in the one configuration that we have, and that was just with the two-member servers. We did occasionally look at adding a third member when we needed more storage or more processing power for a cluster, but we would have had to get into a little bit more complexity in terms of networking to do that because we are not using a 10-gig switch. We are directly cabling the servers together, so scalability is a little bit difficult. In the way we are using it, it is a little bit difficult to scale, but that is an intentional choice on our part. If we used a 10-gig switch, scalability would have been easy and fine, but the way we are doing it with direct cabling inherently makes it less scalable. I do not see that as a downfall of the product. It is a known limitation of how we are using it, but it saves us 12,000 dollars for installation, so we will take it.

It is great, and I do not say that lightly. I have worked with a lot of support teams over the years, and theirs is small because I end up getting the same people regularly, but they are very responsive. They respond quickly. They always follow through till the problem is actually solved. They are very clear. They know very much what they are talking about. They are willing to remote in and help in real-time, so their support has been excellent.

Positive

It is on the machines. The Witness can be in the cloud. It can be in your own data center. It can be wherever you want. The product itself runs on the local servers.

For its implementation, we went through a beta period with the test equipment, where I tested it out and learned how it worked, and I had help from support in doing that. Once we got to actual production, it took only a few days. It probably took us three days to get the hardware out there, get it all set up, and work with StorMagic to make sure that we were setting it correctly for the first one. It was about a three-day process initially, and now, I can certainly do it in the afternoon.

One person can deploy it. After the deployment, SvSAN requires very little maintenance. They send out software updates occasionally, but I found that the software update process is pretty simple. You just upload it to the individual servers. You use their Web GUI to deploy it, and that is the end of it. It is straightforward.

It is a fair trade. It is a little bit expensive at first blush just in terms of the initial licensing cost. I have been in the tech industry for a long time. I have worked for startups, and I understand that the licensing cost is how you pay the bills. They have to have money to develop their product. While it is less than other solutions, such as vSAN, for instance, it is still significant. However, it is well worth it in terms of the quality of the product and the support that it allows me to have. We are buying the flagship product from them. We are always buying premium support and all the features that we need, so it is a little bit steep upfront, but it is less than other solutions and comes with excellent support.

SvSAN's licensing model is based on usable storage capacity. It is a lot more intuitive. If I need 12 terabytes of storage, it is counterintuitive to me to have to think about how many CPUs the server that I want the storage for has. It does not make sense to me to consider processing power and the number of CPUs I have for processing in the licensing cost of a storage product. It seems a lot more intuitive to think about how much storage I need.

We have remote branches in various different places where we need VMware clusters, and we wanted to have shared storage for those clusters. We looked at VMware's vSAN product, but we did not go for it because these remote locations are space-constrained in some cases and have harsh operating environments. We are a shipping company, and these are warehouses with small server rooms. We found out that VMware vSAN required us to have three servers in order for their vSAN product to work, and it also required that we had a top-of-rack 10-gig switch. That added significant space and expense to the layout or the footprint that we wanted to have, whereas, SvSAN only required us to have two servers and did not require a top-of-rack 10-gig switch. We talked further with them and just ended up going with their product for remote branches, and we have loved it so far.

With SvSAN, it was a little bit of a learning curve for me. It was a little bit complex to start with just because I had not gone too far into that world previously, but their support was very good at walking me through the process, explaining what they were doing, and getting me set up. It would have been a little daunting if their support was not as good as it was at the initial setup.

It costs us significantly less to use SvSAN. We did not have to buy three servers, and we did not have to buy a separate 10-gig switch in order to make it work, which was the case with the VMware vSAN solution. It was significantly less for us to go with SvSAN just in terms of hardware.

In terms of the hardware and brand flexibility, we have not had any restrictions. We are pretty much using Dell hardware with their RAID controllers and no particular brand of SSD hard drive. We have not run into any limitations that way. If we were locked into a particular thing, that would be a problem. It would not feel great. As long as it works with whatever Dell is putting out at the moment, it would be okay for us.

I have not used the Stretch Clusters feature. I have also not used SvSAN’s management and monitoring console called Edge Control. I have seen demonstrations of it. I have not tried it yet.

To a colleague at another company who says StorMagic is a relatively small, less-known company, I would say that it is true, but so far, that has not been a disadvantage at all. In fact, it has been an advantage. Their support team has a relatively small group of folks, but they are very knowledgeable and very responsive. They get the job done well. It is true that they are not a huge company, but that has not been a detriment so far.

I would rate StorMagic SvSAN an eight out of ten.

The purpose is that since I work for a manufacturing company globally, our requirement was to install smaller VMware clusters in our production plants around the world. We can't, for production and business reasons, move to a whole cloud environment because some specific software and applications need installation on-site. At the moment, we have this small two-node VMware SXI cluster in five global locations: Flint in USA, Brazil, India, China, and Germany. We use StorMagic to virtualize and provide a hyper-scale environment for these two nodes instead of buying dedicated storage. StorMagic resolves the issue of having to buy specific storage for the nodes. We use the StorMagic board to visualize and share between the two nodes.

First of all, it's flexible, easy to deploy, and very stable. It simplifies and reduces basic maintenance and deployment projects, which is important for us due to the huge amount of activities to handle. For our solution in production plants, stability is crucial as it can be challenging to have dedicated facilities for our servers and IT staff. It is a stable and robust solution. Compared to features about hyper-scaling and storage optimization, it's also cheaper, which is very useful, especially in this period. Overall, it is the right solution for our needs.

Maybe the hardware compatibility could be expanded or widened. Another point could be to change the price model since it has lots of capacity but does not always fit our pricing requirements. We are really talking about details, but probably the only noteworthy improvement could be to extend the hardware compatibility of the product.

I have used the solution for more or less ten years. Before StorMagic was acquired by HPE, we already used the solution.

We have experienced no relevant issues. It's robust, as I explained earlier. The solution is definitely stable, and in our case, no significant issues were encountered during its use.

Even though we don't need higher scalability, our approach remains consistent with the requirements I explained.

Since we used support only once in the last year, I would rate it a ten. This is because we needed support only once in ten years, which indicates the solution's effectiveness. Not needing support is the best scenario.

Positive

We have not used previous solutions, but I already explained it is really cost-effective. It significantly reduces maintenance costs for external storage. Compared to a standard solution we used in the past with HPE, and also compared with the Dell VxRail solution, it costs about thirty to forty percent less.

The initial setup was very easy.

We involved a partner who perfectly knew the solution. We had a whole agreement for both project and service financing, and the deployment was easy due to our well-versed partner. The core activities from the partner cost about two hundred euros for each cluster.

Approximately, we are making a return of investment exercise over a five-year period. With StorMagic, we calculate the return on investment to be about two years, compared to other solutions we could have adopted.

It's easy to compare with others because, for example, Dell EMC has a similar solution. I don't remember the name now, but usually, the license target price is about fifteen percent higher. The initial purchase cost, including maintenance, is typically thirty to forty percent higher than similar products. If we change the product and involve additional hardware for external storage, that forty percent higher price is seen in the initial purchase and not in recurring maintenance.

Overall, I rate it ten out of ten. According to my specific needs, it's ideal. After the acquisition by HPE, having a huge company behind the product is beneficial. The solution is stable, enterprise-level, and fits well in the portfolio of an enterprise integrator. It's likely one of the best solutions for Nissan. We started by ensuring high-level design compatibility. Generally, we find hardware compatible with StorMagic when deployed. Since the solution reduces the number of hardware involved, it was one of our first comparisons. HPE suggested it even before the acquisition, and we had an assistant integrator who knew the solution well. This was our process for comparison and adoption. I will explain my experience to someone who has similar business needs. Small cluster deployment is perfect for us, being competitive in price and stability. For others with the same requirements, it's probably the best solution with a great return on investment. I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

I use StorMagic SvSAN technology in conjunction with VMware servers to enable the sharing of local storage among multiple hosts.

StorMagic SvSAN's Witness feature effectively monitors the status of hosts, determining whether they are online or offline. This is its primary function.

The stretch cluster functionality is essential to the SvSAN system, and it performs as expected.

StorMagic SvSAN provides storage clustering capabilities and effectively monitors host availability.

StorMagic SvSAN's monitoring console, Edge Control, remained easy to administer even after extended periods of inactivity, such as several months.

The primary benefit of StorMagic SvSAN is its cost-effectiveness compared to its competitors. We saw this benefit immediately after deploying it.

StorMagic SvSAN reduced downtime in our environment by 50 percent. We use it on two hosts. Without SvSAN, any updates would require taking a host offline, affecting all its hosted VMs.

StorMagic SvSAN effectively fulfills its intended purpose with a straightforward and uncomplicated design.

StorMagic SvSAN's management or witness server, a standard Linux box, lacks security hardening. In contrast, other vendors offer hardened Linux boxes with controlled access, requiring contact for functionality and increased security. Therefore, unauthorized access to the SvSAN server could cause significant damage.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for about twelve months.

I have not encountered any instability issues using StorMagic SvSAN.

The scalability of StorMagic SvSAN is very good.

Positive

The initial setup was straightforward and took between four to eight hours.

There were no third-party consultants involved. I worked directly with a StorMagic engineer on the deployment.

The use of StorMagic SvSAN has saved about 20 to 30,000 dollars per year in licensing.

The licensing model is straightforward. We opted for the maximum storage capacity, as there were only a few tiers available. Choosing the maximum capacity proved cost-effective, especially compared to alternatives like VMware vSAN, which would have been significantly more expensive based on VCP cores. StorMagic SvSAN provided substantial savings.

I evaluated VMware vSAN but decided to go with StorMagic SvSAN because they provided excellent white-glove service, which helped us quickly deploy the solution after purchasing it.

I would rate StorMagic SvSAN a ten out of ten.

One of our servers is configured for automatic patching, and although updates are available, we have not yet applied them. 

Given my experience with StorMagic, I would say that being a relatively small company is beneficial as it results in better customer support and service, with less red tape to navigate.

We use StorMagic SvSAN primarily for two cases. One is for storage purposes because we have a lot of big data, and we want to store it securely. The second case involves using Windows cluster storage for SQL databases.

We implemented StorMagic SvSAN to have a big data storage option that was lacking.

StorMagic SvSAN has simple hardware requirements compared to other solutions, but as newcomers, we initially struggled to get started due to a lack of knowledge about the process. However, once we connected with the technical manager through the sales manager, everything went smoothly.

StorMagic SvSAN's management and monitoring console, Edge Control, provides a centralized dashboard for comprehensive system information, including licensing and issue identification. Colour-coded alerts highlight any problems, making the interface user-friendly and intuitive. Edge Control simplifies storage management by allowing administrators to oversee their storage clusters from a single location easily.

StorMagic SvSAN has significantly enhanced our organization's ability to manage big data.

In the short period we have been using StorMagic SvSAN, we have not had any downtime.

StorMagic SvSAN has helped to save costs. 

The most difficult part is the implementation since we are new to this design configuration, and it's a tough challenge due to our lack of proper engineers. However, StorMagic engineers were very helpful in setting up the system, remoting into our system to assist, which was very beneficial. Afterward, we now have enough storage, so even when another big project arises, we don't need to worry about storage capacity.

StorMagic SvSAN can improve by simplifying the implementation and training.

I have been using StorMagic SvSAN for two to three months. Prior to this, we used a trial version for two months for testing before deciding to purchase a perpetual license.

So far, we have not experienced any downtime since using StorMagic SvSAN, and I expect this stability to continue in the future. I would rate the stability as a nine out of ten.

I rate the scalability of StorMagic SvSAN as an eight out of ten. The product capacity meets our current requirements.

The customer service and technical support have been helpful, especially during the initial setup.

Positive

Our initial setup was complex due to our inexperience. Deploying the system took approximately one to two months and involved remote assistance from StorMagic engineers.

Two engineers and one manager were involved in the implementation of StorMagic SvSAN.

While I lack specific cost details, StorMagic's segmented pricing options offer valuable flexibility, allowing companies to choose solutions based on their needs and capacity.

I rate StorMagic SvSAN a nine out of ten.

We use HPE servers for our StorMagic SvSAN devices.

We currently operate in two adjacent buildings. In the future, we plan to expand our operations to other geographical locations. We have 20 employees that use StorMagic SvSAN.

StorMagic includes maintenance within its license agreement.