Starwind vs. Datacore SAN Melody

Software-based VM-centric and flash-friendly VM storage + free version

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awedio
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:49 pm

Tue Sep 07, 2010 9:06 pm

For those of you that looked at both products, please share with me/us why you picked Starwind

TIA
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hixont
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:12 pm

Sat Sep 11, 2010 3:18 am

For me it was simple math. I got far more bang for my buck with Starwind. In many ways SANMelody outperformed StarWind when I bought it, but at many times the cost for a similar configuration. For me Starwind is the better product due to its much lower price point and much simpler licensing model for comparible functionality.

SANMelody is a bear to configure and manage. StarWind is an out of box solution and only required a short period of "play time" with the software to get comfortable with it. While it still lacks some things I want in a SAN solution the product is being improved significantly and rapidly. I started out with 5.0 and have steadily upgraded to version 5.4. The upgrade path has been seamless for me which I greatly appreciate. I really hate software solutions that require calling the vendor's tech support to get installed or upgraded.

As far as technical support goes, I haven't had to go any farther than this forum to find answers to the few issues I've had with Starwind.

All in all I'm still pleased with my decision.
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awedio
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:49 pm

Sat Sep 11, 2010 5:49 pm

hixont wrote:...In many ways SANMelody outperformed StarWind when I bought it...
could you pls explain how SANMelody outperformed?
Constantin (staff)

Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:30 pm

hixont, thanks for such good words! We are constantly working on making our software better and better! :)
hixont
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2010 9:12 pm

Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:12 pm

awedio wrote:
hixont wrote:...In many ways SANMelody outperformed StarWind when I bought it...
could you pls explain how SANMelody outperformed?
SANMelody had caching already enabled and it uses that cache to help speed up data reads and writes to and from the hardware. At the time I bought Starwind this was not an available feature. Basically data reads were faster. I could still easily swamp both SANMelody and Starwind with a massive data copy which then slowed me down to the speed of the hard drives. This occurred during large data migrations after hours as I sent data from the SANMelody solution to the Starwind server.
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awedio
Posts: 89
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2010 5:49 pm

Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:06 pm

thx for the update.
Constantin (staff)

Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:08 am

SANMelody is a bear to configure and manage.
Good words! :) We are trying to make our GUI easy to use and slipstreamed!
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