StarWind Software Inc., a global leader in developing iSCSI SAN software for small and midsize companies and OnApp, a leading developer of cloud management software for hosts, have joined forces to provide OnApp’s hosting cloud customers with an affordable and highly available SAN, free for one year and for a low monthly fee after the 1st year. Storage in the cloud helps overcome the burden of purchasing an expensive SAN solution, delaying or preventing IT’s migration to the cloud.

OnApp cloud software enables hosting providers to deploy clouds on commodity hardware, and manage cloud resources, failover, users and billing through a simple point-and-click interface. Cost-efficient and reliable storage is essential for stable business continuity in the cloud. The StarWind iSCSI SAN’s architecture and rich feature set provide an ideal solution for OnApp’s hosting customers. Since StarWind software can be installed on commodity servers the price point enables cloud services to be affordable, and eliminates vendor lock in associated with proprietary SAN hardware vendors.

“There’s a huge need for cost-effective storage in the hosting mass market, and especially in the fast-growing cloud hosting market,” said Carlos Rego, MD and Chief Architect of OnApp. “With StarWind we’re making it easy for hosts to add high performance cloud storage without huge up-front investment in SANs. Our special free for the 1st year licensing offer helps reduce entry costs to cloud hosting, and with OnApp’s monthly licensing, another vital component of cloud hosting infrastructure is moved from CAPEX to OPEX.”

The StarWind partnership allows OnApp customers to deploy High Availability storage with a free one-year license for StarWind Enterprise HA 16TB or Unlimited TB editions, for up to two servers. After the 1st year, OnApp customers can license StarWind’s HA 16TB or Unlimited TB editions for a low monthly fee.

“Cloud hosting is the future of hosting and high availability storage is critical to provide server and application redundancy and uptime. In cooperation with our partner OnApp, we are pleased to contribute to the growing the cloud space. OnApp provides cost-effective and flexible cloud platforms and StarWind Software guarantees affordable and highly available SAN storage in the cloud,” said Art Berman, CEO of StarWind Software, Inc.