StarWind NVMe-oF Initiator – Industry's first NVMe-oF initiator for Windows
illi News/10027213

MIDDLETON, Mass. - illiNews -- StarWind, a leading provider of hyperconverged IT environments for SMB and ROBO, developed the first free solution that brings NVMe over Fabrics to Windows. Being a hardware vendor, we know how low perception of NVMe is. NVMe is not mature enough to be adopted for mass use. Even though the protocol for presenting PCIe SSDs over the network (NMVe over Fabrics), NVMe Management Interface, and Targets have been developed, there are no native means for working with these drives in Windows.

NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) is a perfect alternative to the legacy protocols (iSCSI, iSER, SMB3, and NFS) used to access storage. These protocols are good for SAS drives, but they are proven to be inefficient for PCIe flash. Once a PCIe SSDs are presented over the network via any of those protocols, their latency dramatically increases.

More on illi News

• Matecrypt Observes South American Cryptocurrency Adoption Surge Amid Economic Shifts
• Assent Uncovers Over 695 Unique PFAS Across Global Supply Chains as Regulations Increase
• Cryptocurrency Quarterly Trading Volume Surpasses $15 Trillion Record High as BrazilNex Acknowledges Industry 'Growing Pains' Amid Market Speculation
• Simpli.fi Earns Finalist Honors in the 2025 AdExchanger Awards
• Cyrus O'Leary's Introduces Cookie Dough Pybrid for Foodservice, Giving Chefs a Blank Canvas for Signature Desserts

StarWind NVMe-oF Initiator is the first free all-software solution bringing the full NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) support to Windows. Before, users required special network interface cards (NICs) to let Hyper-V VMs talk effectively to flash. Being installed as a driver, the Initiator enables Hyper-V VMs to get all performance that PCIe flash can potentially provide. The Initiator works with popular targets like Intel SPDK NVMe-oF Target and Linux NVMe-oF Target, so end users are not locked in to any proprietary software or hardware. The solution has the following three benefits:

• All-software: Being just a driver, StarWind NVMe-oF Initiator can be deployed on any software. It requires no hardware. Just make sure that your NICs support RDMA.
• Free: The solution is free to use in any environment, be it a lab or production cluster.
• Works on Windows: Designed for Windows and extensively tested on it, the Initiator brings NVMe-oF support to this OS.

About StarWind

More on illi News

• AHRFD Initiates Legal Proceedings Against Anwalt.de for Publishing Defamatory and False Content
• New Analysis Reveals the Complex Forces Driving the 'Great Human Reshuffle'
• Elevate Unveils GroundComm X30 at 2025 International GSE Expo in Las Vegas
• Homeless Man Charged with String of Business Burglaries in Naperville
• NEW power supply release from Kepco Dynatronix - HSP Advanced

StarWind a virtualization pioneer focused on delivering Software-Defined Storage and HyperConverged Infrastructure solutions designed to build high-performing, flexible, and resilient IT infrastructures for SMB and ROBO. Founded in 2009, StarWind has spread remarkably over the globe and helped to build virtualization infrastructures for over 140,000 free users and more than 4,000 paying customers around the world.