Azure Virtual Machines vs Scale Computing HC3

Likelihood to Recommend

Easy way to utilise development of applications inside of the MS eco-system. Also enables integration into a pre-existing billing structure on Microsoft cloud

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 1-10 employees

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I can't speak to large businesses because I'm not familiar with their technology needs, but for any small or medium business with servers and storage on-premises, Scale Computing HC3 is a scalable HCI platform that's cost-effective and easy to manage and maintain. Especially for businesses with limited tech staff, Scale Computing HC3 is a game changer, freeing up valuable time to focus on higher-level projects.

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Jim Bittel

IT Systems Manager

HSLDALegal Services, 201-500 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Virtual machine automated provisioning

Management console

Live virtual machine backup

Live virtual machine migration

Hypervisor-level security

Pros

Testing and developing
Maintaining small and medium databases
Maintaining low and medium traffic web servers

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Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

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The Scale Computing HC3 system is so easy to maintain. We came from another virtual system and the difference in administration is huge. The time we save in maintaining this system allows us to spend more time on other network tasks.
We are using the snapshot feature as part of our DR plan. Here again, it is very easy to configure the snapshot plan and the way that Scale manages the snapshots does not require large amounts of additional storage.
When we installed the HC3 system, it took longer to mount the equipment in the rack and cable it then to have the system online. Management is very simple using their web-based interface.

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Rex Knepp

Technical Support/Network Admin

ECM Insurance GroupInsurance, 51-200 employees

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Cons

Provisioning of the VM becomes slow while adding a customized script.

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Nishant Arora

ICT Specialist

HatchConstruction, 10,001+ employees

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There are times when the alerts can be a little vague if you don't contact customer support to get a clarification of what might be wrong.
I would like to see some integrated backup support at some time, and not have to use a third-party agent on each virtual machine.

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Wesley Johnson

System Administrator

Oklahoma Steel & WireMachinery, 501-1000 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 8.6

Based on 22 answers

Since I have had no issues with downtime; easier management of my cluster and the ability to lower the number of devices in my Infrastructure, I will gladly renew my support contract with Scale Computing HC3 and upgrade my equipment with them when it comes time for it.

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Brian Dunk

Director of Technology

Systems 24-7Computer Software, 11-50 employees

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Usability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 8.7

Based on 37 answers

Everything you need to do is point-and-click easy. If you are the kind of admin who wants to edit every config file and endlessly customize your environment, then Scale may not be for you. On the other hand, if you just want it to work really well, and do what they told you it will do, then Scale is the ideal system.

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David Roden

Director Of Technology

Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Dann, LLPLaw Practice, 51-200 employees

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Reliability and Availability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 9.1

Based on 2 answers

Never had an outage or an error. Once a hard drive failed, but Scale kept on working flawlessly without interruption.

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Mark Simmons

Director Of Technology

Sabine Pass ISDEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Performance

No score

No answers yet

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Scale Computing HC3 9.1

Based on 2 answers

Performance has been just as outstanding as reliability. I have never experienced delays in any aspect of usage.

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Mark Simmons

Director Of Technology

Sabine Pass ISDEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Support Rating

Azure Virtual Machines 8.7

Based on 3 answers

I give the overall support for Azure Virtual Machines a 7 because I think while the overall support do a great job there are still areas that it could improve on such as efficiency and speed. So while I only give it a 7 and it has some issues it is still better than the overall support at Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling.

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Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees

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Scale Computing HC3 9.7

Based on 348 answers

Scale’s support is quick to respond, knowledgeable, has no problems digging into very complex issues and have the goal of problem resolution. They aren’t getting you off the phone or out of their email queue they are helping you solve your problems and find the right solutions to make sure their products function as intended or better.

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Michael Rials

IT Manager

American Foundry GroupOil & Energy, 201-500 employees

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In-Person Training

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 1.0

Based on 1 answer

I did not do in-person training.

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Mark Simmons

Director Of Technology

Sabine Pass ISDEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Online Training

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 9.1

Based on 1 answer

Because Scale is so simple, the training is just as quick and easy.

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Mark Simmons

Director Of Technology

Sabine Pass ISDEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Implementation Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 9.1

Based on 4 answers

The implementation was very easy. We had Scale support on standby and they were ready and eager to help if needed. The process went so fast the employees in the organization did not even know it was done.

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Verified User

Director in Information Technology

Automotive Company, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Azure VM is more complicated, but provides the same scale of services

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Verified User

Technician in Information Technology

Information Technology & Services Company, 1-10 employees

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Scale Computing HC3 was not only cheaper than every solution that we looked at. It also had the easiest interface to learn and the least amount of hardware. We eliminated any and all setup/implementation costs as we were able to set up the cluster ourselves. All of the other services made me feel like I needed a master's degree to rack the units and set it up.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 51-200 employees

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Scalability

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Scale Computing HC3 9.1

Based on 1 answer

HC3 is one of the best products I have purchased for our district. It is unbelievably reliable to the point that they shoot themselves in the foot on support contracts.

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Mark Simmons

Director Of Technology

Sabine Pass ISDEducation Management, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

The pay as you go model helps saves cost.
We segregate the virtual machines in different resource groups and hence can setup auto shutdown as per their type and requirement.

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Nishant Arora

ICT Specialist

HatchConstruction, 10,001+ employees

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We have experienced cost reduction to our Disaster Recovery solution. The prior expense of 1 year of DR can now cover multiple years using Scale HC3 with Cloud Unity.
Our Scale solution is more cost effective than our legacy solution. The cost of 1 major component (appliance) from our legacy solution was approximately half the cost of our production Scale cluster.

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Anthony Martin

System Administrator

Continental Stock Transfer & TrustFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Azure Virtual Machines Editions & Modules

Edition

Spot - General Purpose - Av2	$0.005¹
Spot - Compute Optimized - Fsv2	$0.0104¹
Spot - General Purpose - Dv3	$0.0125¹
Spot - Memory Optimized - Ev3	$0.016¹
3 Year Reserved - Burstable VMs - B1S	$0.0038¹
3 Year Reserved - Compute Optimized - Fsv2	$0.0307¹
3 Year Reserved - General Purpose - Dv3	$0.0369¹
3 Year Reserved - Memory Optimized - Ev3	$0.0481¹
1 Year Reserved - Memory Optimized - Ev3	$0.0753¹
1 Year Reserved - Burstable VMs - B1S	$0.0059¹
1 Year Reserved - General Purpose - Dv3	$0.0548¹
1 Year Reserved - Compute Optimized - Fsv2	$0.05¹
Pay as You Go - Burstable VMs - B1S	$0.0075¹
Pay as You Go - Compute Optimized - Fsv2	$0.0846¹
Pay as You Go - General Purpose - Dv3	$0.096¹
Pay as You Go - Memory Optimized - Ev3	$0.126¹

Per Hour

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Scale Computing HC3 Editions & Modules

Edition

HC1200	$8,500¹
HC1250D	$15,170¹
HC1250	$9,665¹
HC1250DF	$16,750¹
HC5250D	$25,700¹

Per Node

Additional Pricing Details

Pricing shown in U.S. Dollar. Pricing for other regions available on request.

Rating Summary

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Azure Virtual Machines

Scale Computing HC3

Likelihood to Recommend