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Dead Simple to use and Amazing support
Updated June 06, 2017

Dead Simple to use and Amazing support

Matthew Beckler | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Scale Computing HC3

Scale computing is our primary device handling all of our internal files/databases/applications. The Scale Computing cluster provides all internal services for the whole company. We were looking to internalize services that were not ready to go cloud based that were previously hosted by an MSP. We were on a short time frame so we needed something easy to use, quick to deploy, and that had built in fault tolerance.
  • Extremely easy to deploy. Once the physical connections are made it is very simply to get your VM's up and running.
  • Support was great to work with during the setup. I had a weird issue that turned out to be my monitor and unrelated to Scale and the technician figured it out over the phone.
  • Redundancy built in with no configuration. I just deploy my VM and it is automatically replicated across nodes.
  • SSD tiering system that moves most used blocks to faster storage providing IOPS where needed. This is fully customizable so I can choose what VM's need priority.
  • Expandability I can easily add additional single nodes to increase my compute and storage capacity.
  • KVM based so most of the major Backup players can not backup at the Host level. This requires agents for backing up all VM's and also many backup vendors will not license agents at the Host level so you need to pay per VM for most backup solutions.
  • Extended period where it was not compatible with latest Microsoft operating system (Server 2016 compatibility just came this spring)
  • Email alerts are not directly compatible with Office365 (No TLS login support)
  • No All SSD/Flash options are currently available.
  • Requires external switch and configuration of switch for Node communication.
  • Would like to see extended grouping for easier identification of VM's
  • Some way to easily automate certain tasks. (Some kind of API or Scale supported scripting)
  • Console has some quirks such as mouse not working when using a touchscreen laptop.
I have only had to contact support during Initial setup and for the upgrade to latest Host operating system.
During the setup call the tech was very knowledgeable and was easily able to troubleshoot a very quirky issue where my monitor needed to be re-centered.

During the upgrade call the Tech initiated the upgrade and communicated with my through the whole process. We did not have any downtime during the upgrade.
All our internal applications run on Scale Computing..
We have not experienced in any issues with our business critical applications.
These include SQL server, 2 Files servers, Various application servers.
All Servers have run quick and haven't experienced any downtime.
  • We were previously spending 3k a month hosting these services with a local MSP. After Scale that bill went down to zero. We recovered our investment in less then a year.
  • Previously when adding a new server or VM we had to pay additional monthly rate for every VM or service. With Scale we can spin up a new VM at anytime without any additional monthly cost.
  • Because it is easy to use and configure we spend very minimal hours managing or babysitting the cluster this saves on labor costs for all IT staff.
We ended selecting Scale because they seemed to care about their customers. Also Scale was very competitively priced vs some of the competitors. Lastly the interface and system were very simple to use and deploy. Simplivity at the time did not support Hyper-V. and we did not want to persue using VMware. Nutanix just came out with their express product previous to that they were priced out of our reach. Nutanix would have been our second choice but just seemed slightly more complicated. Starwind has very solid product as well but did not feel as simple to deploy and setup as Nutanix or Scale Computing
Scale is very appropriate in any Small to Mid-Size enterprises. It is easy to use and get up and running. Pretty much anyone with cursory computer knowledge can install a VM on this system and the VM will be replicated automatically across the nodes. When you a need a system that just works this is it.

Scale Computing without additional integration/automation options and an easier way to use commonly used Backup software may be less appropriate for organization with many VM's where it would be a large effort to add guest backup agents to every VM.

Evaluating Scale Computing HC3 and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Quick and Easy to deploy and setup. Responsive support and sales.
Would revisit support of Backup products to make sure I had a solid strategy for backing up the VM's before deciding on a solution. Not that Veeam has agents it is less of a problem.