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Scale HC3 First Impressions
December 06, 2017

Scale HC3 First Impressions

Jason Grilo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Scale Computing HC3

We started working with a client that recently deployed a 4 node SCALE HC3 cluster. Our role was to help transition them from VMware/HyperV VM's to be on Scale HC3 instead.

It is being used now for 90% of all services/vms within the company. They still have a couple physical servers due to the complexity of moving those to Scale Computing HC3, this in addition to using the volume of storage they have on the physical servers.

The main business problem it addressed was stability and simplifying the environment. The HC3 cluster gives them the stability and redundancy they needed to ensure they have great uptime!
  • Simplifying building and running a Hypervisor Cluster for redundancy and uptime.
  • Fast deployment/snapshotting
  • Great technical support, really fast.
  • Expanding volumes is cumbersome (have to clone the vm and make the drive bigger)
  • Little support for UPS and network shutdowns
  • Tricky to migrate VM's to HC3 unless you use their paid software product
  • GUI is pretty simple and barebones, feels like it limits what you can do.
All my interactions thus far have been really good. Fast chat support and phone support at a moment's notice. I know our client contact has had phone calls after hours in more emergency moments with little to no pain or frustrations. Some advanced things you want to be done on your Scale HC3 will require a support ticket but we understand why.
Our application/server set is a mixed Windows Server/Desktop VM world with a healthy dose of Linux CentOS VMs. We enjoy how quickly we are able to take a node offline and all VM's will move gracefully on their own. The Scale Computing HC3 system seems to keep all nodes balanced without much thought from our end. The redundant networks work great and we have done testing by pulling a switch and watching the networks fail over without missing a beat!
  • The company will not need to purchase new hardware for 5 years or as long as Scale will support the nodes.
  • The yearly software/maintenance costs are high and after a couple years running we may consider looking at another direction
  • ROI on needing a tier 3 tech on staff is good. The cluster just works and requires little babysitting.
HC3 is powerful and user friendly but as an experienced tech I do much some of the power features we have in the VMWare/HyperV world.
We would recommend a customer look at Scale HC3 if they want a simple/fast way to deploy a clustered environment. The price point on a Scale Computing HC3 cluster isn't very appealing compared to a HyperV cluster build with a SAN, but we understand the power behind the all-in-one approach of Scale HC3.