Item: Scale Computing Platform
Rating: 10
Author: Adam Hassall

Overall Satisfaction with Scale Computing HC3

Support Rating

I've rarely had issues with the HC3x platform, certainly not in the last 4 years. Whenever I have had to contact their support team, I'm able to get straight through to a highly skilled engineer. I've not experienced an occasion where I've been passed from one technician to another due to them not knowing how to resolve the issue.

I can honestly say they have the best support team I've ever the pleasure to work with.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Scale Computing's HC3x has allowed us to virtualise 100% of our company's server infrastructure. We've used the technology for the last 5 years and it has been as solid as a rock. The biggest benefit is its simplicity because we are a small IT department and don't have the time to maintain a more complicated solution such as VMWare or Hyper-V.

Pros and Cons

Pros

The simplicity of the technology is its biggest strength.
There aren't different licensing levels and so all features are available in the standard licensing costs.
Their support team is second to none. Everyone I've spoken to is extremely knowledgeable about their product.

Cons

The only drawback is that if you need extra storage, your only option is to purchase another node. On other platforms, you could just install extra storage space.

Return on Investment

I went through a pricing exercise and compared similar solutions (VMWare & Hyper-V). Scale Computing's solution came in around 25% cheaper than the nearest alternative.
We've been using the same cluster for five years now and have no plans on switching platforms.
The lack of maintenance we have to perform on the platform certainly saves us time and money.

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi and Hyper-V

HC3x does everything we need it to do at a fraction of the cost of it's nearest alternative. The cost was around 25% cheaper than the nearest alternative and the setup / configuration was pretty much completed within a couple of hours (including racking it).

I'd previously used Scale Computing's storage only technology and was so impressed by their support team and on-site engineers that I had no hesitation of using their virtualisation technology too.

Likelihood to Recommend

Scale Computing for us has been a life-saver. Spinning up new virtual machines takes seconds with minimal configuration required. I suppose the only scenario that Scale Computing HC3 wouldn't be suitable is if you need USB/com pass-through as they can't [be] presented to the virtual machines.

Comments

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Honest review of Scale Computing's HC3x