March 12, 2019

Scale Computing HC3 Review: "Scale is a great solution with second to none support"

Network Administrator

Insight LightingElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees

Score 10 out of 10

Vetted Review

Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Scale HC3 is being used across the entire organization for all our server needs. It is housing all our VMs as well as all of our network storage. It has solved the issues with VMWare licensing, an outdated SAN as well as multiple host servers required to properly run a VMWare environment.

Pros and Cons

The best thing about Scale is its simplicity. I used a VMWare solution for the past 5 years and never really felt like I had a grip on how to fully use it. I've had Scale in place for less than 6 months and am so confident in it, I feel as though I could almost train someone else on how to use it.
Scale's technical support is second to none. I've had a couple of issues with it and everyone I've spoken with is knowledgeable, friendly and eager to help resolve any issue.
With previous solutions, updating firmware is a large endeavor compared to Scale. Scale actually recommends doing it during production time instead of scheduling downtime during evenings or weekends. It makes managing everything easier without me having to come into work on my off time.

As with everything, I wish the price was a bit cheaper but by comparison to others but it's not bad when compared to similar solutions.
Not that it was needed in my case but the option to have a Scale engineer on site for setup might be nice for some instances.
The scheduling of the setup calls and training could be explained a little better and even possibly a quick overview of how to use the scheduling portion of the customer portal.

Support

They are second to none in terms of technical support. In all my time in IT, I've used a lot of different vendors' technical support and I've never had one that I would rate higher than Scale. Responsiveness, knowledge, and willingness to help until they know the issue is resolved are all aspects that Scale has demonstrated on every instance.

Apps Run

We run everything on our Scale solution. This includes a SQL server for our ERP software, multiple licensing applications as well as file servers and domain controllers. I even have some desktops set up for VPN purposes. Everything works flawlessly. I can't imagine a scenario where Scale wouldn't meet our needs.

Return on Investment

Considering the short time I've had Scale, it's hard to speak to ROI but before purchasing we did compare costs of our previous solution in terms of licensing costs and future hardware costs and Scale was the less expensive option.
From purely a power consumption perspective, the Scale solution is definitely a cost saving feature. I find myself with additional circuits that aren't needed any longer in my server room.
Even in the short time I've had Scale in place, I can already tell that the uptime is better than with our previous solution.

Alternatives Considered

Nutanix and VMware ESXi

Scale replaced a VMWare solution. We compared Scale against a new VMWare solution as well as against a Nutanix hyper-converged solution. After looking at the costs, features, support, and hardware, Scale was the easy choice for our business. It fit every need we had and after 6 months of having it in place, I have no regrets with our decision.

Likelihood to Recommend

Scale definitely has a market where it fits and is a great solution (small to medium-sized businesses). Very large organizations may be better suited to a different solution. For the market that Scale fits into, it really is a perfect solution. I had compared Scale to Nutanix and while Nutanix had some additional features, I couldn't justify the additional costs. However, a large organization may find that additional feature set very useful and worth the additional costs.