Item: Scale Computing Platform
Rating: 8
Author: Carlos Coque

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Scale Computing Platform servers to run our online web application. These servers are easy to update, have reliable performance, and work in high availability, which means that if one node in the cluster fails, the system will remain online. They also have copies of our data in multiple drives, which means that if a single drive fails no impact is noticed. Scale support is quick and competent as well and that is an asset when you have trouble and need to react quickly. These were the main concerns that were improved when compared with the previous set of servers we had.

Pros and Cons

Reliable performance
High availability
Easy firmware updates
Great support

Management interface
Hardware upgrades on the current servers
Longer server/system support/lifespan
Pricing

Support Rating

I've been having a good experience with Scale Computing Platform Support. At this level of product, support is essential because it could be crucial to keep your business running when you have any unexpected situation. We didn't have too many issues with the servers but every time we had one, they were there to help us.

Apps Run

We run Web and Application servers among other small services in a hyper-converged infrastructure provided by Scale Computing Platform. During all the period we've been using that we didn't have any severe issue that impacted our operations. We had minor issues where we were able to work with Scale Computing Platform support and get those solved.

Return on Investment

Increased confidence in our service availability
Increased resources to grow up to the hardware limit
Replication between environments

Alternatives Considered

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure and HPE SimpliVity

We ended up choosing Scale Computing Platform 4 years ago because that had better pricing than the other players and would offer everything we elected as pre-requisite for our system to work. Today, after several years using their system with no major issues, we can say it was a good decision.

Key Insights

Do you think Scale Computing Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Scale Computing Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did Scale Computing Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Scale Computing Platform go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Scale Computing Platform again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Malwarebytes

Likelihood to Recommend

I believe that for any scenario where you need a virtualization platform with decent performance, high availability, and a responsive technical support team, Scale Computing Platform servers would be a good fit. To be honest, I'm not sure which scenarios would be less appropriate.

Usability

Even though Scale's management interface is not as rich as VMware's, that has all the basics for you to manage your VMs accordingly. You can split the servers into different groups to have a better visualization of your environment and apply some actions to all servers.

Exceptional Examples of Scale Computing Platform Support

There was an occasion when I needed to install 2 Windows 2022 Server Domain Controllers on Scale Servers. After doing that those VMs were extremely slow and I thought it could be something with my installation, so I deleted those and created 2 new ones, but still had that huge performance gap. Then, I contacted Scale support and told them about what I was experiencing and they quickly told me that this was probably because I'd need a custom Windows 2022 driver for the VMs to work with that OS. They sent me the file and everything worked.

Users and Roles

10 - Those are infrastructure staff, who create and manage the VMs, and Developers, who use the VMs to have their codes deployed both in Pre-Production and Production environments.

Support Headcount Required

2 - There are 2 people that access Scale management interface to create and manage the VMs. Those people need to understand a bit about: OS Images, Scale manage interface itself, networking, virtualization, and performance analysis.

Business Processes Supported

Production environment
Pre-Production environment
Snapshot replication between the 2 environments

Innovative Uses

Hosting 2 businesses in the same set of servers
Having snapshots replicated between environments
One-click firmware updates

Future Planned Uses

Likelihood to Renew

I think Scale servers do their job. They are easy to update, perform well, have high availability, and have great support.

Products Replaced

Yes - It has replaced a group of HPE servers. We did that because we had a lot of work to firmware update those servers and didn't have high availability with the previous servers.

Key Differentiators

Scalability
Ease of Use

The main factor would be having high availability with the servers.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

We would probably do the same process because today we consider that having high availability is crucial to our business.

Scale Computing Platform Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Creating a VM
Snapshotting
Accessing the VM console

Difficult Tasks

Arrange VMs in groups
Finding the right item on the left menu bar
Finding the right item on the VM mini-dashboard

Great hyper-converged server solution

Overall Satisfaction with Scale Computing Platform