HC3 Virtualization Platform Reviews

The set-up of the environment only took a couple of hours before the environment was up and spinning.

The migration and ease of integration of VMs from the environment we switched from went smoothly, it was not difficult to convert to Scale HC3 disks

The admin user interface in Scale HC3 is compact, informative.

Firmware and feature updates are released to the nodes on a regular basis. You don't have to take down the entire environment to update. One click is needed, then one node is updated at a time. The nodes handle the load balancing between the nodes themselves.

In case of problems with the environment, you can always reach support from a customer portal. The response time for help is short. The help we receive is very professional. If there is a hardware failure, the support sends out spare parts quickly.

Frequency of using the admin portal, is not that often, because verything works and takes care of itself so well that it's easy to forget about environment.

What has been most problematic with the Scale Computing Platform, was that the SSD disk was quite sensitive in the beginning. We have had 2 - 3 occasions when they have broken and needed to be replaced. It's all about the quality of the SSD perhaps?

The Scale Computing Platform has helped us to cut down on the need for hard servers, which has reduced the need for a large server hall. That in itself has reduced the need for the size of the UPS load and the cost with it.

Scale Computing has made my life easy by being able to manage one platform instead of multiple layers that come with other VM platforms. Scale Computing Support is also supreme.

I did not come across them earlier in my life

My systems appear to have almost 100% uptime and never any issue. The ease of manipulating a VM is a simple process and file recovery is so simple time I bite myself each time I have to do it.

There are many things that I like best about the Scale Computing Platform, but high availability is probably #1. Ease of use and great customer support are right up there so 1.1 and 1.2, I guess. They are also totally in tune with customer requests. I have asked for the ability to do things myself or have things done differently, and they actually listen and implement my suggestions on future releases. It is very comforting to be heard.

I think the life cycle is too short. It is always a sad day when the hardware that is still functioning has to be retired due to not having even software support, which is essential.

It is solving high availability. We have experienced zero downtime since implementation around 8 years ago.

The customer service, support, and products offered are extremely user friendly and straightforward.

Implementing new servers and configuring literally any of their products is ridiculously simple without sacrificing any of the benefits of a more complex setup.

If I've been unable to solve an issue on my own, their support was available to help and would get me situated with best practice steps to move forward with, then help with every step on the path towards what I was needing.

Every once in a while documentation seems a bit difficult to sift through.

This is my only complaint and even then it's not a huge deal as they are VERY verbose.

Scale helps keep servers in a confined space that is easy to manage and update.

It keeps our workflow steady, consistent, and efficient without sacrificing anything on our end.

The Scale Computing platfor we ordered was shipped as a complete VMware replacement solution. Our 3 nodes replaced 6 VMware host servers and 6 NAS devices. The all flash array provides improved performance and redundancy. Migration was simple and worked for all servers except the domain controllers.

Customer support was very responsive in working out any migration issues. As well as introduction training for all the new tools and features.

The Carbonite package for converting VMware servers to Scale Computing VM servers worked well for all servers except domain controllers. I had to rebuild the domain controllers from scratch. Not a big deal, I just would have liked that information at the beginning of the migration.

Improved performance and server / storage consolidation.

Ease of management of the platform. No having to manually do any VM migraine, though you can.

Snapshots are simple and scheduled, web access needs no client

No direct way to migrate VM disks in or out.

Being able to offer HCI without being retired to spec and deliver the servers to do it. Why reinvent the wheel?

Simplicity, no extra drivers, no command line use (outside of initial setup). Great web based interface, with simple button commands. Can bring up a new server in minutes!

Only thing I have found was during the upgrade process is that we can't install larger drivers to current machines. I understand why after talking with an engineer but still sucks.

Biggest thing it solves for us is DR (Disaster Recovery). We have 2 clusters that are over 60 miles apart and they back up to one another. This saves us as a non-profit thousands of dollars each year on backup services.

It is versatile and grows with our needs.

Haven't found anything we dislike with the platform.

We needed a server with redundancy for our core applications and network services and the ability to grow without major capex investment and rebuilding like other vendors do.

Our scale Environment has been an outstanding , very easy to use , and Dependable Product.

you will need to add nodes, to expand , rather than just add memory , compute, or Storage

The problems solved by scale are server room rack space, temprature, and rapid expansion of our environment..

You can build a server in record time

The system is so easy to use. You don't need to reach for the manual everytime you need to do something you haven't done for a while. Its reliable, we've had the same nodes for nearly seven years and only had one hard disk fialure in that time.

I'd like more commmunication from them. For example when their is a new firmware release I'd like to be sent a link to the latest manual and/or the release notes. Some short videos on the enhancements would be useful too.

Resilience/business continuity. The benefit of being able to snapshot a server before making any chnages is a life savers at times.