Scale Computing Makes Grade at Auburn University

Scale Computing, Inc., a provider of hyper-converged solutions, announced that two of Auburn University’s colleges have deployed its HC3 virtualization platform to help overcome their aging existing infrastructure while minimizing the complexity and costs of managing their IT environments.

Auburn University has developed into one of the largest universities in the South. With more than 25,000 students, it offers more than 140 degree options in 13 schools and colleges at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. Like most institutions of higher education, each college within Auburn University functions autonomously from one another with the respective dean deciding how to appropriate their respective budgets and staff various departments in the best interests of its students and programs.

The College of Architecture, Design & Construction decided to streamline its IT department, elevating Joel Beckum to IT coordinator from a position of desktop support. While Beckum had experience in managing and supporting the applications used in the department, he had little experience with back-end infrastructure. After surveying the college’s IT infrastructure that was a couple of generations old, Beckum reached out to Phil Forrest, IT manager for the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM), to consult on how best to modernize within the imposed fiscal and personnel restraints.

Forrest, likewise, found his college’s existing hardware was starting to show its age. He needed a server platform that could handle the complexities of VMware View along with other diverse applications and could be managed by his small staff of IT personnel. With the authorization of both colleges’ deans to work together, the two IT administrators sought to find an emerging solution on the market that would be appropriate for organizations of their size.

“After some due diligence, I talked to several vendors,” said Beckum. “What Scale Computing told me really, really interested me. Scale’s HC3 solution does everything that I need it to. It simplifies my network infrastructure so that I can be an expert. I was a desktop support guy who’s now a system admin. Scale makes me look like a pro. As far as my users know, I’m a genius.”

“With three people supporting 5,000 users – and no money for additional personnel – I had to find a solution that was super simple,” said Forrest. “Scale hits the sweet spot with what’s possible. With its built-in hypervisor, I don’t have to deal with or pay another vendor.“

Both colleges implemented HC3 platform, which brings storage, servers, virtualization and management together in a single system. With no virtualization software to license and no external storage to buy, HC3 products lower out-of-pocket costs and simplify the infrastructure needed to keep applications running. HC3 products make the deployment and management of a highly available and scalable infrastructure as easy to manage as a single server.

“Educational institutions, like the colleges of Auburn University, are increasingly finding that they have to do more with less,” said Jeff Ready, CEO, Scale Computing. “Rather than purchase servers, install virtualization software, configure management tools, implement a SAN or NAS, and network the bundle together, we were able to bring all these divergent layers and systems together into a single platform. HC3 was able to simplify management and reduce costs while providing the HA and scalability each college needed.“