Scale Computing Releases HC3 Virtualization System

Scale
Computing
Inc.
announced at IP EXPO the UK availability of HC3
– the virtualisation system for midsize companies.

With no
virtualisation software to license and no external storage to buy,
HCE lowers out of pocket costs by as much as 75% and simplifies the
infrastructure needed to keep applications running. It makes the
deployment and management of an
infrastructure as easy to manage as a single server.

"HC3
gives us the opportunity to take virtualisation to our customers, all
packaged up in a ready to go infrastructure solution. It is an
additional revenue stream for us and something that our customers are
showing a lot of interest in."

"After
launching HC3 in North America six weeks ago, we’re excited to offer
this high-availability ‘datacentre-in-a-box’ to the UK market,"
said Patrick Conte, EVP and GM of WW Field Operations at Scale
Computing. "The
UK is a strategic market for us so it’s only appropriate to make
investments in the market and personnel to reflect that opportunity.
As we help midmarket companies make the transition into a virtualised
IT environment with HC3, we look forward to continuing, as well as
expanding, our UK presence and making it a key part of our success
moving into Q4."

The company
transformed its scale-out storage cluster into a hyperconverged
solution that combines servers, storage, and virtualisation into the
first product that delivers virtualised
infrastructure-as-an-appliance. As an integrated appliance, it
eliminates the need to separately purchase virtualisation software,
external servers, and shared storage – resulting in reductions in
costs and complexity. As a scale-out solution, additional compute or
storage resources can be added to a cluster within minutes, with
applications and data failing over between nodes in the event of
equipment failure.

"The
result is a turnkey method to deploy a modern infrastructure,"
said Conte. "Gone
are the days of pulling together a collection of hardware components
and software licenses. For our customers, HC3 delivers a new kind of
solution with fully integrated hardware and software. Applications
can be deployed in minutes, in a scalable and highly available
environment, that eliminates the need to license VMware, purchase a
SAN, or buy traditional servers. HC3 is a cloud architecture,
delivered as an appliance, that provides radical ease-of-use and
flexibility for IT administrators."

"Scale
Computing has seamlessly blended compute virtualisation and storage
management together to such a degree that they’ve reduced virtual
server configuration time by 8x compared to traditional vSphere
infrastructures, and all but eliminated the need for virtualisation
expertise,"
said Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of Validation Services at
the Taneja Group. "In
our assessment, HC3 may take as little as one-tenth the effort to set
up and install compared to traditional infrastructure, one-fourth the
effort to configure and deploy VMs versus traditional infrastructure,
and can eliminate the planning, troubleshooting, and reconfiguration
exercises that can consume as much as 25 to 50% of IT administrator
time in the midmarket."

With over 20
customers and partners participating in the beta program over the
past three months, HC3 users are touting the simplicity and cost
savings.

"We
are extremely impressed with the simplicity of the HC3 product. It
can be managed remotely so we can focus on our core business
responsibilities,"
said Rob Titley, IT Manager, Breedon Aggregates. "The
support and expertise provided by Scale Computing has been invaluable
in supporting our virtualisation strategy."

"Virtualisation
is a highly beneficial tool for all businesses but also a complicated
one,"
commented Jeff Rhys-Jones, Technical director, ACC International.
"HC3
gives us the opportunity to take virtualisation to our customers, all
packaged up in a ready to go infrastructure solution. It is an
additional revenue stream for us and something that our customers are
showing a lot of interest in."

For first-time
virtualisers and small IT departments, a complete 3-node HC3 cluster
capable of 15 – 30 virtual workloads starts
at under £19,449
and includes necessary servers, storage and virtualisation, along
with 24×7 premium support.