Goodwill Central Coast Deploys Scale Computing HC3 Platform

Scale Computing, Inc. announced Goodwill Central Coast (GCC), a regional chapter of the wider Goodwill non-profit retail organisation, has implemented its HC3 Edge platform for its IT infrastructure for in-store across its 20 locations.

HC3 has provided GCC with a simple, affordable, self-healing and hyperconverged virtual solution capable of remote management. 

Spanning 3 counties in Southern California, GCC serves Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo, CA.

Its mission is to provide employment for individuals who face barriers to employment, such as homelessness, military service, single parenting, incarceration, addiction and job displacement. To fund its mission, it is also a retail organisation, which provides job training and funds programs to assist individuals in reclaiming their financial and personal independence. 

As a nonprofit with a small IT staff of 3 people and 20 locations to service, GCC was in need of an affordable virtual HCI solution capable of managing the region’s file systems and databases out of a central database in Salinas, CA. Since this implementation, it has upgraded its point of sale system, increased drive space, saved resources, and saved 15% on the initial IT budget. 

“The cumbersome nature of managing our previous technology led me to look into other solutions, and I’m so glad I found Scale Computing,” said Kevin Waddy, IT director, GCC. “Migration from our previous system was so quick and easy! I migrated 24 file servers to the new Scale Computing solution during the day with little to no downtime, spending 20 minutes on some servers. The training and support during the migration was comprehensive and I’ve had zero issues with the system in the six months I’ve had it in place. HC3 is a single pane of glass that’s easy to manage, and it has saved us so much time on projects.“

Before turning to Scale Computing, GCC was using an outdated legacy virtualisation system that required physical reboots every other month. The nonprofit was looking to save management time by replacing their IT infrastructure with a virtual server system capable of managing remote servers.

Waddy was also interested in looking for a hyperconverged system for its ability to migrate from physical servers to virtual, ultimately turning to Scale Computing for its affordability and ability to maximise uptime. 

“When an organisation is providing a service to its community, the last thing they should worry about is stretching their resources,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing. “For a nonprofit like GCC, saving time and money is critical to the work they do. With Scale Computing HC3, GCC now has a simple, reliable and affordable edge computing solution that is easy to manage with a fully integrated, highly available virtualisation appliance architecture that can be managed locally and remotely.“

With HC3, virtualisation, edge computing, servers, storage and backup/DR have been brought into a single platform. All of the components are built in, including the hypervisor, without the need for any third-party components or licensing. HC3 includes rapid deployment, automated management capabilities, and a single-pane-of-management, helping to streamline and simplify daily tasks, saving time and money.