Scale Computing was recently named one of the 40 Coolest SDS Vendors in the industry by CRN. The recognition is a subset of the publication’s inaugural Storage 100 list for 2020. In CRN’s words, the Storage 100 is made up of “the best, brightest, and most innovative providers of storage technology for solution providers,” and the 40 Coolest SDS vendors on that list “bring software capabilities, services, and cloud connectivity to storage technology.”
CRN recognized the HC3 platform for combining servers, software, and virtualization into a single offering. CRN also noted that Scale Computing HC3 can replace traditional IT silos of virtualization software, disaster recovery software, servers, and shared storage with a fully integrated, highly available platform for running applications.
How does this work, exactly? The Scale Computing HC3 System, the HyperCore hypervisor, and the Scale Computing Reliable Independent Block Engine (SCRIBE) storage layer were designed to provide highly available, scalable compute, and storage services while maintaining operational simplicity through highly intelligent software automation and architecture simplification.
What makes Scale Computing unique among hyperconverged infrastructure vendors as well as other storage vendors is that the SCRIBE storage layer is purpose-built to make storage incredibly easy to manage. With the HC3 HyperCore hypervisor and the embedded SCRIBE storage layer, there is no manual storage configuration by the user other than defining virtual disks for virtual machines. No storage groups, storage pools, or virtual storage appliances (VSAs) to configure.
Unlike other solutions that try to emulate legacy SAN or NAS technologies, Scale Computing has embedded storage directly into the virtualization hypervisor without requiring bulky and resource-draining VSAs. Eliminating the VSAs takes away an inefficient storage “middle-man” and allows the VMs to access storage blocks directly, without any extra storage protocols.
HyperCore adds intelligent automation to the hypervisor and storage layers and was designed to take advantage of low cost, easily replaceable, and upgradeable “commodity” hardware components including the virtualization capabilities built into modern CPU architectures. By clustering these components together into a single, unified, and redundant system, the architecture creates a flexible and complete “datacenter-in-a-box.” HyperCore operates as a redundant and elastic private “cloud” that scales seamlessly with the automatic incorporation of additional nodes and handles hardware failures gracefully with minimal effort or disruption.
HC3 and HyperCore are based on a 64-bit, hardened, and proven OS kernel and leverage a mixture of patented proprietary and adapted open source components for a truly hyperconverged product. All components—storage, virtualization, software, and hardware—interface directly through the HyperCore hypervisor and SCRIBE storage layers to create an ideal computing platform that can be deployed anywhere from the data center to the edge of the network.
Scale Computing customers and partners often talk about how simple it is to use the HC3 platform, and how available and reliable it is. Our HC3 technology is simple to use because of the innovative software-defined storage we developed to ensure end users can focus on strategic IT projects instead of maintenance of existing systems.
It’s always exciting to receive this sort of industry accolade, as it further validates Scale Computing’s leadership in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions. Of course, the real proof of our success comes from a more important source: our many customers who tell us how much they rely on HC3 for the stability and reliability needs of their business. To learn more about our HC3 virtualization platform, read here.