This post is live-blogged from the Scale ComputingĀ presentation at #VFD4. The structure and organization will undoubtedly be poor, since this is all captured on the fly from our chat. This is the last session of #VFD4 and we’re all exhausted, but still sad to be done š
Overview
Scale was initially founded as a scale-out SAN solution, and then slowly grew into the hyper-coverged offering that they’re known by today. They target SMB and mid-market companies exclusively, and they aim to simply deliver virtual infrastructure to these smaller shops. I mentioned this earlier in the week, and I’ll say it again: their focus is admirable, and I wish more companies had it. Lots SAY they do, but they don’t. I believe Scale really does.
Deep-dive/Demo
We took a stroll through the interface, and saw features that compare to: vMotion, HA, Admission Control, VM-based site to site replication, and more. It absolutely lacks some features that are “enterprise” in nature, but this thing does more than enough for customers in their target market. I’m actually having a hard time writing about this, because I’m so captivated by this solution. During the presentation, I said:
Being such an invested @vmware proponent, I feel a bit guilty liking @ScaleComputing so much š #VFD4
ā James Green (@jdgreen) January 16, 2015
The pricing model is straightforward and simple, and entry is right around $25k for everything. Node types (HC1000, 2000, 4000) can be mixed and matched, which allow you to start small and grow without pain. Clusters can be up to 8 nodes. An 8 node cluster with 256 GB RAM in each node is a sizable cluster; I don’t view this as a limitation because if you scale larger than this, you’re outside Scale’s target market anyhow. Storage data is striped across all the nodes using their proprietary storage architecture called SCRIBE, which we dove into a bit. They did a very deep dive on SCRIBE at Storage Field Day 5, and you can view the recording of thatĀ HERE.
Before we wrapped up, we got to do the fun stuff! We started pulling cables and watching what happened, and how the system handled things like recovery. Yes, of course, an HA failover is nothing new, but seeing how we would utilize the Availability features of the product was nice.
And that puts a bow on Virtualization Field Day 4! Everyone has been awesome, I am exhausted, and all of our brains are mush by now. Thank you to Stephen, Tom, Claire, and all the sponsors and delegates for making this event happen! It’s always awesome!
