Azure Local vs Scale Computing Platform comparison

Microsoft and Scale Computing are both solutions in the HCI category. Microsoft is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.6, while Scale Computing is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.5. Microsoft holds a 3.2% mindshare in HCI, compared to Scale Computing’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Scale Computing users who would recommend it.

Azure Local

Read 8 Azure Local reviews

1,633 Views
1,633 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Scale Computing Platform

Read 9 Scale Computing Platform reviews

1,867 Views
1,251 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Azure Local

Scale Computing Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 21, 2026

Scale Computing Platform and Azure Local are competitors in the infrastructure management domain. Scale Computing leads in pricing and support, while Azure Local's extensive features justify its higher cost for many organizations.

Features: Scale Computing Platform offers seamless integration, efficient resource management, and minimized need for additional licenses, catering to small to mid-sized enterprises. Azure Local provides expansive cloud capabilities, supports Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and allows infrastructure as code deployment, appealing to larger businesses seeking advanced functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Scale Computing could enhance its feature set to cater better to larger enterprises and provide more scalability options. It would also benefit from expanding its ecosystem support and improving integration with cloud services. Azure Local can improve on simplifying the migration process from VMware, reduce complexity in its deployment process, and enhance its beta migration tool for better conversion efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Local offers a scalable deployment model with extensive customer service infrastructure, facilitating enterprise setups. Scale Computing provides a simplified and rapid deployment suitable for smaller setups, focusing on direct user support. Azure's broad support network and customization options provide a competitive edge in managing complex environments.

Pricing and ROI: Scale Computing presents a cost-effective solution with lower initial setup costs and quicker ROI, ideal for organizations with limited budgets. Azure Local involves higher initial investments but delivers a versatile platform capable of yielding significant returns through enterprise-level integrations and scalability. The decision often depends on budget constraints versus long-term strategic value.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Local vs. Scale Computing Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Local vs. Scale Computing Platform

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azure Local

Ranking in HCI

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Scale Computing Platform

Ranking in HCI

16th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Edge Computing Platforms (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the HCI category, the mindshare of Azure Local is 3.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Scale Computing Platform is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

HCI Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Azure Stack HCI	3.2%
Scale Computing Platform	2.2%
Other	94.6%

HCI

Featured Reviews

Martin Coloumbe

IT Solution Architect at a educational organization with 11-50 employees

Experience with seamless cost-saving capacity, though integration and support need refinement

An area that could be possibly improved with Azure Stack HCI is the stretched cluster functionality, which was included in version 23H2 for disaster recovery purposes. However, this functionality has been put on hold for the next release, and Microsoft has decided to discontinue stretched cluster technology completely, which is disappointing. They promise to bring back a significant or similar solution in a future release, but currently, there is no such functionality for stretched clusters between two sites in the latest versions of Azure Stack HCI, which poses a problem as we were looking forward to utilizing it. The integration with Azure Arc provides a unified management experience, but I find it to be fairly clunky. The integration exists, but it is not smooth or very easy to use. While they've started to integrate the two, the integration lacks maturity and makes it difficult to manage effectively. There are discrepancies between managing VMs through Azure Arc versus managing them directly, as changes made not using the Azure Arc integration are not easily reflected in Azure Arc. For instance, if I have an Arc-enabled VM and make changes to it outside the Arc interface, those changes may not be registered directly in Azure Arc, leading to issues in fully viewing the status and configuration of VMs depending on the management tool used. You either manage VMs fully through Arc or not at all because mixing the two methods results in incomplete visibility and inconsistencies.

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AbdulSattar

Channel Sales Manager at Softech Microsystems

Extremely easy to learn and use for beginners

Some features go well with other tools like VMware, where making something on the fly or making some changes on the fly in the area of memory or something is possible. On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area. Being able to make some changes on the fly is very risky, but even then, you see customers saying since it is an area that is not possible with Scale Computing HC3, it is better to go with some other tools. My company convinces our customers that opting for another solution is not required since a tool that allows us to make some changes on the fly can be very risky, and it is also not something that fits in according to certain policies or good practices.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Azure Local, formerly known as Azure Stack HCI, is gaining attention due to its offering of a cloud experience on-premises."

"In my hybrid cloud setup, there are three features I've found very efficient. The first is software-defined networking. Similar to Azure where you create virtual networks and software load balancing, Azure Stack HCI lets you configure them with a drag-and-drop experience on the on-premises cluster. That's one of the good feature."

"Some of the best features of Azure Stack HCI are that, as we are primarily a Microsoft Windows Server organization using Microsoft Windows Server on most of our servers, we already own data center licenses for Microsoft operating systems, and the hypervisor, Azure Stack HCI, actually comes with that license, which allows us to switch from VMware to Azure Stack HCI without any additional cost, significantly reducing our operational costs, especially now that Broadcom has purchased VMware, to $0."

"The integration with Azure using Azure Arc is excellent."

"The scalability is extremely good."

"The solution has the latest processor."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its ability to manage VMs."

"Azure Stack HCI has been very beneficial for disaster recovery operations, though the main data center still has a mix of infrastructure between other products."

More Azure Local pros

"The product's initial setup phase is too easy."

"The solution is scalable."

"It gives the ease of management for a small IT department."

"I like that Scale Computing HCR is slimmed down and gives me the features I need and not features that I don't need."

"I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the nice GUI."

"The most valuable feature of Scale Computing HC3 is if one of the devices fails, you won't even notice, the service maintains operation. The customers don't have to waste two, or three days on delays. Additionally, you do not have to waste time with recovery software, it is a lot easier."

More Scale Computing Platform pros

Cons

"The implementation was very difficult for the operation team at that time, as the necessary skills to implement and integrate this product were not available."

"There are a lot of areas for improvement. Since I've been working very closely with this product, there are many areas, especially in software-defined networking. We had to improve multiple areas because we depended on the service fabric cluster to manage the software-defined network. That means we're already running a hypervisor inside a VM, and we're managing the control plane of the software-defined network. That's another cluster. So, multiple layers make the complexity more. So, from an operational perspective, it's very difficult to manage."

"The biggest challenge with the tool is not being able to manage everything from Microsoft Azure Portal."

"Hyper V seems to lag behind compared to VMware."

"We faced multiple problems with the product’s stability."

"A little bit of the storage architecture could be improved."

"The product's initial setup phase can be a bit complex, making it an area where improvements are required."

"On the fly, you cannot do anything on Scale Computing HC3, though it is a very rarely needed area."

"There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node"

"The product could use a better control center."

"Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication."

"I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."

"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added."

"I've had so many issues with the sales team when I was looking to make some improvements, and improve the performance. They would create so many excuses to force me to buy new nodes all the time and not let me add more memory to each node."

"The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions."

More Scale Computing Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is high compared to other tools."

"The main licenses are the OS licenses, the OEM licenses, and so on. They are very much aligned with the cost of expectations. We never had any challenges with the licensing at all."

"The product is worth the money, but I would not say it's very cheap or very expensive."

"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."

"I pay for Scale Computing HC3 and it includes customer service for one year. We paid for an additional year for customer service but that includes the updates and everything for the software. Additionally, the licensing is for Windows, which is the same for everybody."

"rate HC3's pricing a five out of ten since it is affordable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Government

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Stack HCI?

The solution has the latest processor.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Stack HCI?

This solution costs €10 per core per month. The whole stack is free if you are renting Windows Server Datacenter.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Stack HCI?

There could be improvements with Azure Stack HCI regarding the license and price, as they have significantly higher prices compared to other competitors. The end-to-end encryption provided by Azure...

See all answers

What do you like most about Scale Computing HC3?

The product's initial setup phase is too easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Scale Computing HC3?

It fit our budget, so it was great.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Scale Computing HC3?

There could be an easier way to see which servers are on each node. It shows you a small graphical interface, but you have to see them all, and you have to really struggle to figure out which nodes...

See all answers

Comparisons

Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Azure Local

Compared 25% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Azure Local

Compared 24% of the time

VxRail vs Azure Local

Compared 7% of the time

Dell PowerFlex vs Azure Local

Compared 5% of the time

HPE Hyper Converged vs Azure Local

Compared 5% of the time

More Azure Local Competitors

Verge.io vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 11% of the time

Proxmox VE vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 8% of the time

VMware vSphere vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 6% of the time

VMware vSAN vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Dell NativeEdge vs Scale Computing Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More Scale Computing Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Local

January 2026

Download Azure Local product report

Buyer's Guide

HCI

December 2025

Download Scale Computing Platform product report

Also Known As

No data available

Scale Computing HC3

Overview

Azure Local integrates on-premises infrastructure with cloud services, offering tools for software-defined networking, Kubernetes deployment, and VM management. It ensures cost efficiency through existing Microsoft licenses and robust disaster recovery, despite some complexities in deployment.

Azure Local is designed for businesses needing a blend of local and cloud services while remaining compliant with data privacy regulations. It excels in environments demanding high computing power, software-defined networking, and seamless scaling through Azure Kubernetes Service and Azure DevOps. Although it offers excellent VM management and analytics capabilities with Microsoft Fabric, deployment complexity and operational challenges remain. Businesses looking for a robust edge computing solution find significant benefits, especially with efficient local Azure storage and advanced hardware such as the latest processors and SSDs. There are areas needing improvements like multi-cluster management, stability, and Initial setup, which can be cumbersome. Pricing can be a concern against competitors, and enhanced support and training are needed for smoother user experience.

What are the key features of Azure Local?

Software-Defined Networking: Facilitates management with drag-and-drop setup.
Kubernetes Deployment: Provides Azure Kubernetes Service for managing microservices.
VM Management: Reduces server count and enhances efficiency.
Integration with Azure Arc: Seamless collaboration with Azure Arc for hybrid deployments.
Infrastructure as Code: Utilizes Azure DevOps for deployment.
Analytics Capabilities: Microsoft Fabric enhances insights and decision-making.

What benefits should businesses expect from Azure Local?

Cost Efficiency: Leverages existing Microsoft licenses for financial savings.
Improved Disaster Recovery: Advanced edge computing features bolster resiliency.
High Performance: Enhanced by the latest processors and SSDs for demanding applications.
Seamless Cloud Integration: Smooth transition capabilities between local and cloud environments.

Azure Local finds application in sectors like manufacturing and maritime operations where robust edge computing helps in seamless data management and analytics. Factories benefit from compliance with data privacy rules while blended local and cloud services improve efficiency on ships, providing an alternative to VMware with support for virtual desktops and SQL Managed Instances.

Microsoft

Scale Computing Platform is renowned for swift setup, stability, and performance. It provides a seamless user experience with integrated licenses and efficient management, catering to small IT departments.

Scale Computing Platform offers a user-friendly GUI and delivers superior performance with exceptional read/write speeds, outperforming competitors like Nutanix. It eliminates the need for additional recovery software and simplifies licensing. Users note its simplicity and efficiency over VMware, Nutanix, and HPE SimpliVity. However, there is a need for improved support, better upgrade processes, and more integration with external backup services. The platform faces challenges with larger workloads, with snapshot technology requiring optimization. Enhancements are needed in dashboard usability and node visibility, and users seek flexibility for on-the-fly changes.

What are the key features of Scale Computing Platform?

Ease of Setup: Simplifies installation, making it accessible for small IT teams.
Fast Performance: Provides superior read/write speeds compared to others.
Built-In Licenses: Integrates necessary licenses, reducing complexity.
User-Friendly GUI: Facilitates efficient management for IT departments.
Scalability: Adapts easily to growing business needs without hassle.

What benefits or ROI should users anticipate?

Stability: Ensures reliable system performance for continuous operations.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces need for additional software, offering a cost-effective solution.
Resource Management: Enhances prioritization and management of virtual machines.
User Satisfaction: Provides an appliance-like experience with minimal hassles.

Implementing Scale Computing Platform in industries supports virtualization needs for organizations operating with fewer than thirty VMs. It's commonly used for hosting internal servers, executing POCs, and running applications like SAGE Computer and QuickBooks. The platform aids businesses in creating private clouds, supporting efficient resource management and enhancing server operations, particularly with Acronis Backup.

Scale Computing

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Resorts World Las Vegas, Stena, Telford Offshore, Goodwill, Sandals, Jerry's Enterprises, Mendard's Royal Farms, Delhaize, Benchmark Electronics, Classic Hotels, Genting Casino, Lindt, Sainsbury's, Landmark Cinemas, Golden Queen Mining, Coca Cola. Holiday Inn, Iron County School District, Sevier County Bank, City of St. Cloud Minnesota, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, KIB Electronics, Brake Masters, Lincoln County Hospital, Ohio Summit County Board of Elections

Buyer's Guide

Azure Local vs. Scale Computing Platform

December 2025

Free Report: Azure Local vs. Scale Computing Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Local vs. Scale Computing Platform and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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