Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs Scale Computing HC3 comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) and Scale Computing HC3 based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two HCI solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Scale Computing HC3 Report (Updated: March 2023).
685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The main benefit is that StarWind is almost maintenance-free.""The virtual tapes can be uploaded to the object storage of your choice with object locking/governance which gives you an extra layer of protection.""The vSAN provides full redundancy for storage while reclaiming some rack space.""The support has been amazing and quick to reply.""The solution is also quite flexible. As an example, other vSAN solutions that we looked at had more stringent requirements regarding mixed HDD/SSD storage which wouldn't have worked in our environment.""It has great free trials that allow end users to test a large variety of their products before deciding to buy the full product.""The ROI is great on this product.""The StarWind Virtual SAN provides a clever and unique solution to the Computing Split Brain problem."

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"The stability is good. This is the number-one product in that regard.""It offers very useful data protection.""I have found the solution to be stable.""The most valuable feature I have found to be the Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV).""The most valuable feature is Move, which allows you to migrate virtual machines from VM to AHV.""You need to send commands through the command-line interface(CLI). This could be improved. The commands are done better in VMware.""The most valuable features are easy cloud administration and management.""This is a very flexible solution that you are able to run however you want."

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"The solution is scalable.""I rate Scale Computing support 10 out of 10. They're accessible and responsive.""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.""The most valuable features are the appliance-type feel and that you don't need additional licenses as everything is built-in."

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Cons
"The system failovers properly on its own without too much worry.""I see no need for major improvements but there could be some improvements in the form of notifications and the simplifying of maintenance mode.""A web management interface would be good, especially for those coming from other solutions that have one.""Android app for monitoring and receiving push notifications as alarms or monitoring I/O from any mobile device could be a good feature and nice to have as we are not always on our desk.""I wish the sync after a failure, such as hardware failure or power-related issues, for example, was faster.""It would be helpful if StarWind provided more precise and detailed documentation explaining how to configure the solution in various scenarios, including the advantages and disadvantages of each.""This is a great product.""The setup and documentation for the installation with the free version could definitely be improved."

More StarWind Virtual SAN Cons →

"Deployment could be more user-friendly - currently, it requires certain skills with the network and nodes.""Nutanix Acropolis AOS is new technology in a competitive market. Pricing is too high for a new product and requires better discounts to be able to compete with IBM, Dell EMC, and HP.""In the next release of this solution, they could improve by being more competitive with VMware. I would like all third-party solutions to work well with Nutanix Acropolis AOS.""Storage utilization and optimization should be better.""There are other services that Nutanix has that could be improved, but I'm not very familiar with the other services of Nutanix, such as Era and Flow. However, they seem a bit hard for us to implement and integrate with the Nutanix Acropolis AOS and other Nutanix tools. We would not dare to implement those other Nutanix solutions into Nutanix Acropolis AOS right now. The implementation of that tool could be the problem, I am a bit hesitant to implement the other tools into Nutanix Acropolis AOS.""The process of migrating from old hardware to new could improve.""It was not a great fit for really large databases that required high-end or lots of compute. They might already have addressed this concern around very high-end databases that require high-end compute. In the past, it wasn't a great fit for them.""In Thailand, there really isn't a cloud version of Nutanx available to us."

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"The product struggles to cope with bigger workloads. In the next release, I'd like some backup solutions to be added.""Scale HC3 improvements would involve literally fixing up the replication.""Scale Computing HC3 said in an announcement they were going to integrate with a backup service which would be good. If they could do this it would be beneficial.""The snapshot technology takes up 500 times more space compared to other solutions.""I would like bigger clusters with more than eight nodes."

More Scale Computing HC3 Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The StarWind VSAN business model is very cost-effective."
  • "This solution has competitive prices and the implementation is very easy."
  • "StarWind is a low-cost, full-featured alternative to the traditional SAN environment, and their support will guide you every step of the setup."
  • "The support contract is well worth it. The price for it was very reasonable and their team has been very engaged whenever we reach out."
  • "This solution is very accessible and the pro-level for support is well worth the cost."
  • "We found that the pricing was perfect; simple and clear."
  • "For two nodes, it cost us $10,000, and we spend $2,000 a year on support."
  • "If you are looking at a traditional SAN for a small cluster, give StarWind vSAN because you will save thousands without any compromise."
  • More StarWind Virtual SAN Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "There is a license required for this solution and my clients usually purchase a two-year license with extended support. The price of the solution could be reduced, it is more expensive than competitors."
  • "The price of the solution is high."
  • "The pricing is quite good in comparison with HPE SimpliVity, Nutanix Scale, and even traditional architecture."
  • "When compared to the competitors, the price is reasonable."
  • "The cost of Nutanix Acropolis AOS is reasonable."
  • "We got the renewal done recently, and there was no cost involved."
  • "The price of the solution could improve. Nutanix has recently changed its pricing model from perpetual to subscription. They have identified there are challenges with the pricing model."
  • "This product is expensive, but they do have discounts. At one point, I saw that they were giving a 70% or 80% discount, which is a good thing, but maybe they should have a more realistic price and then a 5% to 10% discount."
  • More Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "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."
  • "I give the pricing a nine out of ten."
  • More Scale Computing HC3 Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:The most valuable features are high availability and real-time replication between two servers.
    Top Answer:The StarWind Management Console is available only for Microsoft Windows/Windows Server, and should also be available for… more »
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface… more »
    Top Answer: Cisco HyperFlex HS series vs Nutanix Acropolis AOS Cisco HyperFlex gives extended hyper-convergence functions… more »
    Top Answer:We found the reduced power consumption with Nutanix Acropolis AOS a very attractive feature. We also like the interface… more »
    Top Answer:The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
    Top Answer:If you need to scale, you need to buy more nodes, and those are not cheap at all. They are very expensive.
    Top Answer:I've had so many issues with support. I've had so many issues with the sales team when I was looking to make some… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Nutanix Acropolis AOS, Nutanix AOS, Nutanix Acropolis
    Learn More
    Overview

    For SMB, ROBO, Cloud and Hosting providers, who look to cut down virtualization expenses, our solution is StarWind VSAN. It is software that eliminates any need in physical shared storage by basically “mirroring” internal hard disks and flash between hypervisor servers. There is less hardware to buy in general, consequently less money is spent on purchase and maintenance. The existing hardware is used with maximum efficiency, so there is no money wasted at all.

    StarWind Virtual SAN targets those who already have servers, or are bound to a particular vendor list to buy from. In case there is a new virtualization infrastructure to be built from scratch, StarWind offers a much better way – StarWind HyperConverged Appliance. It is a turnkey solution complete with hardware and software, powered by StarWind Virtual SAN. Those who need to build and maintain virtualization infrastructure at little to no expense, may be interested in StarWind Virtual SAN Free.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is a top-ranking HCI software, cloud management tool, and Software Defined Storage (SDS) tool that is marketed as the foundation for users' hybrid clouds. It offers a powerful and secure hyperconverged infrastructure to deliver all data and applications at any scale and on any cloud. The solution offers a complete software stack that allows users to unify their hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

    NCI’s services include computer, storage and network, hypervisors and containers, and deployment in public or in private clouds. The product also comes with built-in resilience, disaster recovery capabilities, self-healing, and high-security capacities. It provides further deployment flexibility through several software and hardware options and platforms. NCI includes a full set of enterprise capabilities. It can also be deployed on a wide range of servers from popular manufacturers.

    The capabilities of the product are categorized into three main groups:

    • AOS storage
    • Flexible and open compute
    • Automated and secure networking

    Outside of these categories, NCI also offers other capabilities:

    • Integrated disaster recovery
    • Full-stack lifecycle management
    • VMware with Nutanix
    • Intelligent operations

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Features

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers its customers various features and tools in each of the previously mentioned categories. The available features for users currently include:

    • High-performance: This set of features utilizes hardware advances such as NVMe and RDMA to accelerate users' most demanding applications with consistent performance. The tools in this feature category work alongside data locality to ensure successful results.

    • Foolproof resiliency: These Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure features protect data and keep it available by facilitating advanced distributed consistency algorithms. Users can utilize these features to protect their data from issues like bit rot, hardware failures, and even entire site failure.

    • Flexibility: This set of features allows storage to be sized for the needs of each organization and expanded promptly and easily so that the organization and its data can grow. The features offer flexibility to users in terms of applying storage policies logically on a pre-workload basis, instead of being tied to hardware.

    • Hypervisor choice: Users can choose from the leading hypervisors - Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi. They can also leverage the built-in hypervisor AHV that Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides.

    • Integrated virtualization: These features offer simplified automation and AHV streamlined operations. The services in this category are optimized for high performance and reliability.

    • Kubernetes: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to build and deploy cloud-native applications on intelligent distributed infrastructure. Apps can be integrated with cloud-compatible storage and both building and deployment can be achieved within the same platform.

    • Microsegmentation: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) offers features to prevent malware spread and reduce attack surfaces by leveraging machine learning (ML).

    • Virtual networking: This set of features allows users to easily implement multi-tenancy in their environment or stretch networks across clouds.

    • Centralized network management: Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides organizations with a way to manage networking configurations centrally. Users can utilize it across their human-computer interaction (HCI) environment with simple virtual switch management.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) Benefits

    The product offers various benefits to users who utilize its capacities. Some of these include:

    • NCI reduces technology sprawl and frees up technical resources to allow organizations to focus on other activities, potentially reducing costs for the business.

    • The product allows customers to deploy, scale, and bridge to the public cloud to be able to react in evolving business environments.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure improves data availability while simultaneously protecting it against several kinds of failures and attacks.

    • The solution offers high-performance, resilient distributed storage for all workloads.

    • Working alongside Nutanix Cloud Platform, NCI offers simple management of data from one console.

    • Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure works by the zero trust philosophy, protecting users' apps and data through specially designed security protocols.

    Reviews from Real Users

    According to Gerhard J., an IT manager at Q4 Fuel, Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) provides serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI.

    A solutions architect at a computer software company describes NCI as a stable, straightforward to set up, and scalable solution.

    HC3 is an appliance-based hyperconverged infrastructure solution. HC3 combines servers, storage, virtualization, and backup/disaster recovery into a single appliance. This hyperconvergence of technologies radically simplifies IT infrastructure making it easier to implement and manage and significantly reduces the total cost of ownership of infrastructure. The HC3 hyperconverged appliance approach allows seamless, non-disruptive infrastructure scale out and automated, non-disruptive software and firmware updates. Our customers choose HC3 to reduce complexity and cost from IT infrastructure so they can focus their IT administration on improving applications and process rather than managing and maintaining complex infrastructure.

    Offer
    30-days for free

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    Learn more about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI)
    Learn more about Scale Computing HC3
    Sample Customers
    Baker Tilly BVI, CMS Internet, Board Harpeth Hall School
    St. Lukes Health System, the City of Seattle, Yahoo! Japan, Sligro, Empire Life, Hyundai AUS, and many others.
    Edgetec Systems, Triton School Corporation, Anamosa Community School District, Standard School District, Iron County School District, Sevier County Bank, St. Richard’s Catholic College, Stoke Park School and Community Technology College, City of St. Cloud Minnesota, Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, KIB Electronics, Chaitons LLP, Reading Muhlenberg Career & Technology Center, Penlon, American College of Education, Steel Summit Holdings, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Canadian Museum of History, Canadian War Museum
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company11%
    Educational Organization9%
    Construction Company9%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government9%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company16%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Energy/Utilities Company9%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government9%
    Educational Organization7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Educational Organization16%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise22%
    Large Enterprise15%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business25%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise57%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business39%
    Midsize Enterprise29%
    Large Enterprise32%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business22%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise58%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise44%
    Buyer's Guide
    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Scale Computing HC3
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Scale Computing HC3 and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    685,707 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is ranked 1st in HCI with 74 reviews while Scale Computing HC3 is ranked 20th in HCI with 5 reviews. Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is rated 8.6, while Scale Computing HC3 is rated 7.0. The top reviewer of Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) writes "Serious reliability and stability across the entire system makes for ROI". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Scale Computing HC3 writes "Fast with excellent stability and fantastic technical support". Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) is most compared with VxRail, VMware vSAN, HPE SimpliVity, VMware vSphere and KVM, whereas Scale Computing HC3 is most compared with VMware vSAN, VxRail, Sangfor HCI, HPE SimpliVity and StorMagic SvSAN. See our Nutanix Cloud Infrastructure (NCI) vs. Scale Computing HC3 report.

    See our list of best HCI vendors.

    We monitor all HCI reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.