Scale Computing, the leading provider of hyperconverged solutions, today announced that two of
Auburn University's
colleges have deployed its HC3 virtualization platform to help overcome
their aging existing infrastructure while minimizing the complexity and
costs of managing their IT environments.
Auburn University has developed into one of the largest universities in the South. With more than 25,000 students, Auburn University
offers more than 140 degree options in 13 schools and colleges at the
undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. Like most institutions
of higher education, each college within Auburn University
functions autonomously from one another with the respective dean
deciding how to appropriate their respective budgets and staff various
departments in the best interests of its students and programs.
The College of Architecture, Design & Construction decided to streamline its IT department, elevating Joel Beckum
to IT Coordinator from a position of desktop support. While Beckum had
experience in managing and supporting the applications used in the
department, he had little experience with back-end infrastructure.
After surveying the college's IT infrastructure that was a couple of
generations old, Beckum reached out to Phil Forrest,
Information Technology Manger for the College of Sciences and
Mathematics, to consult on how best to modernize within the imposed
fiscal and personnel restraints.
Forrest,
likewise, found his college's existing hardware was starting to show
its age. He needed a server platform that could handle the complexities
of VMware View along with other diverse applications and could be
managed by his small staff of IT personnel. With the authorization of
both colleges' deans to work together, the two IT administrators sought
to find an emerging solution on the market that would be appropriate for
organizations of their size.
"After
some due diligence, I talked to several vendors," said Beckum. "What
Scale Computing told me really, really interested me. Scale's HC3
solution does everything that I need it to. It simplifies my network
infrastructure so that I can be an expert. I was a desktop support guy
who's now a system admin. Scale makes me look like a pro. As far as my
users know, I'm a genius."
"With
three people supporting 5,000 users – and no money for additional
personnel – I had to find a solution that was super simple," said
Forrest. "Scale hits the sweet spot with what's possible. With its
built-in hypervisor, I don't have to deal with or pay another vendor."
Both
colleges implemented Scale Computing's HC3 platform, which brings
storage, servers, virtualization and management together in a single,
comprehensive system. With no virtualization software to license and no
external storage to buy, HC3 products lower out-of-pocket costs and
radically simplify the infrastructure needed to keep applications
running. HC3 products make the deployment and management of a highly
available and scalable infrastructure as easy to manage as a single
server.
"Educational institutions, like the colleges of Auburn University, are increasingly finding that they have to do more with less," said Jeff Ready,
CEO at Scale Computing. "Rather than purchase servers, install
virtualization software, configure management tools, implement a SAN or
NAS, and network the bundle together, we were able to bring all these
divergent layers and systems together into a single platform. HC3 was
able to simplify management and reduce costs while providing the high
availability and scalability each college needed."