Best posts made by scale

@kelsey our latest blog post might be useful for your class as well:

https://mangolassi.it/topic/16198/4-it-pitfalls-to-avoid-in-2018

Pretty high level overview, but a brief insight into what managers are being told in the media about hyperconvergence.

Recent ransomware attacks called WannaCry and Petya have been making headlines. They are demonstrating just how vulnerable many computer systems are to attack. Tens of thousands of systems have been affected by these ransomware attacks and they should be making you consider how vulnerable your systems are.

The type of ransomware attack used by WannaCry and Petya encrypt data, making it unreadable, and then demand payment to decrypt the data. They both attacked a vulnerability exposed in Windows operating systems that were not updated to a sufficiently recent patch level. While your systems may not have these specific vulnerabilities, it is impossible to prepare for every new or existing vulnerability that may be the target of the next attack. In addition to making your systems less vulnerable to attack, it’s a pretty good idea to have a plan for how to deal with a successful attack on your systems.

http://blog.scalecomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/wannacry-screencap_thumb800.jpg

Who is most vulnerable?
In this particular case, Windows users. Windows servers and more importantly Windows Hyper-V servers were vulnerable. A Hyper-V server being hit by ransomware can cripple a small business and do serious damage to larger businesses. Small businesses really take the brunt of these attacks because even one server or one virtual host can represent nearly the entire business IT infrastructure.

What are the options?
Worst Case: Total Data Loss

You lose your data and start over. If you didn’t have a good backup or no backup at all, you may have just lost your data. No one wants to be in this situation. It could literally be the end of a business trying to recover from this type of total loss.

Recover from Backup

You may have a good backup of your data and you can recover it. Great. When was the backup taken? Last night? What is the cost of the lost data since then? How long does it take to recover onto a clean system? What is the cost of the lost productivity while recovering? These costs can be high.

Recover from a VM Snapshot

If the machine that was affected was a virtual machine running Windows, you may have been taking regularly scheduled snapshots of the VM and you can revert to a snapshot of the entire VM from before the ransomware infected the system. The recovery time here is very short and the amount of data loss depends on how often you are taking snapshots. This is probably the best case scenario, unless the hypervisor was Hyper-V and it also got hit by the ransomware. Then you are in bad shape.

Pay the Ransom?

For Petya, which demanded $300 in bitcoin, a few actually paid the ransom before the contact email was shut down, closing off that option for the rest of the victims. Even those who do pay have no guarantee of getting their data back according to Forbes.com. Even if you were guaranteed to get your data back, it is not a good option, no matter how much economic sense it makes, because it rewards the perpetrators.

What can you do?
If you are a small business, you might be using Hyper-V because it is a popular choice for virtualization at a low cost. You might also not have the budget to employ a full-time IT staffer to make sure your systems are up to date against the latest threats. Still, being prepared for attacks like ransomware may be easier and more cost-effective than you might think.

Consider HC3 hyperconverged infrastructure from Scale Computing. Our virtualization platform combines server and storage hardware with virtualization into an easy-to-use appliance. With HC3, you can rest more easily knowing that with our snapshot technology and other security features, you can easily restore VMs from ransomware and other virus attacks quickly and easily.

HC3 is not out of your budget. Our appliances are comparable in price to traditional server hardware and you can start with just a single appliance if that is all you need. Our solution is cheaper than traditional virtualization architectures that require external storage like SAN or NAS and are easier to deploy and manage. If you are concerned about how these ransomware attacks and other security threats seem to becoming a way of life, check out what HC3 can do to help protect your business.

http://blog.scalecomputing.com/wannacry-petya-whats-next-are-you-at-risk/

CRN had an article this week talking about how they are seeing players in the market decide to use hyperconvergence as a means of providing cloud-like power and flexibility on premises instead of going to traditional public cloud. We love to see this in the market, of course. HCI is a great way of getting the power and flexibility that you want without having to connect over the Internet, trust or learn another vendor, deal with WAN redundancy and so forth. And with public cloud OPEX pricing, you can often build powerful HCI for a fraction of the price and use traditional CAPEX more often.

What do you guys think about HCI as a public cloud alternative for many businesses?

Mostly a fluff piece, but it shows that HCI has the industry's ear and this is the direction that things are heading, as CIO.com takes a look at why you should be hyped up for hyperconvergence (yeah, it's a tough word play, we know.) Just a short article, but looks at how having everything baked in and be just what you need.

Join us to find out more about the two new HC3 appliance models and HyperCore version 7.3. We are very excited to share details on bigger, faster, and more efficient storage in the newest additions to the HC3 family of appliances. Find out how our HC3 management features are also getting bigger and better.

• New HC1150DF and HC5150D
• New Deduplication
• New Multi-User Management
• New Remote Cluster Management

Register Now

Date and time: Thursday, August 3, 2017 12:00 pm
Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)

Thursday, August 3, 2017 11:00 am
Central Daylight Time (Chicago, GMT-05:00)

Thursday, August 3, 2017 10:00 am
Mountain Daylight Time (Denver, GMT-06:00)

Thursday, August 3, 2017 9:00 am
Pacific Daylight Time (San Francisco, GMT-07:00)

It would be really nice if there was a "River Cruise" badge!

@nerdydad said in Scale River Boat Tour at SpiceWorld Austin 2017:

@scale said in Scale River Boat Tour at SpiceWorld Austin 2017:

It would be really nice if there was a "River Cruise" badge!

Wrong forum? Does this belong in SW?

Did you read the badge discussion above?

It has been a busy week over here with so much going on in the news with our big Google partnership announcement. A little write up in Channelnomics this week:

https://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/3018371/scale-computing-ceo-pushes-partner-advantages-of-google-collab

Registration is open:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scale-computing-boatbat-tour-2017-spiceworld-tickets-38648213848

It is going fast so sign up quickly.

In the last few years, we’ve enjoyed a wide variety of options for IT infrastructure including public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, hyperconverged infrastructure, and more. Despite these many options, a new need has arisen in the form of edge computing. What is edge computing and why is it needed? I’m glad you asked.

What is it? Edge computing is the necessity for on-prem IT infrastructure resources outside of the typical datacenter. These edge computing resource needs are small, not requiring a full datacenter or even a small datacenter implementation. Edge computing may require infrastructure as small as an IoT device, or infrastructure as large as a micro-datacenter of multiple compute appliances.

If you are imagining edge computing in the context of remote office/branch office computing, you aren’t wrong, but edge computing can also be adjacent to manufacturing systems, medical equipment, point of sales, IoT devices, and more. The needs of edge computing are widespread across every industry.

But why edge computing and not simply cloud? Cloud computing has many benefits, especially scalability and elasticity, however the almighty cloud is not without its limits. Chief among these limits are internet connectivity and latency. On-prem infrastructure assets for edge computing provide more reliable performance and connectivity to keep systems operational even if internet connectivity fails.

Unlike full datacenter implementations, edge computing is small enough to not warrant dedicated IT staff, therefore the infrastructure needs to be easy to implement and manage, as well as easily connected back to the primary datacenter and even the cloud as needed. These requirements are what make hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) technology well-suited to edge computing.

Introducing HC3 Edge. Scale Computing was not only one of the first to provide HCI solutions, but has become a market leader by providing solutions small enough and at a low enough cost to satisfy the needs of some of the smallest businesses. HC3 systems are not only known for being low cost, but also for being extremely easy to manage and easily scalable.

http://blog.scalecomputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/scale_hc3_edge.png

HC3 Edge is a range of customized HC3 systems that can be as small as an IoT device with an Intel Atom processor or range up to a multi-appliance micro-datacenter. The advantage of HC3 for edge computing is a combination of the efficient performance, ease of use, and integration with public cloud and private cloud HC3 systems.

Not a stripped-down system, HC3 Edge has all of the features and functionality of mainline HC3 systems and can be a managed along with HC3, HC3 Cloud Unity, and other HC3 Edge systems from a single multi-system management interface. HC3 Edge is the edge computing component for your complete hybrid IT infrastructure.

Filtering is a pretty powerful, but often overlooked feature in HC3. It gives users the ability to filter down to a subset of VMs based on various attributes and apply actions such as Power On/Off, Snapshot, Clone, etc. One of the easily overlooked capabilities built into the filter is the logical operators of AND (using a " ") and OR (using a ",").

Here's a brief video showing Scale Computing's HC3 Bulk Actions and Filtered Search in action:

Youtube Video

the , for OR also works in the cluster log filter. among other things that can be useful to filter out "cluster" events such as replication (in HCOS 7.3 + that have multiple login users). Could also be useful to view CRITICAL, ERROR, WARNING messages.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6029942/uploads/editor/t5/g5q9qy9igu68.png

CRN Announcement: Scale Partners with APC

Scale Computing Forms Partnership With APC Giving Partners A 'Powerful' Micro Data Center 'In-A-Box' Solution

Scale Computing has formed a new partnership with APC by Schneider Electric to create a turnkey hyper-converged solution that executives say will lead to higher margins for channel partners and enable solution providers to scale capacity and computing power at the edge quickly.

"This is pretty powerful," said Bill Barnier, sales manager at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.- based solution provider Data Partner, who partners with Scale. "They can do power back up, the compute and the storage, all in one box. That's powerful to be able to put all of that in one appliance at the remote edge. That will definitely be something that customers would have interest in, especially those who have a lot of remote sites."

Hyper-converged specialist Scale Computing has been chosen as an Alliance Partner by APC by Schneider Electric to support its hyper-converged Micro Data Center Xpress solution, which combines a purpose-built infrastructure with a physical management wrapper for hyper-converged architectures. Xpress is a complete and energy-efficient IT solution that is pre-tested, optimized, and able to be rapidly deployed. APC said it creates a reliable and robust environment to leverage the best of on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructures.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/12/prweb15033364.htm

ALSO is partnering with Scale across Europe.

Life On The Edge: Why Micro Data Centers Are The Next Frontier

The edge computing phenomenon—powered by an Internet of Things revolution—has opened up a new frontier for solution providers working with hardware and software vendors of all sizes and shapes.

Indianapolis-based Scale Computing is one of a number of vendors retooling their product and partner strategies to drive edge computing sales growth.

Ever wished you had the ability to remotely monitor, manage, and power on or off your HC3 nodes outside the HC3 web interface? Also known as “out-of-band” or “remote” management, many nodes in the HC3 lineup have Lights Out Management (LOM) capabilities.

The IPMI and iDRAC features are not available on all node lines and may require some disruptive and/or non-disruptive firmware updates and BIOS changes in order to access their management capabilities.

IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is a specification that provides management and monitoring capabilities independently of the firmware and operating system of the host. As an example, a node that may be powered off or otherwise unresponsive across a normal network connection could be remotely managed through IPMI instead.

Dell’s iDRAC (integrated Dell Remote Access Controller) is a platform that uses the same ideas as IPMI but is proprietary to Dell. It is available on certain Dell lines and, in the case of Scale Computing’s HC3 node lines, is integrated into the motherboard. As with IPMI, an administrator has access to power management, system monitoring like temperature and fan speeds, remote console access, and more.

More information and details on specific Scale HC3 models is available on our support portal using the following links (or by logging in and searching "lights out")

Customer portal
Partner portal

For convenience, I've attached the Nov 2017 version of the doc here - but it's recommended you check the portal for any recent updates

Scale Forms Partnership with APC for Micro Data Center in a Box from CRN

Scale Computing has formed a new partnership with APC by Schneider Electric to create a turnkey hyper-converged solution that executives say will lead to higher margins for channel partners and enable solution providers to scale capacity and computing power at the edge quickly.

"This is pretty powerful," said Bill Barnier, sales manager at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.- based solution provider Data Partner, who partners with Scale. "They can do power back up, the compute and the storage, all in one box. That's powerful to be able to put all of that in one appliance at the remote edge. That will definitely be something that customers would have interest in, especially those who have a lot of remote sites."

Hyper-converged specialist Scale Computing has been chosen as an Alliance Partner by APC by Schneider Electric to support its hyper-converged Micro Data Center Xpress solution, which combines a purpose-built infrastructure with a physical management wrapper for hyper-converged architectures. Xpress is a complete and energy-efficient IT solution that is pre-tested, optimized, and able to be rapidly deployed. APC said it creates a reliable and robust environment to leverage the best of on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructures.

Dave Hallmen, Chief Revenue Officer at Scale Computing, Recognized as 2018 CRN Channel Chief

...CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Chief Revenue Officer Dave Hallmen to its exclusive 2018 list of the 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs.

The executives on this annual list are part of an elite group drawn from the larger pool of Channel Chief honorees each year and represent the cream of the IT channel crop—leaders who drive the channel agenda and evangelize the importance of channel partnerships. This distinguished group is recognized for outstanding achievement in driving growth and revenue in their organization, as well as extraordinary leadership in the channel as a whole.

Hallmen was selected as a Channel Chief for his leadership in launching the Scale Partner Community, a newly reimagined channel program. The strategic program re-engineers Scale Computing's partner strategy and benefits offered to the channel, allowing Scale Computing to work more closely with partners both in North America and EMEA. Furthering this mission, Scale Computing promoted Scott Mann to North American Director of Channel.

"The executives on CRN's 2018 Channel Chiefs list stand out for their exceptional leadership, vision and commitment to the channel," said Robert Faletra, executive chairman of The Channel Company. "These individuals deserve special recognition for their development and support of robust partner programs, innovative business strategy, and significant contribution to the overall health of a vigorously growing channel. We applaud each Channel Chief's impressive record of accomplishments and look forward to their future successes." ....

@jaredbusch said in MS SQL Server Best Practice Guide on Scale HC3:

You actually get your SMB clients to plan ahead? /gasp!

We try!