Scale Computing debuts small HCI edge appliance for edge computing, IT infrastructure deployments

Scale Computing released its latest HC3 Edge appliance, which is powered by Intel technology, offers a low-cost edge solution that is built on a tiny form factor, making it ideal to deploy in small clusters where highly available computing was previously cost-prohibitive. The appliance also introduces HC3 Edge Fabric, which eliminates the need for a backplane network switch requirement, lowering the TCO and delivering simpler connectivity for edge networks.

The HE150 appliance is a small, all-flash, NVMe storage-based compute appliance that delivers simplicity, efficiency, and enterprise-ready virtualization associated with Scale Computing’s HC3 platform. 

Built specifically for sites that need highly available infrastructure, the HE150 can be deployed almost anywhere, without requiring a rack or server closet. Taking up only the space needed to stack three smartphones, it also includes disaster recovery, high availability clustering, rolling upgrades and integrated data protection.

The HE150 is based on the Intel NUC, offering excellent performance to handle a wide range of workloads. The cutting-edge construction and connectivity comes ready for industrial and IoT applications. The extremely small form factor consumes a small amount of power, offers ease of installation and an ability to rapidly add devices that scale up rapidly, along with the reliability needed for edge computing and IoT applications.

“The high-functionality, reliability and performance of HE150 represents a major breakthrough that will open up new markets for Scale Computing and its partners, including Infrastructure Technology Solutions,” said Joel Althoff, president at Infrastructure Technology Solutions. “With Scale Computing, HE150 opens up a new door to edge computing, delivering an affordable edge solution equipped with disaster recovery and resiliency, that is truly innovative in the marketplace.”

In addition to the new Scale Computing HE150 appliance, HC3 Edge software, which is available to large multi-site customers and partners, is also introducing general software support for Intel NUC based systems from other hardware suppliers. HC3 Edge software will be available soon for Lenovo’s new Smart Edge portfolio of fan-less, small form factor PCs. 

“With no IT staff on site, downtime is a constant concern at each of our locations. Downtime can cost us tens of thousands of dollars, and therefore is not an option for Jerry’s Foods,” explained Jeff Miller, director of IT at Jerry’s Foods. “I was blown away by the simplicity and functionality of Scale Computing’s edge solutions. It’s making a huge impact on my day-to-day IT operations. With the addition of the HE150, distributed enterprises now have the ability to scale up or down depending on their edge computing needs. It’s a win-win!”

“A growing number of distributed organizations require infrastructure at the edge of the network, specifically at sites where there are limited IT staff available. With edge computing on the rise, organizations are requiring solutions that can fit small footprint requirements with robust application performance, while still being affordable, efficient and simple to manage remotely,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder, Scale Computing. “This is why we created our newest HE150 appliance, making edge computing a financially viable and practical option for more organizations. Our ability to deliver HCI technology in a smaller form factor and lower price point is making edge computing capabilities and resources more accessible to many organizations.”

Veritas and NetApp deliver data protection of unstructured data for customers

Veritas Technologies announced an expansion of its partnership with NetApp that will help the largest enterprises protect their data more quickly and at scale on NetApp network-attached storage (NAS) devices.  

Veritas NetBackup leveraged NetApp SnapDiff APIs in 2012 to accelerate backup of primary NAS data to on-premises and cloud targets. By integrating with NetApp SnapDiff on secondary NAS, customers can meet stringent recovery time objectives (RTOs) on their premises and speed up data transfer to the cloud for long-term retention. 

This integration further strengthens the value to joint customers, adding faster unstructured data protection to capabilities such as business resiliency for applications connected to NetApp storage, and deep file analytics for NetApp NAS data.

The continued partnership between Veritas and NetApp offers customers numerous benefits, including business resiliency through integration of tier 1 applications and storage into high-availability and disaster recovery solutions; ability to protect file data on the premises and in the cloud across physical and virtual deployments; insights and deep file analytics through cataloging to better understand what data sits where, and how many copies are maintained; reduced TCO by tiering backup data to the cloud for long-term retention; and the ability to continuously meet stringent SLAs even as unstructured data increases.

Syncron Uptime strengthens manufacturers’ transition from after sales-service to products-as-a-service

Syncron launched its Syncron Uptime offering that uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to analyze real-time sensor data, predict failures, prescribe optimized maintenance actions and ultimately maximize product uptime.

Servitization, which is the transformation from selling products to selling products-as-a-service, has ushered in a new generation of customers that prefers access over ownership. This increasingly popular consumption preference is driving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to shift from product-centric to service-centric business models.

When implementing an after-sales service strategy that is centered on maximized product uptime, OEMs commonly encounter a small minority of the overall mechanical failures that contribute to unplanned downtime follow a pattern that is correlated to time and/or usage, while the overwhelming majority are random occurrences. 

As a result, present approach to preventive maintenance adds to increased total cost of ownership without effectively improving availability and uptime. The only way to improve product uptime without increasing risk, plus improving cost effectiveness, is to look for subtle symptoms and pre-cursors leading up to the point of failure.

To overcome random, symptom-based failures, OEMs have been investing heavily in sensors and IoT, collecting massive amounts of data. However, it is impossible to manually manage or analyze this data in any beneficial way. The only solution is to leverage modern machine earning and artificialiIntelligence technologies – mathematical algorithms that can find the subtle patterns to provide the earliest possible indications of anomalies and failure patterns.

Manufacturers are focused on designing products that are easier and safer to operate. However, this has led to increased complexity when it comes to servicing and maintaining newer equipment. Simultaneously, the baby boomer generation is retiring and taking critical, expert knowledge with them, leaving OEMs struggling to find trained service technicians and engineers who can effectively troubleshoot and diagnose problems based on early symptoms, which can lead to a reduction in first-time fix rates.

Manufacturers’ organizational structures are designed for product-centric approach, treating sales of products, spare parts and service as separate functions, which has led to disparate IT systems and KPIs. Servitization, however, requires a new way of thinking where accountability does not end after a product sale, instead continuing throughout a product’s entire lifecycle. OEMs will be contract-bound for pre-defined performance measures that carry incentives and penalties based on customer outcomes.

Syncron Uptime has been designed to overcome these challenges, enabling OEMs to maximize product uptime cost effectively. With this new, enterprise software solution users can combine OEMs’ investments in IoT and sensor data with machine learning and artificial intelligence to detect anomalies and predict failures, leading to optimized maintenance for every complex machine in the field and improving product uptime and maintenance costs. 

It also captures knowledge and best practices for troubleshooting products with the earliest and smallest indications of deterioration in performance, increasing field service productivity and improving first-time fix rates.

The offering breaks down data and organizational siloes to enable coordination between operations, field service management and service parts planning, providing a single source of truth to all stakeholders. It also integrates with predictive maintenance work requests with field service systems and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to make the best decisions for both the business and end customers, while maximizing product uptime and improving the overall customer experience.

New Supermicro high-performance enterprise-class vSAN offering ideal for hyper-converged infrastructure

Super Micro Computer has introduced another enterprise-class vSAN solution to its broad portfolio of fully configured out-of-the-box systems.  Leveraging Supermicro Ultra SuperServer systems, combined with industry-proven vSAN software-defined storage, target hyper-convergence infrastructure.  

Supermicro 1U and 2U Ultra SuperServers support the highest performance Intel Xeon Scalable processors (up to 205W TDP) with 24 DIMM slots. Ultra platforms can support not only a large number of NVMe drives but also ample PCI-E lanes to accommodate network interface cards (NICs) to provide sufficient bandwidth for external access through fabrics. 

Ultra systems are configurable with support of 20, 10, 4, or 2 hot-swappable NVMe drives that can be optimized for different types of applications The Ultra SuperServers are tuned for power, efficiency, scale, and flexibility. 

Supermicro's solution has passed the rigorous testing to be certified for VMware vSAN ReadyNode, for balance and optimized performance – from the hardware up through the firmware stack to the VMware vSAN software. Native to the VMware vSphere hypervisor, VMware vSAN uses solid-state NVMe drives for high capacity input/output and low latency.

Seamless integration with VMware vSphere and the VMware ecosystem makes the hyperconverged solution optimal for cloud native applications, remote office and branch office implementations, test and development environments, management clusters, security zones, and virtual desktop infrastructure.

Supermicro is also launching the Intel Select Solutions for VMware vSAN. Intel Select Solutions from Supermicro are verified, ready-to-adopt workload-optimized configurations for specific workloads across compute, storage and networks. They help accelerate deployment of complex solutions by reducing the guesswork and in-house evaluation required to achieve excellent performance.

"Supermicro's extensive vSAN hyper-converged solution portfolio delivers to customers the ideal storage platform for business-critical applications," said Charles Liang, president, and CEO of Supermicro. "Supermicro systems and broad line of vSAN ready nodes are highly-configurable to support computational-intensive workloads while offering low total cost of ownership (TCO) for intelligent enterprise deployments."