Scality RING Reviews

My main use cases for Scality RING are for data center backups. We also use it to set up a Dropbox for the ministry and we use Scality RING storage for the Dropbox. Today, there are two PETA2s provisioned on the Dropbox. In fact, we store about 150 terabytes of data via this Dropbox.

We also use Scality RING to store data from the Defense Historical Service. If I'm not mistaken, that's about 500 terabytes. Those are the main cases.

Regarding Scality ARTECA, we're experimenting a little, and we're interested in using this for some specific use cases in the future. For example, to store data between our internet world and the internet world, given that we're a bit special at defense. Also, to use it when ships are at sea and return to port to upload data to the cloud. I use it as a fairly simple means of uploading.

Based on my usage, the best features of Scality RING include the security, given that it's been in place since 2015, and we haven't had any incidents. What's also really interesting is that we're not dependent on a hardware manufacturer. So that's very valuable.

It is easy to add petabytes. It's the quality that interests us enormously.

Finally, working with this quality is great. We've known them for quite a long time and they still have that startup feel, which is really nice.

The positive impact Scality RING has on our organization is the ability to share applications on a single storage system. From a cost perspective, that's really good. It means that in our organization, we had to set up a committee of architects to explain to project managers who came to us with IT projects that, in their case, it might be much more cost-effective to plug into this type of storage. In a way, it's very good in terms of costs.

Regarding the ease of managing large volumes of data via the user interface of Scality RING, it has improved greatly. At first, it was a bit technical but it's not like that anymore. Today, we have an improved interface. Plus, with ARTECA, it's the same interface, but only on Scality RING. We went from a good but complicated solution to something quite simple.

When considering the initial setup of Scality RING in 2015, it was, at first, very complicated. Installation and documentation were still being finalized. Today, it's very easy.

I have been using Scality RING since 2015.

It's been in place since 2015 with no incidents.

I would rate the scalability of Scality RING as intrinsic, not only to the offering but also to the business. In a year's time, we'll add servers to our infrastructure. It's pretty simple.

I rate the customer service and technical support of Scality RING as good. They're really effective. We are very satisfied with this French solution.

Before Scality RING, we used another solution. We had set up storage for cold data. Performance is much better than it was a few years ago. The main reason we switched is cost.

Regarding installation costs and licenses, what's really great is that we're independent from the hardware. You have to buy Dell, or HP, or something else. Compared to other storage manufacturers, that's a huge advantage. That independence, first and foremost, is really good.

Regarding deployment of Scality RING, we didn't use an integrator, reseller, or consultant because we have a center: the Expertise Bureau for Assessment and Integration, so we have a certain level of technical expertise. But in production, I think they also called in people from HPE or the Data Center.

Scality RING has reduced our operating costs. We can quantify this reduction roughly by noting that in a cloud, when you look at all the costs, storage accounts for about 30%. So it's huge. I can't say what we would have gained if we had used another type of storage. One thing is certain: storage is extremely expensive.

Regarding Scality RING's ability to maintain predictable costs while providing scalable storage solutions and its impact on our budget is obvious.

I rate the capacity of Scality RING to handle workloads such as artificial intelligence and backup as promising. This is a very important issue. About a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago, the AMIAD was created. These are experts who will be working on AI at the ministry. I think it will take time for things to happen. It's not impossible that tomorrow we will consider using dedicated storage for AI. The timing is still being studied. We don't have anything concrete yet.

I would rate Scality RING 10 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

I work with Scality RING for storage, and we have a concrete strategy to offer it to business customers.

Many customers use it for different purposes, but a common use case is for user computer backups.

I like UTIPI (Unified Tiered Infrastructure Per IOPS) feature in billing. 

Another feature I like is the life cycle management that helps me with data storage efficiency. 

I like that there is no storage limit in Scality RING.  There's no inherent storage limit. Even big companies with many users can reach the practical limits of the system.  

It's a very good product, but for large-scale usage, it has limitations.

Scality RING's lack of extensive testing and potential hidden limitations.

While Scality provides precise architecture guidelines for sizing the storage infrastructure, Orange utilizes a different processor architecture for its Ovi servers, requiring additional optimization beyond what Scality offers. In essence, the product lacks third-party optimization capabilities.

I have been using it for two years. 

We have over a thousand end users and administrators.

The customer service and support are generally good. 

However, sometimes we need direct support, and they might not be fully aware of our specific situation. We have to re-explain our setup, including the conversions we use, the programs involved, and our intended functionalities.

Positive

The initial setup is easy because it is automated. We just need to follow a few pre-requisites. So, the first installation is very easy.

The initial cost (CAPEX) to set up the infrastructure is expensive due to the specific hardware required. 

However, the ongoing costs associated with Scality are expensive due to the specialized servers and additional advice needed.

I would recommend using it. It is a good product for me. 

However, Scality RING is not easy to learn for someone new. It is a little bit difficult. There are a lot of components to it, and you also need to understand them to work with it effectively. It's a complex product. 

The most valuable feature of Scality RING8 is its performance and good interface.

Scality RING8 could improve by having more features. We have to use two automation tools to meet our needs. We would prefer to use only one.

I have been using Scality RING8 for approximately three years.

Scality RING8 is a stable solution.

The scalability of Scality RING8 is good. We are able to add subsets.

Our customers are enterprise-sized companies. The amount of people using the solution depends on the company's administration. However, they are using SAN and NAS and could have more than 100 people working on the solution.

The support from Scality RING8 is good.

I did not use another solution prior to Scality RING8.

The initial setup of Scality RING8 is complex. There are many commands and scripts that need to be launched. If you want to do the implementation yourself there are training sessions available.

There is a lot of documentation for the implementation.

We did not implement the solution ourselves, we used assistance.

The cost of Scality RING8 could be less expensive. It is difficult for smaller businesses to afford it.

I rate Scality RING8 an eight out of ten.

We used Scality during the capacity extension.

I think it's the economic factor. This solution has the lowest cost for storage systems.

If I had to choose a new aspect for the system, it would be the rebalancing. The ease of use during capacity upgrades would be the most important improvement. I don't know if they manage it better right now or not, but it was really horrible to extend capacity on Scality at the time that I used it.

When you add new servers in the node or ring, Scality does rebalancing to split the workload across all the nodes and servers. It moves the data from one server to another.

I did a backup for someone else, so I only have one month of experience with Scality. I did the project though and from there I just followed up with the associate or management of the project.

This solution is stability. 

When we used this solution in 2015, it was not scalable at all. I don't know if they have improved on that, but at the time, scalability was just horrible.

It's used within Orange in France, which handles petabytes of data. I don't know exactly how much it was, but I think we are talking about five, or even more than that. When I worked on this project, it was during migration. It is definitely getting higher and higher in terms of capacity that you can use.

Scality's technical support team is good.

I'm starting to work on a project now with ScaleIO. The engineering team suggests migrating to Red Hat Ceph. I don't know yet what their reasons are, but that was the information I got two weeks ago. I am now starting to look for information comparing the products. For the project I'm working on now, we need block storage, so Scality is not an option in this case. Scality is used for object storage and here we are talking about another solution for block storage. Today we are using ScaleIO, which engineering recommends. It's a common thing to migrate to Red Hat Ceph.

My experience in 2015 was that it was not easy. Each time we needed to get the Scality professional services to help us at that time.

I think I would recommend Scality but there is another solution that I'm going to dig into more, which is OpenIO. Right now for new projects, I don't know yet if I'm going to recommend Scality or OpenIO. Most probably OpenIO, but it's not necessarily based on technical features. It's because we have a commercial agreement with OpenIO.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.

S3 and CDMI, restful API for object access, are useful for deploying standard S3 or CDMI-based applications such as cloud backup, email.

Erasure coding technologies permit to reduce storage costs by providing the same security as replication but with less storage resources.

Scality permit to deploy a data/metadata ring on 2 sites, a specific DRP ring on a remote site.

Each ring can have its own QoS (Rep3, EC,…) in order to provide application-based SLAs

We have benefitted from cloud storage adoption.

S3 complete compliance which is planned for v6.

I have used this solution for five years.

Only at the beginning because of a specific implementation issue.

Adding a storage node is simple but rebalancing takes a long time (several weeks).

The technical support is correct.

Scality is the first cloud storage product we have used.

The setup was complex.

This product is interesting if you target a least 10 PB.

We evaluated SwiftStack, Cleversafe, HDS Content Platform, and Mezeo.

Take care of S3 compliance and metadata ring architecture.