Hyperconverged infrastructure is an IT framework that virtualises conventional hardware systems. It combines storage, computing and networking, to yield an infrastructure that’s flexible and simpler to manage for the end user.
By design, hyperconverged infrastructure delivers greater simplicity over legacy systems. It achieves this by introducing greater levels of system automation and by placing everything in a single, highly manageable system.
With converged infrastructure, the components are discrete and separable. With hyperconverged infrastructure, the software-defined elements are implemented virtually, and the individual components can’t be separated. The benefit is flexibility; you can expand capacity simply by adding new nodes.
On the subject of nodes, these are clustered together to share resources. This ensures convenient consumption. The standard practice is to use commodity hardware supported by one vendor to design a single, manageable system.
And so, the single biggest benefit you can yield from hyperconverged infrastructure is simplicity. You effectively bring all your storage systems, servers and switches under one umbrella. This improves reliability, availability and ease of use. Furthermore, any software-defined storage can be expected to yield greater efficiency.
Hyperconverged systems are designed to share workloads. The most common workloads run on hyperconverged systems are databases, file and print services, collaboration, virtual desktops, analytics and commercial software.
Because hyperconverged infrastructure is available as a software-only model, appliance (hardware device) or reference architecture, it can be specially designed for the needs of the organisation. One of the products we recommend is HPE SimpliVity, an enterprise-grade platform that lets you converge your entire IT stack.
Regardless of vendor, hyperconvergence is always about the business – not the IT department. Yes, it’ll improve IT infrastructure with greater availability and efficiency, but the biggest benefit to the business is actually increased agility. High performance is normal with hyperconvergence and once you’ve tasted that, you won’t want to go back to a legacy environment which is slow and inflexible by comparison.
To learn more about the benefits of hyperconverged infrastructure and solutions DSI offer click here.
