What is HyperConverged infrastructure?

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) combines standard data centre hardware using locally attached storage resources with intelligent software to create flexible building blocks that replace legacy infrastructure consisting of separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays. The replacement of legacy infrastructure provides lower TCO, increased performance, and higher productivity within IT teams.

IT Challenges that Businesses face.

There is no need to purchase & manage storage & servers individually. HCI combines compute, storage, networking, & virtual resources saving infrastructure maintenance costs.

Many organisations have separate IT teams dedicated to server, network, & storage support which are often divided to focus on specific technical solutions.

It’s daunting predicting your resource consumption 3-5 years down the line. Meaning overprovisioning and being left with unused, wasted resources. HCI grows with you.

Using various components, each with separate management consoles rather than a centralised system, will lead to an endless refresh cycle & the inability to scale your data centre.

Converged infrastructure (CI)

Converged infrastructure (CI), is an approach to data center management that packages compute, networking, servers, storage and virtualisation tools on a prequalified customised appliance. Converged systems include a toolkit of management software.

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI)

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) enables other components to be added by implementing software-defined storage features. A good way to think of the distinction between CI and HCI is that CI is based mainly around the supported hardware, whereas HCI combines the hardware with granular data services.

Disaggregated HCI (dHCI)

DHCI  (dHCI) has dedicated storage and compute nodes. Each storage node has a CPU and some memory, but only enough to facilitate communication and essential data movement between nodes. Disaggregation can provide some significant advantages over traditional HCIs, the most obvious being flexibility and resource efficiency.

Benefits of Hyperconverged Infrastructure.

The most significant alteration in the Hyperconvergence approach is that it starts with storage, and aims to make the most difficult to manage resource in the data center highly efficient, performant, and scalable. From that foundation, Hyperconvergence clusters together a practically unlimited set of homogeneous storage+compute+network appliances. After initial deployment, a business can easily scale any starting configuration by simply adding more homogeneous appliances.

Reduces the Total Cost of Operations (TCO) because it is relatively easier to run, compared to managing many different IT components.

HCI uses CPUs & storage devices, which are fast. In hyperconvergence, there is usually a fast tier of storage benefiting all applications.

Capacity & performance can be scaled with a new server/node. Each VM can be scaled up to very large CPU, RAM, storage size & performance.

Further reading on Hyper-converged infrastructure

If organizations want to maintain growth potential and agility in whatever market they focus on, their IT infrastructure needs configuration that lends itself to scalability. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) transcends the older concept of multiple independent modules and brings new possibilities.

Instead of the computational servers, data storage, and networking existing as separate units, converging these data centers and local resources with powerful software creates a simpler and more contained building block. HCI combines virtual function with strong management interface for ease of use. These end up costing less, performing better, and increasing productivity across the board.

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Function

Servers, data storage systems and network, and virtualization combine into one hyperconverged platform. Although not all are created the same, they all include the convergence of two or more components of datacenter tech.

By using standardized servers, even the smallest company can have a robust IT infrastructure in place from the start. Better still, they can expand their capabilities, speed, and efficiency one block or node at a time. The software functions smoothly across all of them to negate any potential issues with performance and reliability.

Two software-defined planes exist in HCI: distributed and management. The first handles guest applications across multiple modes. This is the part that actually performs the function of the software-controlled functions. The second provides admin resource control across the whole system. Having only one common user interface makes it much easier to manage all aspects of the IT infrastructure.

Benefits of New IT Infrastructure Design

The least technical explanation for the advantages of hyper- converged infrastructure involves moving toward simplicity. These systems improve performance, take up less space and energy, improve efficiency and speed, and lower costs overall. The single UI makes interacting with the infrastructure simpler.

Older and more complex systems are difficult to upgrade as technological need grows. HCI allows your company or organization to add on capability like building blocks instead of reworking the entire infrastructure.

When the time comes to expand, deployment takes place very quickly so you experience less disruption of services. The whole thing functions on a turnkey basis with server, storage, networking, and visualization in place and ready to go in minutes. You can use existing hardware or choose a variety of new options without worrying about integration. The notes themselves use the latest hardware and software available on the market today.

Above all else, hyperconverged infrastructure offers outstanding performance and flexibility. Your IT specialists can build an appropriate cluster with as many nodes as you need for smooth business operations. The nodes themselves come in a variety of distinct types with diverse ranges of storage and CPU function. This makes it possible to truly customize a solution that works for you without compromising the ability to change it on the fly in the future.