So far in our blog series, we’ve talked about building out our Cloud infrastructure using a best-of-breed approach and a single-vendor reference architecture.
But what if you wanted a manufacturer to design, build, integrate, and support a reference architecture? Then you’d be talking about a converged infrastructure solution.
A converged infrastructure brings together the best individual components for servers, networking and storage integrated into a single appliance and delivered by a single company. But what if you wanted a manufacturer to design, build, integrate, and support a reference architecture? Then you’d be talking about a converged infrastructure solution. Not surprisingly, the benefits of a converged infrastructure read like a combination of best-of-breed and reference architecture systems:
- An optimal mix of industry-leading products;
- A fully pre-integrated and pre-validated solution out of the box;
- A rigid design that eliminates the risk of an accidental architecture;
- Rapid deployment (<48 hours) with reliable results;
- Simple to procure, manage and service;
- Built for high performance and high scalability;
- Lower total cost of ownership.
Converged infrastructure is fast becoming the preferred choice for Cloud solutions, due to its simple, scalable design and quick time to deployment. The most popular converged infrastructure on the market today, the VCE Vblock® System, has already surpassed 1,000 units in just the last two years. Comprised of networking, servers and storage from industry leaders VMware, Cisco and EMC, VCE may look like a best-of-breed solution but actually functions as a single company with its own sales, marketing and technical support.
One of the primary advantages of a converged infrastructure is the ability to manage the complete IT infrastructure—networking, computer, storage and virtualization—in a single, scalable solution. Combining the IT administration roles and using a single set of tools to manage your IT can significantly reduce opex. Having a fixed infrastructure from a single vendor also expedites troubleshooting and repair: problem resolution takes hours instead of days, one phone call instead of four calls to four different vendors.
Although both best-of-breed and reference architecture are popular and have their unique benefits, a converged infrastructure can deliver the best mix of performance and price for many types of workloads including:
- Private and Hybrid Cloud solutions
- Virtual desktop applications
- ERP and Business Intelligence applications
- Database-driven applications and services
- Hosted/X-as-a-Service solution providers
Perhaps the best way to look at converged infrastructure is from the “outside the box” perspective. With traditional IT systems, you’re dealing with dozens of different boxes that need to be unpacked, installed, integrated, etc.—all of which can take months to complete. With converged infrastructure, you simply plug in one box, connect some cables, do minimal provisioning and you’re ready to go. That kind of agility is highly conducive to the Cloud and virtualized environments in general.
Of course, following the right path to the Cloud requires an experienced guide, and that’s where AdvizeX comes in. We can help you plan, size and install the optimal Cloud platform for your business, whether it’s a converged infrastructure, a reference architecture with a trusted vendor or a completely customized best-of-breed solution.
To learn more about AdvizeX and our unique Cloud Advizer solution, click here. ▪