Few things move as fast as the IT industry.
It was just a decade or so ago that CIOs were talking about virtual machines. Then in rapid succession came the cloud, converged infrastructure and now hyper-converged infrastructure. It’s enough to make your head spin faster than an old hard disk drive (and don’t get me started on storage…). If you’re still getting up to speed on what hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is and why you need it, you’re not alone. In the interest of helping you catch up to the latest infrastructure evolution, here’s an HCI primer that explains why it’s different (and better) than everything before it.
HCI is the software-defined future.
The big difference between converged and hyper-converged infrastructure is the division of hardware. In a converged infrastructure (CI) appliance, you’re buying pre-integrated blocks of storage,compute and network that can scale independently. A hyper-converged appliance is a turn key software defined compute and storage solution for your virtual infrastructure that scales linearly and plugs into your existing network.
HCI is the simplest hardware to manage… ever.
Remember when converged appliances came out, and everyone talked about how pre-integrated components meant less time to ramp up infrastructure for new applications? They weren’t kidding, of course; CI is much faster than building a best-of-breed solution. But HCI is even faster. You can begin provisioning virtual resources for new workloads on an HCI appliance in around 20 minutes. That’s not a typo, I wrote minutes.
And remember how converged appliances still required that you have storage, compute and networking expertise on hand to manage the individual components? With HCI solutions like VMware’s VxRail, it’s all one block, one vendor, one set of skills to maintain and one finger to point if there’s a problem.
HCI is ready for the future.
There’s always something newer, better and faster around the corner. As new features and functionality become available, IT departments often have to wait until scheduled downtime also becomes available before they can update their hardware. With HCI, new firmware and features are released as validated software patches, so updates can occur with no downtime or risk of incompatibility.
HCI doesn’t have to be disruptive.
IT departments have a lot invested in their infrastructure, not just in terms of capital expenses but also the human costs of training and development. Many enterprises have made significant investments in VMware, EMC storage and intel-based servers. Fortunately, with Dell EMC’s VxRail, organizations can continue to leverage those skills as they embrace the next generation of software-defined infrastructure. The result is innovation without disruption.
HCI can generate real ROI.
HCI is more than the next iteration of the inevitable hardware refresh. It’s a game-changing technology that can improve your business agility and help you innovate faster, whether you’re moving to a virtualized desktop environment or modernizing your applications.
To discover how HCI can drive business ROI, talk to Rolta AdvizeX about Dell EMC VxRail solutions today. ▪