centre of attention
BELIEVE THE HYPER HYPE
Ian Shave of IBM assesses the real value of converged and hyper-converged infrastructure.
I
f you were to ask any group of
IT managers, you would likely
get agreement that too much
time and too many resources
are spent maintaining the
separate hardware and software
components that make up an IT
system. In fact, according to IDC,
companies spend roughly 70 per
cent of their annual IT budgets on
just keeping their systems running.
That could change, however, in
large part because of the growing
popularity of pre-built and preintegrated systems known as
converged infrastructure. The hefty
price tag of IT maintenance will
inevitably drop as companies move to
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a more simplified IT system that can
often work right out of the box.
At the heart of the converged
infrastructure boom are the very
same forces that have made other
technologies like cloud computing and
Software as a Service (SaaS) popular.
But while cloud and SaaS have made
the process of running IT systems
more manageable, the trade-off
with these technologies can be less
control over the system. Converged
infrastructure solutions aim to give
back some of that control.
Reinvesting in
innovation and growth
In an era of ever increasing data
and devices, the simplified platform
and centralised management of
converged infrastructure can be a
relief for businesses. An out-ofthe-box solution that is completely
ready to run can mean less staff
time and lower expenses focused on
maintenance. Recent research with
a sample of over 300 of our own
customers revealed that companies
that implemented an integrated
infrastructure solution experienced on
average a 30 per cent reduction in
operating expenses.
What’s more, a pre-integrated
system can make for a more reliable
IT environment. Businesses no longer
need to struggle with the islands
of IT and making sure that all the
interconnections are optimised and
are working properly. With converged
infrastructure, a lot of the guesswork
and the connecting of the elements
together is already done.
But for all the talk about saving
money and improving systems
performance, there are other less
measurable, but no less important,
benefits. For the IT staff whose
days are filled with the tedious and
highly repetitive tasks associated
with IT maintenance, converged
infrastructure offers a real opportunity
to refocus their efforts on other, more
creative ways to use technology and
add business value. What’s more, for
small to mid-sized companies with
smaller teams, increasing productivity
levels can be a necessity rather than
a luxury.
Solutions currently on the
market can offer extraordinary
levels of performance and efficiency
and are suited to a myriad of
workloads from cloud to Big Data
analytics deployments, allowing
IT departments to transform from
a cost burden into an enabler of
innovation and business growth.
One company benefiting from
just that is i-Virtualize. The managed
services provider implemented
the IBM VersaStack offering in
partnership with Cisco, to help its