centre of attention
customers accelerate the installation
of a system of infrastructure for Big
Data and analytics, cloud and mobile
computing. i-Virtualize customers
such as Hayward Gordon and
FreeBalance can now streamline their
IT operations using an integrated
stack of data centre technologies,
including servers, storage and
networking, and can help accelerate
data centre infrastructure deployment,
efficiently manage information and
resources, and quickly adapt to
business change. As a result, the
company’s customers have achieved
new levels of ease, cost efficiency,
and versatility.
Hyper-convergence
Born from converged architectures is
hyper-converged infrastructure, which
is designed with virtualisation in mind.
These solutions build on the principals
for converged, and combine the
functions of compute and storage into
a single set of hardware that provide
compute and storage functionality.
Its software centric architecture
tightly integrates compute, storage,
networking and virtualisation
resources and other technologies
from scratch in a hardware box
supported by a single vendor.
Current solutions on the market
enable businesses to layer their
infrastructure with software defined
features. Consolidated management
of up to 144 instances means this
type of technology can deliver more
than 40 petabytes of usable capacity,
using virtual machines and can be
deployed in the cloud.
Further, by bringing compute,
hypervisor input/output control, and
storage entities together, hyperconvergence lets administrators
manage pools of compute resources,
disk assignments for hosts and virtual
machines, and network underlay
configuration from a single unified
management interface.
However, with hyper-convergence,
businesses must scale both compute
and storage together because they
are so tightly integrated – neither can
be scaled alone.
Why wait?
When selecting a converged or
hyper-converged architecture,
companies should know that both
infrastructures are more than just
cobbling components together. There
should be some level of automation
associated with the management of
that environment and it should cover
a broader scope of the environment
than simply one or two pieces of
infrastructure. Before jumping in
with any vendor, businesses should
consider how this is going to not
only integrate into your environment,
but how is it going to leverage your
existing IT investments and will it
support your IT needs five to 10 years
down the road.
Businesses that have
infrastructure that has grown too
complex or too unwieldy, for example,
can benefit from the simplicity these
in frastructures can enable. And
then there are those companies that
regularly face lengthy deployment
times that have made it harder for
projects to see the light of day,
such as those companies that want
to reduce costs or benefit from
the economies of a hybrid cloud
environment. Organisations with
these issues or desires will likely see
rapid results.
Another example of businesses
that could benefit from converged or
hyper-converged infrastructures are
those that allot too much resource
and budget to maintenance of the IT
systems. As infrastructure ages and
companies take on more applications,
data and devices, spending
increasing amounts of money on IT
maintenance will eventually bring
companies to a standstill.
Successful businesses are
those with IT departments whose
role it is to do more than just keep
the lights on – they are the ones
that are continuously innovating
and generating revenue. Deciding
if converged or hyper-converged is
the right answer will come down to
a company’s priorities and scale.
Client feedback has endorsed
that converged solutions such as
VersaStack, offer a single point of
management, superior performance
Born from converged architectures is
hyper-converged infrastructure, which is
designed with virtualisation in mind.
and an agility to drive new efficiency
into the data centre.
The efficiency benefits of current
converged solutions on the market
have been endorsed in economic
analysis conducted by the analyst firm
ESG that provides businesses with a
comprehensive picture of the potential
direct and indirect cost and benefit
drivers to consider when evaluating
an investment in converged solutions.
Improvements in time to deployment,
service and support, manageability,
and scalability have a significant
and positive impact on businesses’
financial success.
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