What's the HYPE in Hyperconvergence?

A quick guide to the key concepts and why it matters…..

One of the hottest trends in IT today, hyperconvergence is the latest new buzz word in data centre circles. But what is it, and why should you care?

According to Whatis.com, hyperconvergence is a ‘type of infrastructure system with a software-centric architecture that tightly integrates compute, storage, networking and virtualisation resources and other technologies from scratch in a commodity hardware box supported by a single vendor’.

In other words, it’s an entire virtual server infrastructure in one device. And it’s this modular set up that enables IT departments to:

?  Improve efficiency

?  Reduce operational complexity

?  Quickly scale to meet growing requirements

In essence, the idea behind hyperconvergence is that you start small with one device, simply adding further units to scale power and resilience – without needing the know how to manage network kit, storage kit, server kit or the hypervisor independently. 

With things like storage and networking all virtualised – and just one piece of hardware – the pain of managing interoperability becomes a thing of the past.

It’s a concept that’s set to revolutionise life for CIOs.

It all started with converged systems

Traditional IT infrastructures were made up of the proverbial technology silos, but in the last decade or so the first generation of converged infrastructure products made an appearance.

Integrating storage arrays with servers and networking, these converged solutions offered both simplicity and better economics – creating a new architecture that reduced infrastructure components while enabling distributed solutions.

It’s an approach that took off – and it’s easy to see why. Easier and faster to deploy than legacy IT infrastructure, these solutions consolidate some of the physical infrastructure – but still require point products for data protection and WAN optimisation.

So, what makes a hyperconverged system different?

Well, hyperconverged systems take the concept of convergence to the next level. While converged systems are separate components designed to work together, hyperconverged systems are truly modular – and that’s important, because it enables a scale-out, rather than scale up approach.

In other words, hyperconvergence greatly simplifies IT infrastructure and its administration – there’s no need to manage discrete devices or have specialist training in component-level technology like storage area networks (SANs). Operations become more efficient, costs are lower and deploying resources for virtual workloads is faster and more agile.

According to leading hyperconvergence vendors, there are a few defining features that distinguish truly hyperconverged systems. These include a focus on the virtual machine, the ability to easily scale out resources by adding nodes, native data protection, and a software-centric design.

So…is it just all ‘hype’?

While hyperconverged infrastructure is still in its infancy, unlike a lot of technology trends that get hyped to the point of absurdity, hyperconvergence is actually living up to its promise.

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has been a top use case for early adopter midmarket and larger enterprises. No surprise when you consider how traditional storage arrays are the Achilles heel of VDI implementations. And, as a recent study by Actualtech Media reveals, data centre consolidation as a means to reduce costs and improve IT efficiencies is also high on the agenda.

The Actualtech Mdia survey of 500 technology professionals also identified rapid virtual machine provisioning as an important outcome for larger companies faced with a greater volume of workloads to provision and deploy.

That’s interesting, because a key benefit of hyperconvergence is that it enables Fast IT….But that’s something we’ll explore in our next blog!

Want to know more about hyperconvergence?

We think hyperconvergence is a game changing technology. So much so, that we’re organising an event that brings together speakers from the hottest hyperconvergence vendors in the market today. 

If you’re interested in joining us for the event on 18th February at The Shard please take a look at the details here