While many companies are modernizing their IT infrastructure by moving to the cloud, their on-premises IT environments tend to be complex, 3-tier infrastructures which create silos that interfere with visibility and overcomplicate management.
To progress in their digital transformation journey, companies should consider adopting hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). HCI simplifies on-premises IT infrastructure by consolidating storage, compute, and networking using a software-defined system. Often described as “building blocks,” HCI is known for its scalability. However, deploying the technology has other advantages.
The benefits of HCI include streamlined IT management, improved resource utilization, and its ability to lay the foundation for a more agile and efficient business infrastructure.
Streamlined IT Management
By unifying all the key aspects of a data center architecture, HCI streamlines IT management using a single pane of glass. Along with integrating software components for storage, compute, and network virtualization, HCI integrates management capabilities, including those for automation of data protection and management.
HCI unifies and centralizes management by creating a single point of management for data storage, compute, and network. In HCI, software that runs on each node distributes all operating functions across the cluster, enabling superior performance and data resilience.
Improved Resource Utilization
With its centralized management console, HCI empowers companies to allocate resources using a single interface. The virtualization software in HCI abstracts and pools resources, enabling them to be allocated dynamically to applications running in virtual machines or containers.
Dynamic resource allocation ensures that capacity and performance needs are met and that data is protected adequately. Due to its resource allocation capabilities, HCI meets the performance requirements of data-intensive workloads.
Increased Agility
HCI increases agility by laying the foundation for cloud deployments. HCI users can deploy private cloud, extend to public cloud, and adopt hybrid cloud.
Companies that use HCI can scale to meet changing storage capacity and increased network traffic needs in real time. With HCI, hardware can be set up in a matter of hours and workloads can be spun up in minutes. To scale, all companies need to do is to add more nodes to the cluster. Organizations can add storage nodes or CPU nodes for additional compute power.
Boosted Efficiency
HCI promotes operational efficiency through the automation of processes. Security, backup, and disaster recovery are all built into HCI. Security features include self-encrypting drives and tools for gaining greater visibility. Intelligence in the software enables HCI to automate routine tasks, provide deep insights, and control the environment.
By adopting HCI, companies become more cost efficient. For example, an independent IDC study showed that Nutanix customers realize an average total cost of ownership (TCO) savings of 43% and a return on investment (ROI) of 356% over 5 years. Companies with HCI shrink their data center footprint, lowering the related costs of maintenance, energy, and cooling.
HCI reduces capital expenses through scalability. Organizations can scale their data center infrastructure without disrupting production or overprovisioning to anticipate rising capacity needs. With HCI, companies aren’t dependent on expensive, high-quality servers and purpose-built networking. Instead, they can use commodity hardware, such as standard x86 servers.
Choosing the Right Hyperconverged Infrastructure Solution
HCI is a disruptive technology that allows companies to transform the data center from an old, siloed, and multi-vendor infrastructure into an integrated and optimized environment. ProActive Solutions partners with leaders in HCI, such as Nutanix, VMware, and Cisco, offering our customers best-in-breed options for HCI deployments.
We provide HCI solutions and services as part of our focus on Digital Transformation and Infrastructure Capabilities. Using our consultative approach, we can guide your company through the entire lifecycle of your HCI project, from development to architecture design, implementation, and support.
Find out if HCI is right for your company. Ask for a consultation from the infrastructure experts at ProActive.
