The SmallBizWindows Most Exciting Current Product (tie): HyperConverged Infrastructure

We have a tie for Most Exciting Current Product: one is a product category, the other is an actual shipping product.

2016-08- Most exciting current techThe SmallBizWindows Most Exciting Current Product or Technology (tie) : HyperConverged Infrastructure

Hyperconverged or Hyper-Converged, is a new product category that is sweeping the datacenter by storm, especially in this past year.

Hyperconverged – my preferred spelling Smile – is the current iteration of a wave started back in 2009 by then-HP*, and dubbed Converged Infrastructure Architecture.

Hyperconverged takes that vision further, melding virtualization into what was formerly a troika of hardware components: compute, storage, and networking.

clip_image002I may be wrong, but I believe the first firm to go commercial with hyperconverged products was Nutanix. In fact, I am told, it was that distributed file system that helped Nutanix gain initial traction. (Feel free to correct me. Thank you.)

This sector is smokin’ hot right now, I decided to ask Keith Townsend**, (@CTOAdvisor) a few questions on hyperconverged infrastructure:

John Obeto: is Hyperconverged really a thing for virtualization, or is it a new case of buzzword bingo?

Keith Townsend: Hyper-converged is a serious option for pure virtual environments. This is especially the case for applications that are virtualization friendly such as VDI.

JO: Who benefits most in the short term? Users or vendors?

KT: Both users and HCI vendors can benefit. While most HCI solutions have a cost premium. SMB's can reduce overall operational expenses.

JO: Who is poised to be the single biggest loser?

KT: Legacy storage providers that sold into the SMB ROBO space may find that HCI cannibalizes those opportunities.

Thanks, Keith.

However, this space is rapidly heating up, as the bigs get into it.

I was at HPE’s sprawling Houston campus for HPE Tech Day, and HP seems to have taken hyperconverged even further with their ‘composable’ architecture. I shall have more on that in a later post.

*HP’s enterprise division is now a standalone company, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, or HPE.

**Keith Townsend is an Enterprise Architect and founder of http://www.thectoadvisor.com with over 18 years experience, including several with a "Big 4"global consultancy as a management consultant. He has a Bachelors and a Masters Degree from DePaul University, and currently works for a large BioPharma just north of Chicago.

Acronymania

  • HCI: HyperConverged Infrastructure
  • ROBO: Remote office/Branch Office
  • SMB: Here, as in Small & Medium-sized Business
  • VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

Nutanix is www.nutanix.com

© 2002 – 2016, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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