Converged infrastructure

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Difference between non-converged, converged and hyper-converged network storage Hyperconvergence.jpg
Difference between non-converged, converged and hyper-converged network storage

Converged infrastructure is a way of structuring an information technology (IT) system which groups multiple components into a single optimized computing package. Components of a converged infrastructure may include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.

Contents

IT organizations use converged infrastructure to centralize the management of IT resources, to consolidate systems, to increase resource-utilization rates, and to lower costs. Converged infrastructures foster these objectives by implementing pools of computers, storage and networking resources that can be shared by multiple applications and managed in a collective manner using policy-driven processes. [1]

IT vendors and IT industry analysts use various terms to describe the concept of a converged infrastructure. These include "converged system", "unified computing", "fabric-based computing", and "dynamic infrastructure".

The evolution of data centers

Historically, to keep pace with the growth of business applications and the data they generate, IT resources were deployed in a silo-like fashion. One set of resources has been devoted to one particular computing technology, business application or line of business. These resources support a single set of assumptions and cannot be optimized or reconfigured to support varying usage loads.

The proliferation of IT sprawl in data centers has contributed to rising operations costs, reducing productivity, and stifling agility and flexibility. Maintenance and operations can consume two-thirds of an organization's technology budget, according to a 2009 InformationWeek survey of executives in 500 companies with annual revenue over $250 million. [2] That leaves just a third of the budget for new IT initiatives. This ratio prevents IT from supporting new business initiatives or responding to real application demands.

A converged infrastructure addresses the problem of siloed architectures and IT sprawl by pooling and sharing IT resources. Rather than dedicating a set of resources to a particular computing technology, application or line of business, converged infrastructure creates a pool of virtualized servers, storage and networking capacity that is shared by multiple applications and lines of business.

Benefits

Converged infrastructure provides both technical and business efficiencies, according to industry researchers and observers. [3] These gains stem in part from the pre-integration of technology components, the pooling of IT resources and the automation of IT processes. Converged infrastructure further contributes to efficient data centers by enhancing the ability of cloud computing systems to handle enormous data sets, using only a single integrated IT management system [4]

Writing in CIO magazine , Forrester Research analyst Robert Whiteley noted that converged infrastructures, combining server, storage, and networks into a single framework, help to transform the economics [of] running the datacenter thus accelerating the transition to IP storage to help build infrastructures that are "cloud-ready". [5] The combination of storage and compute into a single entity is known as converged storage. [6]

Decreased complexity, through the use of pre-integrated hardware with virtualization and automation management tools, is another important value proposition for converged infrastructure as noted in an IDC study. [7]

In April 2012, the open source analyst firm Wikibon released the first market forecast for converged infrastructure, [8] with a projected $402 billion total available market (TAM) by 2017 of which, nearly 2/3 of the infrastructure that supports enterprise applications will be packaged in some type of converged solution by 2017.

InformationWeek [9] highlighted the promise of two long-term advantages of a unified data center infrastructure:

1. Lower costs as the result of both:
  • lower capital expenses resulting from higher utilization, less cabling, and fewer network connections;
  • lower operating costs resulting from reduced labor via automated data center management and a consolidating storage and network management infrastructure teams.
2. Increased IT agility by:

Data centers around the world are reaching limits in power, cooling and space. [10] At the same time, capital constraints are requiring organizations to rethink data center strategy. Converged infrastructure offers a solution to these challenges.

Converged infrastructure and cloud computing

Converged infrastructure can serve as an enabling platform for private and public cloud computing services, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) offerings.

Several characteristics make converged infrastructure well suited to cloud deployments. These include the ability to pool IT resources, to automate resource provisioning and to scale up and down capacity quickly to meet the needs of dynamic computing workloads.

See also

Related Research Articles

In system administration, orchestration is the automated configuring, coordinating, and managing of computer systems and software.

Information technology management or IT management is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities. Managing the responsibility within a company entails many of the basic management functions, like budgeting, staffing, change management, and organizing and controlling, along with other aspects that are unique to technology, like software design, network planning, tech support etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud computing</span> Form of shared Internet-based computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and typically uses a pay-as-you-go model, which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for users.

Dynamic Infrastructure is an information technology concept related to the design of data centers, whereby the underlying hardware and software can respond dynamically and more efficiently to changing levels of demand. In other words, data center assets such as storage and processing power can be provisioned to meet surges in user's needs. The concept has also been referred to as Infrastructure 2.0 and Next Generation Data Center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabric computing</span>

Fabric computing or unified computing involves constructing a computing fabric consisting of interconnected nodes that look like a weave or a fabric when seen collectively from a distance.

HP Cloud Service Automation is cloud management software from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that is used by companies and government agencies to automate the management of cloud-based IT-as-a-service, from order, to provision, and retirement. HP Cloud Service Automation orchestrates the provisioning and deployment of complex IT services such as of databases, middleware, and packaged applications. The software speeds deployment of application-based services across hybrid cloud delivery platforms and traditional IT environments.

HP Business Service Automation was a collection of software products for data center automation from the HP Software Division of Hewlett-Packard Company. The products could help Information Technology departments create a common, enterprise-wide view of each business service; enable the automation of change and compliance across all devices that make up a business service; connect IT processes and coordinate teams via common workflows; and integrate with monitoring and ticketing tools to form a complete, integrated business service management solution. HP now provides many of these capabilities as part of HP Business Service Management software and solutions.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Networking is the networking products division of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). HPE Networking and its predecessor entities have a long history of developing and selling networking products. Today, it offers campus and small business networking products through its wholly owned company Aruba Networks which was acquired in 2015. Prior to this, HP Networking was the entity within HP offering networking products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Converged storage</span>

Converged storage is a storage architecture that combines storage and computing resources into a single entity. This can result in the development of platforms for server centric, storage centric or hybrid workloads where applications and data come together to improve application performance and delivery. The combination of storage and compute differs to the traditional IT model in which computation and storage take place in separate or siloed computer equipment. The traditional model requires discrete provisioning changes, such as upgrades and planned migrations, in the face of server load changes, which are increasingly dynamic with virtualization, where converged storage increases the supply of resources along with new VM demands in parallel.

HP ConvergedSystem is a portfolio of system-based products from Hewlett-Packard (HP) that integrates preconfigured IT components into systems for virtualization, cloud computing, big data, collaboration, converged management, and client virtualization. Composed of servers, storage, networking, and integrated software and services, the systems are designed to address the cost and complexity of data center operations and maintenance by pulling the IT components together into a single resource pool so they are easier to manage and faster to deploy. Where previously it would take three to six months from the time of order to get a system up and running, it now reportedly takes as few as 20 days with the HP ConvergedSystem.

HP CloudSystem is a cloud infrastructure from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) that combines storage, servers, networking and software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual Computing Environment</span> American computer hardware brand

Virtual Computing Environment Company (VCE) was a division of EMC Corporation that manufactured converged infrastructure appliances for enterprise environments. Founded in 2009 under the name Acadia, it was originally a joint venture between EMC and Cisco Systems, with additional investments by Intel and EMC subsidiary VMware. EMC acquired a 90% controlling stake in VCE from Cisco in October 2014, giving it majority ownership. VCE ended in 2016 after an internal division realignment, followed by the sale of EMC to Dell.

Software-defined storage (SDS) is a marketing term for computer data storage software for policy-based provisioning and management of data storage independent of the underlying hardware. Software-defined storage typically includes a form of storage virtualization to separate the storage hardware from the software that manages it. The software enabling a software-defined storage environment may also provide policy management for features such as data deduplication, replication, thin provisioning, snapshots and backup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HP Cloud</span> Set of cloud computing services

HP Cloud was a set of cloud computing services available from Hewlett-Packard that offered public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, managed private cloud and other cloud services. It was the combination of the previous HP Converged Cloud business unit and HP Cloud Services, an OpenStack-based public cloud. It was marketed to enterprise organizations to combine public cloud services with internal IT resources to create hybrid clouds, or a mix of private and public cloud environments, from around 2011 until 2016.

Software-defined data center is a marketing term that extends virtualization concepts such as abstraction, pooling, and automation to all data center resources and services to achieve IT as a service (ITaaS). In a software-defined data center, "all elements of the infrastructure — networking, storage, CPU and security – are virtualized and delivered as a service."

Cloud management is the management of cloud computing products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyper-converged infrastructure</span> Software infrastructure system

Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software-defined IT infrastructure that virtualizes all of the elements of conventional "hardware-defined" systems. HCI includes, at a minimum, virtualized computing, software-defined storage, and virtualized networking. HCI typically runs on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAP Converged Cloud</span> Private computing cloud

SAP Converged Cloud is a private managed cloud developed and marketed by SAP.

Composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI), sometimes stylized as composable/disaggregated infrastructure, is a technology that allows enterprise data center operators to achieve the cost and availability benefits of cloud computing using on-premises networking equipment. It is considered a class of converged infrastructure, and uses management software to combine compute, storage and network elements. It is similar to public cloud, except the equipment sits on premises in an enterprise data center.

A secure access service edge (SASE) is technology used to deliver wide area network (WAN) and security controls as a cloud computing service directly to the source of connection rather than a data center. It uses cloud and edge computing technologies to reduce the latency that results from backhauling all WAN traffic over long distances to one or a few corporate data centers, due to the increased movement off-premises of dispersed users and their applications. This also helps organizations support dispersed users and their devices with digital transformation and application modernization initiatives.

References

  1. ↑ Overview of Converged Infrastructure
  2. ↑ InformationWeek Reports ::Research: 2009 InformationWeek 500 Report Archived 2010-05-16 at the Wayback Machine . Analytics.informationweek.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-26.
  3. ↑ Mani, Rahul Neel with Donatelli, Dave. "Converged Infrastructure Means Endless Possibilities," InfoSec Island Archived 2010-12-16 at the Wayback Machine , August 5, 2010
  4. ↑ Cuny, Tim. "Efficient Data Centers Are Built On New Technologies and Strategies" (PDF). www.cm-inc.com/. CMI (Chouinard & Myhre, Inc.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Whiteley, Robert. Forrester Research."Your Next IT Budget: 6 Ways to Support Business Growth," CIO Magazine Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine , July 21, 2010
  6. ↑ Davis, Jessica. "Pivot3 Offers Converged Storage Platform to Data Protection Market," ChannelInsider, September 30, 2010. Archived 2020-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Broderick, Katherine and Scaramella, Jed. "Considering All of IT: Converged Infrastructure Survey Findings," [ permanent dead link ] IDC, June 2010
  8. ↑ Converged Infrastructure Takes the Market by Storm - Wikibon
  9. ↑ Crump, George. "Why 'Unified' Is The Hot New Idea For Data Centers," InformationWeek, March 14, 2009
  10. ↑ Uptime Institute."Many data centers running out of space this year or next," Archived 2011-12-07 at the Wayback Machine May 23, 2011.
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