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Creating Efficiency with Converged Infrastructure: How to Reduce Overall Space

Sponsored by: Dell and Intel.

Today, converged infrastructure aims to unify powerful data center resources and introduce new levels of economics for the business. It’s important to see just how much we’re advancing when it comes to data delivery, new types of devices connecting into the data center, and how it’s impacting your business.

Converged systems are powerful platforms that took the industry by storm when introduced. With built-in automation, high-density architecture, and high-performance chassis, converged systems help architect a very robust cloud and storage environment. The idea is to create unparalleled density and allow for resources to be delivered as effectively as possible. Furthermore, industry trends show the pace of converged systems adoption will only continue to grow. According to a recent Gartner report, hyper-converged integrated systems will represent over 35% of total integrated system market revenue by 2019.

Consider this – in a recent Dell EMC | Intel survey looking at the most modern data center trends, we see exactly why so many organizations are deploying hyperconverged and converged infrastructure systems. The number #1 response for hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), for example, is to help reduce overall data center space, with 55% of respondents indicating that it’s their main concern. From there, another 30% are hoping for both better density for virtualization as well as reduced deployment risk.

There are very real reasons we’re seeing this level of growth.

  • Converged Infrastructure Enables Enterprise Scalability. With converged infrastructure (CI) you see the integration of core resources and delivery technologies. These are no longer segmented systems sitting in silos within your data center. Because of this tight integration, administrators can quickly deploy more infrastructure to support business use-cases. Most of all, this level of rapid scale helps organizations properly utilize resources as they are delivered to applications, desktops and users. We’ll touch on this later – but CI is deployed in efficient (validated) building blocks. You can effectively forecast your level of scale as your business needs grow.
  • Enabling Greater Amounts of Density. A great way to create better ROI and reduce space is to efficiently place more users on less gear. CI gives users this option by combining key resources into one management plane. With converged infrastructure – you create a mechanism which can host apps, desktops, and a variety of other use-related use-cases. This means you can support more users while still reducing your overall data center footprint. In working with CI, you’re not just placing more users onto an infrastructure. With VDI and virtualization, you’re removing legacy end-points and providing even better user experiences than before. Today’s CI architectures combine best-of-breed systems to handle more users, while still optimizing user experiences.
  • Reducing Deployment Risk and Size. Converged infrastructure is deployed in pre-validated blocks of architecture which are referenced and tested to work with a variety of deployment scenarios. This means that organizations are working with technologies that have been tested and verified to work in their specific use-case. This helps reduce deployment complexity, significantly lowers the risk of making a mistake, and ensuring that the piece of architecture you have not only deploys properly – but can also scale. Risk is the factor that often slows down critical deployments or puts the brakes on great IT projects. With CI, you mitigate that risk with validated designs for your specific IT and business needs. This means the environment is sized, configured, and oftentimes validated before it even goes in your ecosystem.
  • Saving on Data Center Real-Estate. When working with modern converged infrastructure solutions, you absolutely create new levels of scale and density; along with making the environment easier to deploy. An added benefit surrounds new IT initiatives around reducing data center footprints. CI allows you to remove legacy infrastructure to enable greater amounts of IT flexibility. Remember, with this reclaimed space, you’re capable of optimizing cooling requirements, power needs, and even management. Finally, CI can be deployed in a wide variety of sizes. This means you can support larger as well as smaller (branch) data center locations. Instead of just putting in some heterogenous gear at a branch location, smaller CI nodes can integrate with the overall infrastructure while still keeping the footprint small.

New types of converged systems are helping define the next-generation data center. Organizations looking to create cloud-scale ecosystems must look to convergence to help them evolve. These kinds of systems help manage resources, reduce IT costs, and help create real competitive advantages for the business.

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