What is converged and hyper-converged infrastructure? A converged infrastructure (CI) is a legacy-based form of IT data center management that gathers together and integrates integral components of storage, compute, and other processes to save time, reduce productivity issues. and minimize costs. Everything is bundled together in a single device and is proven, pre-integrated, and ready to deploy. A converged infrastructure better facilitates the overall functionality of system processes by ensuring everything is already tried and tested to work effectively and seamlessly together without any issues. Overall, the goal of converged infrastructure is to greatly simplify data center management, increase efficiency, and lower costs.
A hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is software-based and shares many of the same goals as a converged infrastructure but offers a better scale-out approach. The intuitive software replaces legacy hardware infrastructure consisting of separate hardware, servers, storage, etc. HCI combines data center hardware with local storage devices and is powered by a software base to minimize problem points generally associated with legacy infrastructures. An HCI should not necessarily be considered better or faster than a CI, only that it is software-based and considered more flexible, robust, and agile. HCI configuration is based on preset, predefined protocols that make it unnecessary to utilize complicated devices, constructs, and architecture.
A converged infrastructure (CI) solution is where a third-party provider can assemble everything you need in a converged infrastructure created exactly to your standards. These offerings are developed by top industry providers and can be developed for any industry and satisfy any specific needs or requirements as needed. These solutions can deliver increased ROI and improve speed, efficiency, and productivity. A proven CI solution will make the process even easier by ensuring that compatibility issues are minimized and everything can be up and running in hours as opposed to days or even weeks. You can find a solution that can be tailor-made to fit your organizational needs, saving time, money, and valuable resources. Additionally, the solutions will provide training and support to ensure your CI tool is always running as expected and you and your team understand how to get the best results from your CI solution at all times.
When selecting a Converged Infrastructure solution for your organization, PeerSpot users recommend looking for a true end-to-end solution and choosing a vendor who will be able to to assist with the migration. Common concerns that should be taken into consideration include flexibility of configuration, scalability, and overall cost of the solution.
A converged infrastructure data center is a data center that is built on (CI). Without CI, data centers were taking up a significant amount of space, resulting in excessive costs and greatly reduced efficiencies. A CI data center is primarily an architecture that consolidates and combines hardware components into a single virtual data center and a single management process. These virtual datacenters simplify the processes, resulting in significant savings for business enterprises while increasing overall agility and productivity.
The benefits of using converged infrastructure include:
The disadvantages of using converged infrastructure include:
Features to look for in a converged infrastructure solution include:
