Viewing the World through the Lens of Hyper-converged Infrastructures

Every organization, consciously or unconsciously, views and evaluates new technologies through a lens. In recent years, they have largely evaluated new data center technologies in the context of virtualization and how easily it enabled them to achieve that end. That viewpoint has begun to change. Having largely virtualized their infrastructure, they increasingly view and evaluate new and existing data center technologies through the lens of hyper-converged infrastructures and how well these technologies support and enable the adoption hyper-converged infrastructure platforms in their environment.
Every so many years the viewpoint of organizations by necessity shifts to reflect the context of broader technology trends going on around them. Such a shift occurred about a decade ago when they began to view the acquisition of new technologies through the lens of virtualization. Those technologies that enabled them to virtualize their physical environment and/or better manage their increasingly virtualized environment were prioritized and viewed as a premium compared to those that could not.
Today’s movement to viewing all new and existing data center technologies through the lens of hyper-converged infrastructure platforms is no different and is largely the outgrowth of organizations having virtualized their data center infrastructures. Having largely virtualized many if not all their applications, they are looking for ways to capitalize on the benefits that their virtualized infrastructure affords them. Hyper-converged infrastructure platforms are rapidly emerging their preferred means to accomplish this end.
Organizations have multiple reasons for choosing hyper-converged infrastructures as the best platform to host their virtualized applications. The inherent abilities that hyper-converged infrastructures provide to organizations to better manage and optimize their virtualized environment include:

• Affordability
• Availability
• Data Mobility
• Expandability
• Flexibility
• Manageability
• Programmability
• Recoverability
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Serviceability
• Simplicity
• Upgradeability

These thirteen terms likely do not provide an exhaustive list of all the capabilities of hyper-converged infrastructures can offer to organizations. However, they do highlight the primary ones that make using this type of platform highly appealing to organizations and why they will select them and give them preference over alternative technology platforms that can host their virtualized environment.
It is for these reasons that DCIG is going to start viewing all enterprise data center technologies through a hyper-converged infrastructure lens. In much the same way that virtualization largely shaped the enterprise data center landscape for the past five to ten years, DCIG now expects that hyper-converged infrastructure platforms will have the same type of impact as enterprises adopt hyper-converged infrastructure platforms to fully capitalize on the benefits that virtualization affords them. As this transition toward the enterprise adoption of hyper-converged infrastructure platforms occur, look for DCIG to evaluate all technologies through that lens for the next few years.
Recent DCIG reports on the topic of hyper-converged infrastructure include:

• DCIG 2017-18 Hyperconverged Infrastructure Appliance Buyer’s Guide
• Eight Key Differentiators between Dell EMC VxRail and Nutanix NX Appliances
• Seven Key Features to Consider when Evaluating the VMware vSphere and Nutanix AHV Hypervisors