How to Choose the Right Hyper Converged Infrastructure
Hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) has revolutionized the storage industry by combining high performance computing capabilities on the same platform. Enterprises are increasingly adopting the technology for overall reduced costs, increased efficiency, and time saved.
It can get confusing to choose an HCI platform because of the number of alternatives and products. Today we will reveal how to choose the best HCI platform for your enterprise so that you have optimum results.
Let’s begin!
- Reduce Risk and Increase Reliability with a Trusted Hypervisor
The HCI is based on the hypervisor which refers to the “hyper” in hyper-converged. It is an important factor as it is responsible for virtualization activities ranging from increased availability to operational efficiency.
The hypervisor should be industry leading with a broad ecosystem to support a host of applications. VMware is a leading name in the industry which drives more than 500,000 enterprises around the world.
The hypervisor should optimize the existing hardware to cut down on server resources and deliver cost savings.
- Achieve More with a Simple and Integrated Software Stack
HCI increases efficiency by carrying out its function with a single software stack. A single stack means fewer software components will need to be managed, installed, tracked, and/or fixed. It will also increase the operational efficiency by integrating crucial functions in a single platform to cut down dependencies between teams.
You will also be able to lower resource overhead with the streamlined software stack. The absence of bolted-on virtual appliances saves resources and results in higher virtual machine density.
- Aim for IT Agility with Advanced Automation Features
Advanced automation features in HCI enable your team to focus on important issues, increasing their efficiency. Your HCI platform should support full automation to yield the maximum ROI.
An HCI with features like automated storage provisioning and auto-discovery of resources will save your time. A platform with built-in reporting feature and improved monitoring also enables you to handle dynamic business requirements.
Some HCI solutions also come with the ability to rebalance and rebuild computing and storage resources.
- Align Your Growing Business Needs with Fine-Grain and Non-Disruptive Scaling
The competitive nature of the current market doesn’t produce consistent demand. Sometimes it rises and then falls again to rise back once more. It is very difficult for traditional infrastructures to adapt to such rapid changes.
Go for an HCI that lets you scale up and scale out in a hassle free way. The solution should decouple computing and storage nodes so that scaling is done seamlessly. You can also support more applications by expanding your environment and add more users in the VDI environment.
- Flexible Methods of Deployment to Assimilate Business Objectives and IT Capabilities
No organization has the exact same needs and will require something specific to meet its particular objectives. A customized or turnkey HCI solution with rapid deployment will come in handy in such a case.
Look for an HCI that uses standard hardware for all storing, computing, and management activities. A versatile solution will also help you prevent incidents of vendor lock-in.
Also, it’s better to opt for a solution that doesn’t bind the software license with hardware permanently and lets you keep your options open.
- High Performance and Consistency for Complex Business Critical Applications
Intensive workloads and business critical applications are becoming common things for IT of modern enterprises. The HCI should have high performance capabilities to satisfy the changing demands.
You can consider all-flash systems which are coming out as the future of primary storage. The platforms should also support latest technologies without requiring any hardware modification.
Fast response times and greater VM density are also contributors to efficiency.
- Handle Staggering Data Volumes with Reliable Data Services
Businesses are dealing with increasing volumes of data on a daily basis. The coming of big data and the rise of multiple devices generates more and more data.
An HCI with data efficiency features like compression, deduplication, and erasure coding improve storage utilization. The platform should also guarantee zero data loss and zero downtime so that your business doesn’t suffer any loss. Some HCI solutions offer up to 99.999% availability!
Such a platform with advanced data services will help you tackle the challenges of big data.
- Features to offer Lower TCO
You can free up your budget for strategic business investments by using HCI to lower your total cost of ownership. HCIs that come with industry standard hardware don’t require expensive forklift upgrades, saving hardware costs. It can lower the burden on team members and also eliminate the need to depend on purpose-built hardware.
Operational expenses can also be lowered with automation and integrated management of the platform. Go with a provider that offers long term technical support to prevent unexpected maintenance costs.
- Modern and Future Ready Architecture
Your HCI should be a high performance and scalable architecture which delivers an agile and operational framework. It should also be capable of exploiting emerging technologies and accommodate future architectures and applications.
The HCI solution should not develop any performance issues as your usage grows, allowing you to deploy and virtualize applications seamlessly and run intensive business critical apps without any glitch.
- Reliable Customer Support to Resolve Issue Instantly
It’s better to go with a single vendor for your HCI needs as you will be able to get support for all issues from a single touchpoint.
Leading solution providers even have advanced monitoring engineered in their product. You can quickly troubleshoot without even contacting the service provider. Check the quality of service by getting in touch with the customer care and research.
We have covered the most important considerations when it comes to choosing an HCI solution, hopefully this will help you make an informed decision.
