Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) – What’s Included, What’s in It for Credit Unions and Other Financial Institutions -- and How to Get Started (Part 2)
Hyperconverged – What’s Included?
Does a “data center in a box” sound appealing? Hyperconverged infrastructure is oftentimes referred to in this fashion as after the preliminary cabling and minimal networking configuration, it has all of the features and functionality of the traditional 3-2-1 virtualization architecture (except that single point of failure).
Fast Deployment
Due to its appliance-based architecture, hyperconverged infrastructure systems can be deployed much more quickly than other virtualization solutions. Racking and networking are usually the most time-consuming elements of the implementation. Deployment times differ by vendor, especially if there is a third party hypervisor to install and VSAs to configure. But with a native hypervisor pre-loaded, an entire cluster of appliances can be up and running in under an hour in your financial services environment.
Streamlined Management
Single pane of glass management, or a single pane view, can be enjoyed with a hyperconverged infrastructure solution. This stands in stark contrast to the multiple management consoles and interfaces necessary in 3-2-1 architectures. Of course, this is not automatically the case for hyperconverged infrastructure solutions using third-party hypervisors which typically end up using two interfaces. For hyperconverged infrastructures with a native hypervisor included, this single interface tactic dramatically decreases management time and effort and streamlines management tasks for the administrator.
Backup and Disaster Recovery (DR)
In order to help eliminate yet another vendor from your IT environment, backup and disaster recovery (DR) are often times included at no extra cost in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions. And really, backup, failover, failback, and DR should be a part of every IT environment. Consequently, it makes perfect sense to include these features natively in hyperconverged infrastructure solutions. Unlike third-party solutions, native solutions are typically embedded in the storage layer and allow innate awareness of block changes for cleaner backup, replication and recovery options.
Clustering for High Availability
While a hyperconverged infrastructure can many times be deployed as a single appliance for selected use cases, it is commonly architected as a cluster of appliances for high availability. Hence, not only can an appliance absorb the loss of a disk drive, but the cluster can absorb the loss of an entire appliance. Clustering also enables the hyperconverged infrastructure system to scale seamlessly by adding additional appliances to the cluster. Some hyperconverged infrastructure solutions require clustering appliances of the same model and configuration, while others allow clustering of heterogeneous appliances.
Software and Hardware Updates
Conducting regular system software and firmware updates can be a dreaded task in financial organizations. But, hyperconverged infrastructures can make this process easy. By owning the entire virtualization, server, and storage stack, and operating in a highly available cluster, updates can be performed automatically across the entire cluster. All software layers (hardware firmware, hypervisor, storage, and management) can be upgraded simultaneously as a single, fully tested system to eradicate component compatibility concerns. VMs can be automatically moved from appliance to appliance in the cluster as updates are made to keep all systems operational. hyperconverged infrastructure can eliminate downtime and headaches when performing updates.
Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
A hyperconverged infrastructure may not always be the lowest cost solution in terms of the initial capital investment―although it often is due to the ease of scalability which enables organizations to purchase only the needed appliances and does not require excessive over-provisioning in the initial investment. Buying only what you need, when you need it, can lead to dramatic savings. In addition to capital savings, a hyperconverged infrastructure provides considerable operational savings over time as well, by greatly reducing the costs of management and maintenance. Simplifying an IT environment with a hyperconverged infrastructure can save over 50 percent in the total cost of ownership over 3-2-1 solutions.
So, What’s In It for Financial Services Organizations?
Hyperconverged Infrastructure is designed as a replacement for 3-2-1 architecture to eliminate excess cost and complexity. Therefore, it can benefit any size financial services organization that requires a robust virtualization environment. However, the extreme simplicity of a hyperconverged infrastructure makes it highly beneficial in use cases where IT staff is limited, for instance smaller branch offices....-->
Hyperconverged – What’s Included?
Does a “data center in a box” sound appealing? Hyperconverged infrastructure is oftentimes referred to in this fashion as after the preliminary cabling and minimal networking configuration, it has all of the features and functionality of the traditional 3-2-1 virtualization architecture (except that single point of failure).
Fast Deployment
Due to its appliance-based architecture, hyperconver...