Hey there! Ever wondered what goes on in the information technology sector as regards executing workloads across the virtual terrain? Or are you already a member of this virtual workforce, looking for the right data infrastructure to ease your tasks?
Whatever category you fall in, this guide to the knowledge and implementation of hyperconverged infrastructure, or HCI for short, will open your minds to the constant evolution that goes on in the world of digital task execution.
The time has come when systems defined by their hardware characteristics are no longer the hottest-selling infrastructure on the digital market. People now yearn for a system that has evolved past these discrete, soon-to-be-obsolete, hardware-defined metrics.
But what’s the technological space without evolution? This feature of IT has led to the discovery of a software-defined space where deployment and storage are made possible on the same software. Welcome dear friends, to the age of hyperconverged infrastructure.
What Is Hyperconverged Infrastructure?
Imagine a system that combines all the elements of hardware-defined systems and “virtualizes” them. To put this plainly, it takes the components of hardware systems, computes them, and produces a virtual version of this system.
This removes the dependency on multiple hardware components for different tasks most especially the deployment and storage of tasks. Still want more? Then let’s dive deeper into the nitty-gritty of HCI. We’ll start with the components that give life to this infrastructure.
The mechanism of hyperconverged infrastructure can be broken down into three components:
- Software-defined storage
- Virtualized networking system
- Off-the-shelf servers
The combination of these components leads to the emergence of a platform that provides you with the ability to create dynamic blocks that replace the conventional, legacy infrastructure characterized by separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays.
Having gained a proper insight into the components that make hyperconverged infrastructure work, let’s take a step further and discuss the actual workings of this system.
How Does Hyperconverged Infrastructure Work?
So, what this system does is that it takes into concept two distinct but interconnected components of data infrastructure; datacenter server (based on commodity hardware) and storage devices (locally attached). So, what happens next?
What transpires next is the combination of these features into a fluid system that is generated and run by a distributed software layer. The aim of this combination is to provide IT workers with an infrastructure that reduces or eliminates the issues that come with depending on legacy infrastructure.
Conclusion: Is This Goodbye To Converged Infrastructure?
You might be wondering; from the name, ‘‘hyperconverged infrastructure’’, surely there must be a ‘converged’ form. Well, this grammatical forensics of the term is not far-fetched as the converged infrastructure does exist.
In fact, when we talk about converged infrastructure, we’re talking about the ‘non-evolved’ version of HCI, the sole difference being the approach. Converged infrastructure adopts a hardware-based approach to deploying tasks and data storage.
So, is this ‘adios’ to the hardware-based method of storage and processes convergence? Well, that remains to be seen as the hyperconverged approach has not yet proven to be a 100% hit.
