7 questions I put on Evo:Rail reference architecture and I get the answers.

1. 7x Evo:Rail
Questions and Answers

2. What is Hyper-Converged Infrastructure?
• It is usualy an appliance (rack-mounted) where everything is unified –
computing, storage, networking, management, support services – to
one box
• This appliance is hardly pre-defined (aka reference architecture) to
keep promised performance (game console-like approach) and
scalability

3. Q1: Why there is no All-Flash Storage Inside?
• Because of used storage virtualization technology, both of HDD and
SSD is used – Vmware‘s VSAN and/or* EMC‘s ScaleIO is applied
• Separate storage technology (SLC) is used for ESXi boot image
* It is fuzzy now, what of these technologies are used for what

4. Q2: What Kind of VDI is it Sized for?
• As vendor claims 250 VDI clients is the appliance sized for, in fact
these 250 are Linked-clones, not Full-clones

5. Q3: Evo:Rail vs VSPEX Blue?
• VSPEX Blue is one of products based on Evo:Rail reference
infrastructure (there are in sum at the date 9 different vendors of
Evo:Rail based box)

6. Q4: Is it HA Positive between more DCs?
• No, not yet. You cannot create active-active cluster i.e. to ensure low
RTO times (for virtual desktop recovery on other site while disaster
occurs.
• There are alternative methods (e.g. use of replication solution within
EMC VSPEX Blue bundle... or wait for metro-cluster technology)

7. Q5: Who is the Competitor to Evo:Rail?

8. Q6: What is the Difference – Vblock vs. VSPEX (Blue)
• Vblock is a wired-through rack, converged infrastructure with pre-
defined components (VCE => from Vmware, Cisco, EMC) and single
SLA point
• VSPEX is a proven infrastructure rack with not pre-defined
components (but proven work together well) and multi-SLA point
• VSPEX Blue is an appliance where all inside is virtualized, with single
SLA point

9. Q7: Is it Possible to Virtualize Entire Box?
• No, there is no commercial option (anyway, Vmware „hands-on labs“
demo runs on no real box – question is if the demo is nested-virtual
machine or simulator)

10. 7x Evo:Rail
END