The document discusses when to select hyper-converged infrastructure, explaining its definition as the integration of compute, storage, and software into a single appliance. It contrasts hyper-convergence with converged systems and emphasizes the importance of performance, scale, and support in making purchasing decisions. Key hyper-converged vendors like Nutanix and Simplivity are mentioned, along with considerations on costs and efficiency.

1. When to Select
Hyperconverged
Infrastructure
KEITH TOWNSEND
2016 SYDNEY VMUG USER CONFERENCE

2. Introduction
AbbVie Sr. SAP Infrastructure Architect
Founder The CTOAdvisor – www.theCTOadvisor.com
Twitter: @CTOAdvisor
Career
• IT career began in the mid 90’s
• 2 years as a Program Chief Architect at Lockheed
Martin
• 2 years as Management Consultant with
PriceWaterhousCoopers (PwC)
Content
• Virtualizedgeek.com
• TechRepublic.com
• TheCTOAdvisor.com
• TechTarget.com

3. Application centers have the budget and greater
input into the buying decision.

5. What is Hyper-convergence
- The collaspe of compute, storage and software into a scale-out appliance.
Virtual Storage Array + Hypervisor + Management Software

6. Hyper-Converged vs. Converged
 Converged systems are engineered stacks
 Compute
 Network
 Storage
 Examples
 Oracle RAC
 SAP HANA
 Vblock
 HPE Converged Systems
Management
Software

7. How is Hyper-Converged Different
from BYO
 Tight H/W & S/W integration performed
Virtual Storage Array + Hypervisor - Management Software

8. Who are the Hyper Converged
Vendors

9. It’s about requirements
 Performance
 Scale
 Support

10. Performance
- Originally a VDI dominant use case
- Low latency
- Read heavy
- One size doesn’t fits all
- Nerd knobs
- ERP
- In memory data base

11. Scale
 Hyper-converge scales
 Nutanix – Laregest Deployment 1500 nodes (via @andreleibovici June 2015)
 Simplivity – Largest deployment is 200 OmniStack systems (Oct 2015)
 Scale Computing – Largest cluster size is 4
 Scale out vs. Scale up
 Modular design
 Can mean fixed configuration
 Software only options making changes
 Features such as erasure coding make it a challenge

12. Support
 Software support is baked in
 Similar consideration to Scale
 Simple support model
 Inefficient approach

13. Cost?
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20
40
60
80
100
120
0 50 100
Chart Title
Hyper Converged Converged BYO
Scale
Cost

14. So, when should you select hyper-
converged?