1. Hyperconvergence and Death of the
Storage Array
Stu Miniman, Wikibon Senior Analyst
Interop Las Vegas 2015
stu@wikibon.org
@stu

2. …OF
THE
TRADITIONAL
STORAGE
ARRAY
IS
COMING
…NOT
OF
STORAGE,
…NOT
OF
STORAGE
PEOPLE
2

3. Today’s Premise
• Why this isn’t hype-converged
• Is “IT simplicity” an oxymoron?
• Where are we on the journey?
3

4. Quick Discussion of Terminology
4

5. Server SAN
hFp://wikibon.org/Server_SAN
5

6. SOLUTIONS
(typically
100s
apps)
HYPER-­‐OPTIMIZED
(limited
#
apps)
6

7. Technology Pendulum Swings
• Aggregation/disaggregation, i.e., the new Mainframe
• Storage being pulled back into the server
Source
hFp://premium.wikibon.com/infrastructure
7

8. The Architecture
• Scale out…Distributed Systems
• Standardized, yet flexible
• It’s all about software, still requires a fully tested stack
• Inside, Outside, Open and Choice
• Flash, cloud, containers and beyond
8

9. Server SAN landscape (Hyperconverged)
More
Hyperconverged
Players
More
coming…
9

10. It’s a big enough umbrella…
Meet most of the criteria, but purposefully not meeting all
Scale-­‐out
All-­‐flash
array
SDN
meets
SDS
Data
Aware
Scale-­‐out
NAS
10

11. CIO Challenges
• Budgets and headcount are flat
• Exponential growth in data and steady increase of new
projects
• Competition from “the cloud”
IT
simplicity
translates
into
agility
and
flexibility
11

12. Your
Last
Refresh/Upgrade
Servers
Storage
Network
Backup
Get
off
the
hamster
wheel
and
into
the
infinity
pool!
12

13. Changing Design Mentality
13
Traditional
Model
Hyperscale-­‐like
Virtualized
Hardware
resiliency
So_ware/applica`on
resiliency
Sta`c/fixed
Dynamic
update/change
Network
Bare
metal
PaaS
13

14. Operational Impact
Conway’s
Law
“Organiza(ons
which
design
systems
…
are
constrained
to
produce
systems
which
are
copies
of
the
communica(on
structures
of
these
organiza(ons.”
FEAR:
Does
the
new
model
=
less
jobs?
14

15. Some
Final
Words
• Friends
don’t
let
friends
build
new
data
centers
• BoFlenecks
aren’t
eliminated,
they
are
simply
moved
• Don’t
let
legacy
[infrastructure,
applica`ons
or
mindset]
hold
your
business
back
15

16. Summary
• Server SAN architecture proven in hyperscale, early
days in enterprise
– 2014: ~ 600M hyperconverged; > $6B converged; > $1T IT
• Simplicity requires technology and people in sync
• Infrastructure serves your applications
16

17. Questions?
For more, get (mostly free) Research:
http://premium.wikibon.com
Join
me
for
an
awesome
panel
discussion
on
Friday
at
9am:
Should
Your
Infrastructure
Look
Like
‘s?
stu@wikibon.org
@stu