The datacentre is the heart of any company. In our modern era, if a company wants to scale up easily or fully optimize workloads then it’s imperative that this core be equipped with reliable, scalable, and agile infrastructure that is impervious to outside conditions. Today, that equates to moving from using traditional datacentre technology to using hyperconverged infrastructure.
Hyperconverged infrastructure or HCI is essentially an integrated software-defined datacentre solution that combines compute, storage, networking, and virtualization into a single easily deployable appliance allowing teams to:
- Simplify their IT management and reduce complexity
- Create a cloud-like experience in their own controlled data center environments
- Increase productivity of IT teams in order to drive business efficiency
Companies are simplifying IT management and reducing the complexity of traditional datacentre technology
Before HCI, companies were struck with a high level of complexity when operating their datacentre environments. The traditional way meant an increased amount of hardware and software components which often time seemed never-ending and required its own set of staffing and specializations to manage. Moreover, there was the possibility of being faced with incompatibility issues that plagued IT teams when dealing with multiple vendors for each appliance and oftentimes resulted in vendor lock-in. But how does HCI simplify traditional datacentre technology?
Well, for one, by consolidating storage, compute, network, and virtualization resources into a single console, companies are able to reduce their datacentre footprint. The Companies Office of Jamaica for example, after their HCI installation they have been able to reduce their number of servers by 65% without compromising efficiency, performance, and agility. With HCI, IT teams no longer need to be overwhelmed by an insurmountable volume of hardware to “babysit”, or be tied into aging maintenance contracts. Instead, they can benefit from unparalleled simplicity that can be easily managed by junior administrators.
What’s more, a software-defined and hypervisor agnostic HCI such as the one Nutanix offers, enables the freedom to choose and the ability to run workloads on top of what already exists, so that it’s easy to make the transition.
Companies are creating a cloud-like experience in their own controlled datacentre environment
Many businesses are moving to the public cloud due to a plethora of benefits including reduced downtime and maintenance and, easy scalability when compared to traditional data centres. This allows for a quicker time-to-market and provides the agility required by enterprises today.
However, despite this, companies are also moving back on-premise (on-prem). According to a 2019 study done by Nutanix, ‘73% of companies were reported to have repatriated to their own datacenter environments’. But why is this?
The answer is simple, most companies that moved away from the cloud were faced with issues such as security concerns over lack of control, as well as complex and uncertain legislation when it came to data privacy and protection.
But, what if your IT team could experience all the benefits of the cloud on-prem without compromising security and control?
HCI, like the public cloud, enables businesses to quickly scale up or down based on demands while also giving them freedom and control over data and applications. With a single click, businesses can expand or reduce critical apps on-premises without downtime or disruptions to operations.
Plus with cloud intelligence, businesses are empowered to automate IT operations so that they can focus on what truly matters – the business.
Increase productivity of IT teams in order to drive business efficiency
The challenges of datacentre management are time-consuming and laborious. Managing traditional datacentres is complex and requires hours, both regular and overtime, doing constant checks and provisioning independent servers, storage, and networking arrays so that your users can work seamlessly and undisrupted.
This is made easy with modern HCI. A case in point is the Tourism Product Development Company, which after its HCI installation over one year ago has experienced near-zero downtime and a 70% reduction in time to spin up new servers, ultimately freeing IT teams to focus on more value-driven projects.
With the more streamlined and efficient operations enabled by HCI, IT teams are able to become more productive, investing more time and resources into developing actual products for customers instead of constantly looking over appliances.
IT is more than just tech support. IT is a business enabler and organizations must realize this so that they can unlock its full potential and reap the benefits, which will not only lead to a productive and fulfilled IT team, but also increase ROI and profitability for the business.
An Invisible infrastructure that works for you
Infrastructure should be invisible and simply just do the work. That’s the whole premise of technology; to make things easier. But, it would seem traditional data centers are doing everything besides that.
The future of the datacentre lies in HCI. The technology provides businesses with the ability to consolidate, optimize and virtualize IT infrastructure in order to simplify the management of complex workloads. These capabilities not only reduce complexity by eliminating dependencies on multiple vendors or legacy hardware solutions but also promotes productivity giving IT teams the freedom to focus on innovation. With these benefits at hand, it’s easy to see why many enterprises are turning their attention away from traditional approaches and towards this innovative new technology.
