What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)?

What is Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)?

Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) is a proven model for delivering software-defined IT infrastructure that integrates and virtualises traditional infrastructure components (compute, network, storage and management) into a unified platform.

HCI typically reduces the cost and complexity of deploying on-premise data centre infrastructure while introducing increased levels of flexibility, scalability and performance. Businesses no longer need to rely on discrete infrastructure components that are procured and managed independently, such as compute nodes and data storage appliances.

Operate unified, robust data centre infrastructure.

Through the use of seamless virtualisation, HCI has evolved to create efficient pools of shared resources that can be dynamically assigned to different workloads as required. These workloads are abstracted from the underlying hardware through the use of software-defined capabilities that unlock greater levels of automation and operational stability.

There are many advantages of utilising modern HCI solutions over traditional infrastructure models:

• Reduced complexity - fully integrated compute, network, storage and management solutions are resilient, scalable and powerful by design with significantly reduced management overhead and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Increased versatility – fulfil a range of use cases and demands that modern businesses want to satisfy from machine learning (ML) environments to virtual desktops infrastructure (VDI), high-performance edge computing and disaster recovery with HCI.
• Rapid deployment - HCI solutions support a wide range of commodity hardware platforms with pre-configured and automated deployment patterns that are quick to implement and easy to scale.
• Superior performance – maximise resiliency and performance with highly optimised and configurable infrastructure clusters that deliver high throughput and fault tolerance without specialised hardware and software.

For IT leaders that are looking modernise and optimise their data centre environments, HCI is a highly effective approach that leverages the agility and flexibility of public cloud infrastructure without giving up control and relying on cloud service providers. With the added value of automation and advanced management capabilities, HCI offers a solid foundation to build and operate private cloud infrastructure that rivals mainstream public cloud services.