Businesses and organizations in all sectors strive for the most efficient infrastructure. They need an IT framework that will work best for them both now and in the years to come. In many cases, companies look to migrate workloads to the cloud.
There’s one form of on-premises framework, though, that’s gaining not losing popularity. That on-premises solution is hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). The global HCI market was worth $4.1 billion in 2018. It’s predicted to grow to a value of $17.1 billion by 2023.
HCI combines computing, storage, and networking into a single system. HCI systems can often run on a business’s standard servers. They avoid those inefficient silos with specialized hardware. The reason the HCI market is snowballing is thanks to the many benefits the systems offer. The following are seven of the most notable.
Even though HCI isn’t a cloud-based infrastructure, it is ideal for the cloud era. An era when everything from document storage to contact center solutions are becoming cloud-hosted. The framework boasts a simplified, flexible design.
HCI removes the silos and other barriers that slow down development. With such a system, an organization can far more swiftly manage data, deliver new apps, and more. In today’s world, which moves at breakneck speed, the ability to act quickly is priceless.
HCI platforms combine virtualized networking and computing, with software-defined storage. Typically, the software gets deployed in the same way, whether it’s hosted on a data center or in the cloud. That makes a hyper-converged framework ideal for any organization that wishes to build a hybrid system.
A team can deploy applications on-premises and combine them with a public cloud. Thanks to the identical deployment of software, they’ll know that apps will run the same in both scenarios.
3. Consolidated Analytics
It’s far easier to monitor and track the performance of HCI frameworks. HCI products often have extensive analytics software built in. That helps organizations keep an eye on workloads and more easily find drags on resources or performance.
Such monitoring is all often possible from one simple dashboard. That ease of reporting and analytics is vital to a busy business. Decision-makers are often managing remote teams, utilizing multiple systems, and otherwise spreading themselves thinly. Anything that saves time and ups efficiency is a godsend.
Another significant benefit of HCI is how to grow and develop with any organization. With storage, compute, and network solutions unified, a system is more readily scalable. In a legacy system, there’s far more involved in expanding the capabilities of your infrastructure. You may have to add new hardware – like new servers or a hypervisor – and spend time configuring it.
Scalability is vital to growing companies. It is equally essential for any organization whose IT needs may change suddenly. With an HCI system, new resources and capabilities can get added to a framework with ease. Everything is software-defined. The system's software can auto-configure to account for any changes.
HCI integrates three diverse elements into one solution. Hyper-converged platforms bring together storage, compute, and networking. With a traditional system, your organization may need specialists to manage each element.
If you opt for an HCI, management is more straightforward. Often, general tech staff or consultants can oversee the whole setup.
There are many elements of hyper-converged products that can improve disaster recovery. Most HCI systems have top-end data protection, recovery, backup, and data deduplication capabilities. That’s not to mention the analytics needed to track and manage it all.
An essential result of the improved disaster recovery capabilities is shorter recovery timeframes. With a hyper-converged solution, your firm can be back to normal operations far more swiftly.
HCI is more straightforward to manage than legacy alternatives. That means your tech staff can spend less time handling storage or other similar issues. Instead, they can focus their attention on more pressing matters.
What’s more, with HCI, it’s more straightforward to reduce your hardware footprint if required. It’s another plus of moving away from those all too familiar silos. Doing so lets you eliminate what may prove to be unnecessary hardware. You may no longer, for example, need as much off-site equipment for backup purposes.
Building the correct IT framework is essential to the success of any organization. Reach peak efficiency and cover your future needs, and you’re well-placed for success. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) may be the solution you’ve been searching for. The above seven benefits should have made it clear why it’s a kind of setup you need to consider.
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