Is Convergence the next wave of Virtualization?

What is the next wave of virtualization? Now that many businesses have consolidated their server infrastructure, a potential next logical course is to find ways to simplify the management of other resources in the data center like storage and networking devices. Converged infrastructure solutions incorporate all the elements required to support business applications – servers, virtualized software, networking equipment and storage to create a single stack in the data center. But infrastructure convergence is a relative term, so IT buyers need to beware, not all converged solutions are as converged as you might think.

Register for the on demand webinar "Is Convergence right for you? – 4 questions to ask"

How Converged Is The Solution?

Forewarned is forearmed. StorageSwiss arm our subscribers with the information they need when evaluating converged solutions in the on demand webinar, “Is Convergence Right For You? – 4 Questions To Ask”. The most important question to ask is, how is the converged solution designed? Just because a vendor claims they are in the converged solutions space doesn’t necessarily mean that all of their components were built from the ground up to be a single, cohesive system. Some converged offerings are merely a pre-integrated, shrink wrapped solution composed of disparate components.

Converged Simplicity?

While there is some value in pre-integrated offerings, IT decision makers need to consider the level of effort it will take to manage these systems. So several questions to ask include; Does the solution still require separate management of each component, like a non-converged solution? Or can resources be deployed in tandem from a single interface? Can the solution be managed by IT generalists? Or does it require senior level expertise? In short, how simple is it?

Converged Scalability?

Another important question to ask is how the solution scales. One of the challenges with scale-out infrastructure is that some solutions require that CPU, storage and networking resources get deployed at the same time. An application, for example, may only need extra storage capacity not compute resources. A converged solution that adds compute, storage and network in lockstep when it scales, will have a higher total cost of ownership, caused by wasted resources.

We will cover all four questions in detail when you join us for the on demand webinar with Scale Computing so that you can determine what converged offering is the right one for your organization. By viewing today you gain access to our exclusive white paper, “Virtualization Made Simple With Hyperconverged Infrastructure”.

In addition, all registrants will be able to access Storage Switzerland’s extensive library of on demand webinars, many with exclusive white papers, without having to re-register.

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About Colm Keegan

As a 22 year IT veteran, Colm has worked in a variety of capacities ranging from technical support of critical OLTP environments to consultative sales and marketing for system integrators and manufacturers. His focus in the enterprise storage, backup and disaster recovery solutions space extends from mainframe and distributed computing environments across a wide range of industries.