HCI CONCEPTSBY: NICHOLAS SCUOLA

WHO AM I?• HUSBAND AND DAD.• 20-ISH YEARS OF IT EXPERIENCE.• SENIOR ENGINEER, VIRTUALIZATION FOR VIACOM (MTV, VH1,

NICKELODEON, PARAMOUNT PICTURES).• U.S. MARINE CORPS VETERAN.• PART-TIME MALE MODEL.• @NSCUOLA ON TWITTER, • LINKEDIN.COM/IN/NICHOLASSCUOLA

REMEMBER WHEN…

• BACK IN 2001, ESX 1.0 (ELASTIC SKY X) & GSX 1.0 (GROUND STORM X) RELEASED.• IN 2003, VMWARE VIRTUALCENTER 1.0 WITH VMOTION RELEASED – NOV 10TH.• IN 2014, VMWARE ANNOUNCES GENERAL AVAILABILITY OF VMWARE VIRTUAL SAN

– MAR. 12TH.• IN 2015, DELL ANNOUNCES INTENT TO BUY EMC & VMWARE – OCT. 12TH.• IN 2016, EMC AND VMWARE INTRODUCE HYPER-CONVERGED VCE VXRAIL APPLIANCE

FAMILY – FEB. 16TH.

• HTTP://VSPHERE-LAND.COM/VINFO/HISTORY-OF-VMWARE

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

TRADITIONAL

• COMPUTE, NETWORK, STORAGE ALL BUILT OUT SEPARATELY.• SOLUTION IS NOT VALIDATED OUTSIDE OF YOUR ORGANIZATION.• MULTIPLE NUMBERS TO CALL FOR SUPPORT (VENDORS/PARTNERS).• INTERNAL SUPPORT CAN BE HANDLED BY DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS.• TIME TO PROCURE AND DEPLOY CAN BE LENGTHY.• HIGHLY COMPLEX & USUALLY REQUIRES IN-HOUSE EXPERTISE.• UPGRADES CAN BE COMPLEX DUE TO ALL OF THE INTERDEPENDENCIES.

REFERENCE ARCHITECTURES• CONVERGENCE OF SEPARATE PIECES OF

INFRASTRUCTURE.• VALIDATED GUIDELINES ON HOW TO DO IT YOURSELF. • ONE NUMBER TO CALL FOR SUPPORT (PARTNER)• FASTER TIME TO DEPLOY THAN TRADITIONAL

INFRASTRUCTURE.

CONVERGED

• DATACENTER COMPONENTS (COMPUTE, NETWORK, STORAGE) PACKAGED TOGETHER AND SOLD AS ONE.

• TESTED AND VALIDATED BY VENDOR.

• ONE NUMBER TO CALL FOR SUPPORT (VENDOR).

• CAN BE PROCURED AND SETUP IN WEEKS NOT MONTHS.

• EX: VBLOCK BY VCE.

HYPER CONVERGED

• COMBINED COMPUTE AND STORAGE BUILT DIRECTLY INTO NODES.• BUILT ON ADVANCED SOFTWARE THAT CAN ADOPT QUICKLY TO MARKET

DEMANDS.• SIMPLIFIED MANAGEMENT, GREATER AGILITY, PREDICTABLE

PERFORMANCE.• FASTER PROCUREMENT & DEPLOYMENT TIMES THAN REFERENCE

ARCHITECTURES AND CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURES.• EXAMPLES: SIMPLIVITY, NUTANIX, VXRAIL,

WHO ARE THE PLAYERS

?

HYPER-CONVERGED PLAYERSA

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Super Micro, Dell (OEM), Lenovo (OEM)

Dell, Cisco (RA), Lenovo (RA) Dell, HP, EMC, NetApp, Fujitsu, Super Micro, Hitachi

Hyper-V only appliance KVM only appliance Purpose-built for VDI,

Video Surveillance 

USX or HyperScale w/ Lenovo, Cisco, HP, Super Micro

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fferin

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HP VSA or 200-HC

Free

VxRack (ScaleIO)

Embedded in ESXiVendor Reference Architectures

Vendor Reference Architectures,

Subscription Model

Archiving, Analytics appliance

Scale-out backup appliance

HCI USE CASES

• WEB SCALE APPLICATIONS.• CLOUD-READY APPLICATIONS.• ROBO – REMOTE/BRANCH OFFICES.• BROKER BASED VDI.• PHASED HARDWARE REPLACEMENT.• DR SOLUTION.• IT ORGANIZATIONS LOOKING TO SIMPLIFY ENVIRONMENT.

WHERE DOES HCI FIT IN?• HOW DOES IT HELP YOU?

• EASE OF DEPLOYMENT.• SINGLE PANE OF GLASS MANAGEMENT.• PREDICTABLE SCALE.• NO BLACK HATS NEEDED.• SIMPLIFIED UPGRADES.

• HOW CAN IT HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS?• SYSTEMS CAN BE SPUN UP QUICKLY & EASILY.• IT STAFF CAN FOCUS ON IMPROVING THE BUSINESS

INSTEAD OF KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON.• YOUR BUSINESS CAN BECOME CLOUD-READY FASTER.

DRAWBACKS TO HCI

• MAY NOT PROVIDE THE PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR MOST RESOURCE INTENSIVE APPS. (EX. HADOOP, BROADCAST)

• BLEEDING EDGE TECHNOLOGY MAY NOT HAVE VENDOR CERTIFICATION. (EX. EPIC)

• FEATURE PARITY IS NOT ALWAYS PRESENT.• ADOPTION CURVE, RETRAINING OF STAFF MAY BE REQUIRED.• LEGACY FEATURES MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE. TELEPHONY

REQUIREMENTS FOR MONITORING FOR EXAMPLE.

THANK YOU