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A hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution is a primary tool for connecting, managing and operating interconnected enterprise systems in a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI). The technology helps organizations virtualize storage, servers, and networks. While converged infrastructure uses hardware to achieve this objective, HCI takes a software-centric approach.

To be sure, hyperconvergence has its pros and cons. Yet the advantages are clear: HCI boosts flexibility by making it easier to scale according to usage demands and adjust resources faster and more dynamically. By virtualizing components its possible to build more efficient databases, storage systems, server frameworks and more. HCI solutions increasingly extend from the data center to the edge. Many also incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning to continually improve, adapt and adjust to fast-changing business conditions. Some also contain self-healing functions.

By virtualizing an IT environment an enterprise can also simplify systems management and trim costs. This can lead to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Typically, HCI environments use a hypervisor, usually running on a server that uses direct-attached storage (DAS), to create a data center pool of systems and resources. Most support heterogenous hardware and software systems. The end result is a more flexible, agile and scalable computing framework that makes it simpler to build and manage private cloud, public clouds and hybrid clouds.

A number of factors are important when evaluating HCI solutions. These include:

Edge-core cloud integration. Organizations have vastly different needs when it comes to connecting existing infrastructure, clouds and edge services. For instance, an organization may require only the storage layer in the cloud. Or it may want to duplicate or convert configurations when changing cloud providers. Ideally, an HCI solution allows an enterprise to change, upgrade and adjust as infrastructure needs change.

Analytics. Its crucial to understand operations within an HCI environment. A solution should provide visibility through a centralized dashboard but also offer ways to drill down into data, and obtain reports on what is taking place. This also helps with understanding trends and doing capacity planning.

Storage management. An HCI solution should provide support for setting up and configuring a diverse array of storage frameworks, managing them and adapting them as circumstances and conditions change. It should make it simple to add nodes to a cluster and support things like block file and object-oriented storage. Some systems also offer NVMeOF (non-volatile memory express over fabrics) support, which allows an enterprise to rearchitect storage layers using flash memory.

Hypervisor ease of use. Most solutions support multiple hypervisors. This increases flexibility and configuration optionsand its often essential in large organizations that rely on multiple cloud providers. But its important to understand whether youre actually going to use this feature and what you plan to do with it. In many cases, ease of use and manageability are more important than the ability to use multiple hypervisors.

Data protection integration. Its important to plug in systems and services to protect dataand apply policy changes across the organization. Its necessary to understand whether this protection is scalable and adaptable, as conditions change. Ideally, the HCI environment can replace disparate backup and data recovery systems. This greatly improves manageability and reduces costs.

Container support. A growing number of vendors support containers, or plan to do so soon. Not every organization requires this feature, but its important to consider whether your organization may move in this direction.

Serverless support. Vendors are introducing serverless solutions that support code-triggered events. This has traditionally occurred in the cloud but its increasingly an on-premises function that can operate within an HCI framework.

Here are ten leading HCI solutions:

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The Cisco HyperFlex HX data platform manages business and IT requirements across a network. The solution accommodates enterprise applications, big data, deep learning and other components that extend from the data center to remote offices and out to retail sites and IoT devices. The platform is designed to work on any system or any cloud.

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Datacore SDS delivers a highly flexible approach to HCI. It offers a suite of storage solutions that accommodate mixed protocols, hardware vendors and more within converged and hyperconverged SAN environments. The software-defined storage framework, SANsymphony, features block-based storage virtualization. It is designed for high availability. The vendor focuses heavily on healthcare, education, government and cloud service providers.

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VxRail delivers a fully integrated, preconfigured, and pre-tested VMware hyper-converged infrastructure appliance. It delivers virtualization, compute and storage within a single appliance. The HCI platform takes an end-to-end automated lifecycle management approach.

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HP Enterprise aims to take hyperconverged architectures beyond the realm of software-defined and into the world of AI-driven with SimpliVity. The HCI platform delivers a self-managing, self-optimizing, and self-healing infrastructure that uses machine learning to continually improve. HP offers solutions specifically designed for data center consolidation, multi-GPU image processing, high-capacity mixed workloads and edge environments.

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NetApp HCI consolidates mixed workloads while delivering predictable performance and granular control at the virtual machine level. The solution scales compute and storage resources independently. It is available in different compute and storage configurations, thus making it flexible and scalable across data center, cloud and web infrastructures.

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Nutanix offers a fully software-defined hyperconverged infrastructure that provides a single cloud platform for tying together hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Its Xtreme Computing platform natively supports compute, storage, virtualization and networkingincluding IoTwith the ability to run any app at scale. It also supports analytics and machine learning.

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StarWind offers a HCI appliance focused on both operational simplicity and performance. It bills its all-flash system as turnkey with ultra-high resiliency. The solution, designed for SMB, ROBO and enterprisesaims to trim virtualization costs through a highly streamline and flexible approach. It connects commodity servers, disks and flash; a hypervisor of choice; and associated software within a single manageable layer.

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StarWind Virtual SAN is essentially a software version of the vendors HyperConverged appliance. It eliminates the need for physically shared storage by mirroring internal hard disks and flash between hypervisor servers. The approach is designed to cut costs for SMB, ROBO, Cloud and Hosting providers. Like the vendors appliance, StarWind Virtual SAN is a turnkey solution.

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The vCenter Server delivers centralized visibility as well as robust management functionality at scale. The HCI solution is designed to manage complex IT environments that require a high level of extensibility and scalability. It includes native backup and restore functions. vCenter supports plug-ins for major vendors and solutions, including Dell EMC, IBM and Huawei Technologies.

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vSAN is an enterprise-class, storage virtualization solution that manages storage on a single software-based platform. When combined with VMwares vSphere, an organization can manage compute and storage within a single platform. The solutions connects to a broad ecosystem of cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud and Alibaba Cloud.

Pros

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Analytics Vendor

Pros

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Cisco HyperFlex HX-Series

Supports numerous configurations and use cases

Highly scalable

Supports GPU-based deep learning

Requires Cisco networking equipment

Pricing model can be confusing

Some users find manageability difficult

DataCore Software-Defined Storage

Supports mixed SAN, flash and disk environments

Excels with load balancing and policy management

Strong failover capabilities

User interface can be daunting

Licensing can become complex

Customer support is inconsistent

Dell/EMC VxRail

Delivers a true single point of management and support

Handles multi-cloud clusters well

Integrates well with storage devices

Low TCO

Limited support for mixing older flash clusters and hyper-clusters

Some management challenges

Sometimes pricey

HPE SimpliVity

Strong storage management, backup and data replication capabilities

Users like the interface

Strong partner relationships

Highly scalable

Managing clusters can present challenges

Pricey

Users cite problems with technical and customer support

NetApp HCI

Excellent manageability with granular controls

Strong API framework

Support for numerous workloads from different vendors

Highly scalable

Installation and initial cabling can be difficult

Documentation sometimes lacking

Users say some security features and controls are missing

Nutanix AOS

Feature-rich platform

Single user interface with strong management tools

Users report excellent tech support

Pricey

Users report some complexity with using encryption and micro-segmentation

Can be difficult to integrate with legacy systems

StarWind HyperConverged Appliance

Highly scalable

Supports numerous configurations and technologies

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Top 10 Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) Solutions - Datamation