At its most basic level Integrated Infrastructure, also known as Hyper-Converged Infrastructure is a validated configuration that combines physical compute, networking and storage resources to form a single “out-of-the-box” solution.
You’ll also find included a single pane of glass management, validated patch sets across the entire infrastructure and single place for support.
Current model of Integrated Infrastructure
Under the traditional model, most organization would need to spend precious time on a number of steps when buying infrastructure. These include:
- Sizing each infrastructure component (servers , networking, storage)
- Ordering each component
- Installing each component
- Initially configuring each component
- Optimizing each component to meet performance needs
- Following up with individual vendors for each incident
This model not only increases the cost of buying the infrastructure but also risks prolonging the project by weeks or months.
According to recent paper from Microsoft on IT Spending Breakdown:
- 11% of budgets go on developing new applications
- 36% goes on maintaining existing applications, and
- 53% is spent on buying, building and supporting existing infrastructure
The one thing that stands out is that only 11% is being spent on the one area that lets IT innovate. So IT leaders are keen to grow investment in this area and reduce it on infrastructure.
According to a recent Gartner Magic Quadrant one of the fastest growth areas in IT is the introduction of integrated infrastructure to reduce both the complexity of the data centre and ongoing support and management.
Evolving model
Essentially, integrated infrastructure helps reduce the 53% spend on infrastructure by bringing simplicity back to the datacentre. Every aspect of the IT infrastructure lifecycle, from purchase and deployment to management and scale, is made simpler.
- Predictable Scale: grow & shrink infrastructure incrementally
- Lower TCO: lower capital & operating expenses
- Business Agility: quicker response to business needs
The recently released Integrated Infrastructure Magic Quadrant identifies leaders and innovators in this field. What’s clear to see from the chart and the full report, which you can access below, is that as well as solutions from established industry giants there are a growing number of innovative start-ups keen to address the issues around integrated infrastructure.
