Data centre modernisation is a hot topic at present. The issues holding the traditional data centre back from delivering the flexibility, scalability, agility, performance and cost efficiency demanded by the digital age are widely discussed, and modernising the data centre is known to be the solution.
But how does such modernisation deliver what’s needed, transforming the data centre from a collection of siloed, application-specific hardware platforms – hard to scale, inflexible and expensive – to a nimble, responsive, cost-effective resource supporting the digitalisation of your business?
Low Cost, High Performance
VMware’s Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) powered by Virtual Storage Area Networks (vSAN) VMware vSphere hypervisor software and the VMware vCenter Server management suite offer a proven approach. Implementing compute, storage and storage networking in software running on industry-standard x86 hardware, HCI delivers low-cost, high performance computing.
vSAN takes server-attached storage – hard disks, solid state disks and other flash devices – and pools it to create a highly resilient shared datastore for VMs, with advanced data services specifically designed for virtual environments, and with no single points of failure. Because storage and storage networking functions are delivered in software, dedicated hardware platforms for these functions are no longer necessary.
Tightly integrated with the rest of the VMware software stack, vSAN works seamlessly with it – it is part of the vSphere hypervisor kernel, reducing the risks inherent in additional discrete software components. vSAN has been designed for streamlined storage operations and optimised for the latest flash technologies, accelerating application response times and allowing higher VM densities across the data centre.
Efficiency, Scalability and Flexibility
There are efficiency advantages, too, with data deduplication, compression and erasure coding performed inline, before data is written to the underlying storage media. Because vSAN is implemented as a tightly integrated part of vSphere, CPU and memory overheads remain low – typically services such as these can be enabled across the board, even in mixed workload environments.
HCI enables enhanced scalability and flexibility. VMware HCI solutions are hardware-agnostic, allowing you to select your preferred x86 platform and vendor. vSAN-ready nodes provide preconfigured hardware bundles, ready to run vSAN, or you can design servers to your required specifications using supported components. Alternatively, use turnkey appliances for fast deployment, easy purchasing and integrated lifecycle management.
Meanwhile, vSAN’s distributed architecture makes non-disruptive scaling quick and easy – scale up and out simply by adding more hosts.
IT Operations Benefits
In the traditional data centre, managing IT operations can be challenging. With diverse siloed systems, each with their own management tools, quirks and limitations, individual specialists are typically required for each system, and automating management tasks is difficult or, often, impossible.
VMware HCI replaces this minefield of complexity with a single pane of glass, allowing compute, storage and networking to be managed using the same set of tools, through a common interface. You get simple, automated control over every aspect of the virtual environment – deployment, management and monitoring.
Advanced performance and capacity monitoring are built in, allowing key issues such as capacity usage, firmware revision levels and performance benchmarks to be checked quickly and easily.
Custom dashboards and historical trend analysis allow you to create bespoke monitoring and analytics schemes, giving you the specific operational visibility you need.
Dynamic Control and Automation
You also get significantly enhanced control capability. For example, HCI allows you to exercise fine control over storage services right down to the VM level, creating the storage services your applications need, not merely those that your physical storage devices will allow. Furthermore, HCI controls storage services dynamically, delivering the capacity, performance and protection demanded by each application, with no need for provisioning, much less over provisioning, in advance.
Operational efficiency is further enhanced by the ability to automate VM placement in accordance with policies defining each application’s storage requirements, eliminating the human effort necessary for individual VM provisioning in the traditional data centre. All this, and more, can be controlled via APIs, allowing you to integrate your HCI environment with a wide variety of data centre management tools.
Change last paragraph of blog to – HCI with vSAN represents a revolution in data centre design, offering game-changing benefits. We’ve only been able to scratch the surface in this article – get more of the detail in the VMware guide, Hyper-Converged Infrastructure for Dummies, or contact MTI to explore how HCI can transform your data centre infrastructure.