Channel Play: Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

A fundamental shift is taking place in enterprise tech infrastructure as they recognise the benefits of Hyper-Converged Infrastructure; this translates into a huge opportunity for channel players.

According to Research & Markets, it says that hyper-converged infrastructure can be defined as a software system architecture which brings together multiple data centre services to amplify computing, networking, and storage to improve performance efficiency and reduce costs. Globally, rising usage of virtualisation, increasing the need for data protection and disaster recovery, low CapEx and total cost of ownership are the prime growth drivers of the hyper-converged infrastructure market.

Development of technologies to create high-value hyper-converged infrastructure and an increase in adoption of hyper-converged infrastructure in emerging economies such as China, India, and others, is expected to create new opportunities for the hyper-converged infrastructure market. However, the higher cost of the research and development, demerits of bundled solutions are the key restraints for the hyper-converged infrastructure market.

Meanwhile, IDC defines converged systems as pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. Specific to management software, IDC includes embedded or integrated management and control software optimised for the auto discovery, provisioning and pooling of physical and virtual compute, storage and networking resources shipped as part of the core, standard integrated system.

Channel Opportunity

If one looks at the channel opportunity out of HCI, it offers immense scope for the channel community to tap into this opportunity. It will add tremendous value to their portfolio and also deepen large to mid-enterprise mandates. However, HCI is an evolving technology, channel players have to up their competencies in positioning the HCI offerings and profit out of it. They need to build competencies on the HCI marketing space and sell it as a transformational technology with its impact across the enterprise. Let us try and look at the HCI market dynamics.

The adoption of integrated systems in India is being driven by organisations looking to replace existing infrastructures and as a result, evaluating their options in the market. Large enterprises have focused their efforts on building intelligent data centers that focus on a quick response to the requirements of the business. While most of the expenditure on integrated systems to date has been driven by the banking and insurance sector and service providers, the growing number of use cases and an increase in marketing by a wider community of vendors have led to greater awareness and greater acceptance of integrated systems.

Market Dynamics

Experts say that HCI offers the combination of cloud-like features – such as automation and self-provisioning in a single, rack-mounted appliance. An IDG research study said that most IT decisions were interested in adopting HCI to improve IT agility and enable digital transformation.

In 2018, Gartner observed that a Hyper-Converged Integrated Systems (HCIS) is a subset of the integrated systems market and will be a key growth engine for this market. These systems tend to cost less than traditional integrated systems and have a good mix of established and emerging vendors. HCIS is poised for growth because of its low initial acquisition cost compared with traditional integrated systems due to lower storage area network (SAN) costs and features, such as faster time to provision and deploys the better overall total cost of ownership, and ease of maintenance/upgrades.

Converged Systems Segments

IDC’s converged systems market view offers three segments: certified reference systems and integrated infrastructure, integrated platforms, and hyperconverged systems.

Certified reference systems and integrated infrastructure are pre-integrated, vendor-certified systems containing server hardware, disk storage systems, networking equipment, and basic element/systems management software. Integrated platforms are integrated systems that are sold with additional pre-integrated packaged software and customized system engineering optimized to enable such functions as application development software, databases, testing, and integration tools. Hyperconverged systems collapse core storage and compute functionality into a single, highly virtualized solution. A key characteristic of hyper-converged systems that differentiate these solutions from other integrated systems is their scale-out architecture and their ability to provide all compute and storage functions through the same x86 server-based resources. Market values for all three segments include hardware and software but exclude services and support.

Outlook

A fundamental shift is taking place in enterprise infrastructure as many organizations recognize the benefits hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) can offer. These organisations have pursued a new architectural design that pairs web-scale engineering with consumer-grade design – making the infrastructure ‘invisible’ so that IT teams can devote more time to business applications. Increasingly, these same organizations are embracing IT strategies that leverage multiple cloud infrastructures and cloud-based services.

By: Shrikanth G- Cybermedia