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INTEllIGENT COMPUTING | BFSI

than 60 percent of surveyed customers already have or QoS, ability to mix hybrid and all flash nodes makes
are looking to deploy HCI. IDC predicts the market for HCI consolidation of new and legacy applications onto a single
solutions will surpass $7.6 billion by 2021, as the fastest HCI cluster simple and cost effective. As organizations
growing converged infrastructure systems market seg- continue to transform to a cloud model, integration with
ment hands down. software, such as the VMware vRealize Suite, enables full
Deploying HCI solutions reduces costs, simplifies de- cloud automation and service delivery capabilities.
ployment, improves operational efficiencies and eases For enterprise customers looking to fully automate the
scaling for organizations of all types and sizes. There is no provisioning of the entire IT infrastructure stack, including
one particular application or operating model that is driv- networking, rack-scale HCI is a good infrastructure
ing adoption, rather it is being deployed for a wide variety dep loy ment option. A turnkey rack-scale approach,
of workloads across organizations of various sizes. addre ssing larger initial deployments, further collapses
Regardless of vertical, workload or business driver, the operational infrastructure silos, beyond the approach
ability to modernize the underlying infrastructure is not of HCI appliances, by integrating switches and network
wholly related to technology; it is also an issue of organi- virtualization capability into the HCI architecture.
zational readiness. Just as there may be many different starting or end points
for HCI infrastructure implementation, organizations may be
MaPPING hCI dEPlOyMENTS TO in different states of readiness for change or have varying
TraNSfOrMaTION GOalS long-term transformation goals. How quickly IT organiza-
As with many strategic decisions, there are multiple factors tions transform will be influenced by business priorities, cus-
to consider when transforming with HCI. Customers tomer expectations, market drivers and budget realities.
that have or plan to adopt HCI have said that cost
reduction, accelerated deployment, improved operational hCI SIMPlIfIES ClOUd adOPTION aNd IT
efficiencies, improved ability to scale and reduction in TraNSfOrMaTION
infrastructure tasks are the top benefits they expect to HCI has become a simple infrastructure for the move
realize when implementing it. towards hybrid clouds. For example, when IT organi-
The key factors that should determine which HCI zations are ready for full cloud automation, VxRack
deployment is best are the desired end state and the SDDC, rack-scale HCI, integrates with VMware vRealize
operational readiness to realize that end state. This can be Automation and vRealize Business for Cloud, enabling the
referred to as the desired “destination” defined by both the VxRack SDDC to be the foundational pooled and elastic
degree of infrastructure and operational transformations. infrastructure for private or hybrid clouds.
For example, a vendor can supply a turnkey private or To successfully transform their IT infrastructure, it’s im-
hybrid cloud infrastructure; however, if the organization perative for organizations to assess cloud-as-a-model
has not transitioned to developing cloud services teams more realistically and leave behind the thought that cloud
that know how to manage a self-service catalog and a is a destination.
fully automated infrastructure, the desired end state likely Organizations need flexibility to choose an HCI solution
will not be realized. that best meets their current state of IT transformation
Fortunately, organizations can transform at a pace that while ensuring IT certainty, continuous innovation and
makes sense for their business model, and each HCI des- predictable evolution as customers move toward hybrid
tination provides different levels of the desired benefits cloud implementations. While organizations have the
along the way. If organizations choose to gradually adopt option to assemble their own HCI, or purchase completely
HCI, each operational change they make along the way turnkey HCI systems, it’s important that the appropriate
applies to the next destination, further accelerating their steps are taken to transform to become more agile in the
transformation. face of competition.
For organizations that are just beginning their IT Implementing HCI as the foundation for hybrid cloud
transformation, consolidation of compute and storage operating models will prove to be that step in the right di-
virtualization infrastructure and operational management rection to resolve infrastructure and application problems
is a natural place to start. HCI appliances enable them to faster and be a catalyst for desired business outcomes.
start small and scale out as the IT organization transforms
and adapts to managing converged infrastructure versus The author is Director Sales, Converged Platform &
previous silos. Automated provisioning, integrated Solutions Division, Dell EMC

60 | January, 2018 www.dqindia.com A CyberMedia Publication |