| Converged infrastructure reality | |
| “The evolution of the network element of the data centre to support the high density, flexible and mobile workload; coupled with affordable high performance storage, and advances in blade technologies make the concept of a converged infrastructure a reality” |  MJ Flood Technology : Garrett Wallis, lead infrastructure architect |
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The data centre continues to evolve. Organisations have been taking a more holistic view of their IT infrastructure within the data centre, and attempting to reap the benefits of strategies of standardisation, centralisation and consolidation. Different workloads should span the same hardware, provisioning should be rapid, services should be elastic, and the environment should not be difficult to manage. Implementation of strategies have spanned servers, storage and networking within the data centre, but not always together. Continuing to plan for and deploy servers, storage and networks independently of each other means that each is managed separately, and provisioning involves the coordination of several elements. Converged infrastructure is very much a reflection of the approach taken to using and managing infrastructure components within the data centre, and how those components interoperate. Within a converged infrastructure environment, where servers, storage and networking are deployed together and are mutually aware through integrated management and services, much of the complex work is done up front resulting in a pool of resources that can be consumed simply.The evolution of the network element of the data centre to support the high density, flexible and mobile workload; coupled with affordable high performance storage, and advances in blade technologies make the concept of a converged infrastructure a reality. At MJ Flood Technology, we work with HP to deliver the best solutions to our data centre customers. With best-in-class components, HP Converged Systems are complete, engineered systems optimised for virtualisation, cloud, and big data. They deliver a total systems experience that simplifies IT through quick deployment, intuitive management, and system-level support. Tel: (01) 466 3500 Email: gwallis@mjf.ie |
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| Back to the future | |
| “The evolution of the network element of the data centre to support the high density, flexible and mobile workload; coupled with affordable high performance storage, and advances in blade technologies make the concept of a converged infrastructure a reality” |  IBM : Stephen Kelly |
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It’s hard not to think we’ve been here before with converged systems.Actually, it was back in the 1970’s that we saw centralised, virtualised and converged technologies, like the IBM Mainframe as the dominant IT infrastructure.But we are once again looking for the many benefits offered by this model. The expensive Client/Server infrastructure has brought about the era of consolidation and welcomed back virtualisation technologies once again. Today we are also seeing the rise of open technologies as organisations attempted to avoid what was seen as ‘vendor lock in’ which can lead to increased software licensing and support costs and a more rigid infrastructure less able to adapt to the demands of cloud computing, analytics, mobile technologies, social and security. IBM PureFlex builds on the IBM heritage for producing solid, reliable, centralised, virtualised and converged technologies with tremendous ease of management and a dedication to openness.With a true single management platform for VMware, HyperV, KVM or Power VM, Pure allows you to run Windows, Linux or AIX servers and uses storage virtualisation technology so you can still use your other existing storage.In a recent report on converged systems, IDC said: “To deliver value to the enterprise’s ever-changing business environment, IT executives must offer an infrastructure that is not only flexible but also scalable at minimal financial expense. The continued use of virtualisation is critical but will require new ways of thinking in terms of processes, infrastructure, and management.” Tel: (086) 817 5819 Email: kellys@ie.ibm.com |
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| Future proofing | |
| “As the CI adoption continues to grow, we will rely more on this infrastructure to run multiple workloads securely and to provide us with data analytics, which are now key to gaining competitive advantage for business in the marketplace” |  Appliance Technology : Sandra Dunne, general manager |
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Future proofing the investment is a key factor as Converged Infrastructure becomes a compelling building block of data centre infrastructure. We are all aware of the current benefits of CI over traditional hardware solutions: accelerated deployment, improved availability, simplified management, improved utilisation and lower TCO. As the CI adoption continues to grow, we will rely more on this infrastructure to run multiple workloads securely and to provide us with data analytics, which are now key to gaining competitive advantage for business in the marketplace. Business now require SLAs to be met internally as well as externally for customers. The infrastructure must support this without layers of costs for each change or additional application required. With the emergence of the cloud solutions, IT organisations must now be able to deliver a service that can match this and in effect provide their own internal cloud. NetApp, working with its partners, has pre-validated designs that allow the speedy deployment of infrastructure as the designs, plans and tests have already been delivered and ratified. As the next evolution of Ethernet (40Gb) begins, higher bandwidth will allow larger datasets to move more quickly and easily, which in turn encourages the growth of data. Applications that monetise vast capacities of data objects will drive infrastructure requirements towards Clustered and Object Storage solutions. In-memory databases (such as SAP HANA) are tangibly showing their value in business, with companies like eBay leveraging predictive analytics and expediting change quickly to take advantage of their insights. David Schwarzbach, VP and CFP eBay North America speaks about SAP HANA on NetApp and Cisco. Tel: (087) 144 2630 Email: dgivens@apptech.ie |
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