Reducing the Hype around Hyper

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Converged Infrastructure (HCI)

Published on October 11, 2016

As market demand for virtualization increased, the need for better performance and
optimisation of resources grew. The result, converged architecture.

First, we had converged architecture which was optimized compute / memory / storage.
This has become compute / storage as we move to integrated blocks and pure SSD
systems. Network capability and a degree of virtualization functionality was added
which was coined as “Hyper Converged Infrastructure” or HCI. Now it’s a hot term and
everyone is jumping on the band wagon.

When a vendor defined term is adopted by the industry we must be aware we’re already
at the mercy of vendor’s marketing departments. As more vendors adopt the term they
loosely adapt the definition to include their solutions so they can ride the wave. As so
many companies now claim to have Hyper Converged Infrastructure let’s take a look at
the key components and what we suggest is the definition of a complete HCI solution.

For focus let’s consider what are the key problems we’re trying to solve?

• End users want simple, automated cloud services.

• Data Centers and Enterprises require stable, hybrid Cloud Platforms

• IT needs automated, high performance, scalable, integrated infrastructure

“Simple, Stable Automated Cloud infrastructure”

There have been many marketing terms out there defining convergence, hyper
convergence and hyper scaling; however, we suggest the most accurate definition of
Hyper Converged Infrastructure (HCI) is;

“A true Hyper Converged Infrastructure solution is a complete cloud solution

comprising all layers of cloud platform operations.”

Yes, this is a bit generic, Cloud is evolving, the definition of a complete cloud solution
will change and the definition of HCI should keep pace. This removes the “FUD” of
vendors trying to shape things to fit their actual capabilities or distort the base line by
adding descriptors such as “next generation,” as cover up of their solutions
limitations. “Don’t worry; it’s in the product road-map…” Messaging
HCI is a blending of hardware and software to make the hardware components
invisible. With many solutions the gap lies between converged hardware and the
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over laying technologies.
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adds complexity and defines the skills needed for implementation, operation and level
of expertise needed to retrofit all versions, drivers, hypervisors and applications to work
as expected.

Can your vendor deliver a complete cloud platform to your standards / expected
industry standards? Or, is it just optimised converged hardware with a do it yourself
thin layer of virtualisation solution on top? Unfortunately, we also find hardware is not
made equal and there are potentially a large variety of potential compatibility issues
whether it be ceph, cinder, versions, drivers, HA capable, multi-path compliant, max
block storage size locks...

So what is the current definition of HCI?

Here you can see an open source version:

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We start with optimised compute and storage and OpenStack. The architecture layer is
the heart.

Hypervisor, Cef, Mas, Cinder, Chef PLUS integration of the backplane and firmware
systems. Then you bring in Ancible and Puppet and you have a truly flexible, scalable
foundation architecture.

But we’re not done yet, our definition demands we support current industry standards so
next we add a software defined network (SDN).

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This is a game changer and a true step towards a complete cloud platform. SDN on
your LAN touches every part of your orchestration and provisioning processes.

Consider if you have 5 racks, 284 connecting trunks to enable 4192 virtual connections.

You now have the ability to connect VM to VM, VM to container, container to

container, Mas to Pxi, Pxi to hypervisor, hypervisor to OpenStack, not to forget
connecting your load balancers, firewalls and external services. (Try this with a
proprietary solution vendor and not pass out at the cost IF they can even deliver it)

You now define everything to your firewall and backup as a service. True everything to
everything.

We’re almost there; A key industry requirement is Hybrid Cloud Control. By our
definition criteria this is now a requirement for a complete HCI.

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An orchestration layer with Hybrid Cloud Control gives you one interface where you
have the ability to easily add 3rd party cloud providers, manage your Network Function
Virtualization, and other ITSB offerings.

SDN extends beyond your Data center, WAN SDN is a new game on the horizon and
you have the ability to integrate when ready; VPN, Tunnel, Lease line, peer to peer,
cloud exchange can all be supported through a single HCI portal.

This allows full resiliency, and fail over is absolute. True hyper convergence reaching
out beyond the data center.

I’ll admit it’s complex and you need to be careful, as an example, if you have a
spanning tree in your network, it’s not true SDN.

Did you Google anything today? “Like” something on Facebook? You used an SDN in
the process. How do you think Facebook knows to support you in Los Angeles,
Singapore, London or New York seamlessly? This is part of how Google and Facebook
are delivering their services at such high performance levels.

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In closing, as you venture forth seeking your Private Cloud platform first and foremost
be clear on your requirements as well as definitions. Remember, things are rapidly
changing/evolving so make sure you are on the same page as your vendors/partners and
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 even internal resources. Once you have these items clear in your mind apply them to the
offerings you are evaluating to make sure that you are getting the whole onion – not just
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but not Follow
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you are testing real workloads important to your business. Make sure the permutations
you expect to be able to control and manage are there and the right support model is in
place. Agree upon joint evaluation criteria and go forth!

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James Hatcher
Sensible migration to the cloud, Senior Executive at Curvature

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