Hyperconvergence and Death of the Storage Array

Stu Miniman, Wikibon Senior Analyst Interop Las Vegas 2015

stu@wikibon.org  @stu  

…OF  THE  TRADITIONAL  

STORAGE  ARRAY  IS  COMING  

…NOT  OF  STORAGE,  …NOT  OF  

STORAGE  PEOPLE  2  

Today’s Premise

•  Why this isn’t hype-converged •  Is “IT simplicity” an oxymoron? •  Where are we on the journey?

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Quick Discussion of Terminology

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Server SAN

hFp://wikibon.org/Server_SAN    5  

SOLUTIONS  (typically  100s  apps)  

HYPER-­‐OPTIMIZED  (limited  #  apps)  

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Technology Pendulum Swings •  Aggregation/disaggregation, i.e., the new Mainframe •  Storage being pulled back into the server

Source  hFp://premium.wikibon.com/infrastructure   7  

The Architecture

•  Scale out…Distributed Systems •  Standardized, yet flexible •  It’s all about software, still requires a fully tested stack •  Inside, Outside, Open and Choice •  Flash, cloud, containers and beyond

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Server SAN landscape (Hyperconverged)

More  Hyperconverged  Players  

More  coming…  

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It’s a big enough umbrella…

Meet most of the criteria, but purposefully not meeting all

Scale-­‐out  All-­‐flash  array   SDN  meets  SDS  Data  Aware  Scale-­‐out  NAS  

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CIO Challenges

•  Budgets and headcount are flat •  Exponential growth in data and steady increase of new

projects •  Competition from “the cloud”

IT  simplicity  translates  into  agility  and  flexibility  11  

Your  Last  Refresh/Upgrade    

Servers  

Storage  

Network  

Backup  

Get  off  the  hamster  wheel  and  into  the  infinity  pool!  12  

Changing Design Mentality

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Traditional  Model   Hyperscale-­‐like  Virtualized  

Hardware  resiliency   So_ware/applica`on  resiliency  

Sta`c/fixed   Dynamic  update/change  

Network  

Bare  metal  

PaaS  

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Operational Impact Conway’s  Law  “Organiza(ons  which  design  systems  …  are  constrained  to  produce  systems  which  are  copies  of  the  communica(on  structures  of  these  organiza(ons.”    

FEAR:  Does  the  new  model  =  less  jobs?  

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Some  Final  Words  •  Friends  don’t  let  friends  build  new  data  centers  •  BoFlenecks  aren’t  eliminated,  they  are  simply  moved  •  Don’t  let  legacy  [infrastructure,  applica`ons  or  mindset]  hold  your  

business  back  

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Summary •  Server SAN architecture proven in hyperscale, early

days in enterprise –  2014: ~ 600M hyperconverged; > $6B converged; > $1T IT

•  Simplicity requires technology and people in sync •  Infrastructure serves your applications

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Questions? For more, get (mostly free) Research:

http://premium.wikibon.com

Join  me  for  an  awesome  panel  discussion  on  Friday  at  9am:  Should  Your  Infrastructure  Look  Like                                            ‘s?  

stu@wikibon.org  @stu