Chaitanya R. Gaajula Senior Consultant, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
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Point of View – Converged Infrastructure
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Agenda
Why and what is Converged Infrastructure
Comparison of Traditional and Converged Infrastructure
Components of Converged Infrastructure
Types of Converged Infrastructure
Characteristics and benefits of Converged Infrastructure
Converged Infrastructure Vendors
What Converged Infrastructure brings to Private Cloud
Reference or Integrated Architecture
Converged Infrastructure - The Next Generation
Case Studies
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Today’s modern IT infrastructure is more demanding than ever. With more devices, more users and IT demands, there has become a greater need for agility and efficiency. Many organizations have moved towards better computing practices and strive to increase the amount of users they can support – both now and in the future.
This is where high-density, converged systems can come into play. A converged infrastructure enables organizations to accelerate time to business value. This is achieved by turning today’s rigid technology silos into adaptive pools of assets that can be shared by many applications and managed as a service.
Today’s data center environments have begun to benefit from many pre-integrated, pre-tested infrastructure solutions now coming to market from a consortium of network, server and storage vendors.
Why Data Center Convergence?
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Why Data Center Convergence?
Source:Forrester Report
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Converged infrastructure packages multiple information technology (IT) components into a single, optimized computing solution. Components of a converged infrastructure solution include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and orchestration.
Converged Infrastructure solutions provide a scalable and more cost efficient way to quickly deploy a more simplified IT infrastructure.
It is used by IT organizations to centralize the management of IT resources, consolidate systems, increase resource utilization rates and lower costs.
IT vendors and industry analysts use various terms to describe the concept of a converged infrastructure. These include converged system, unified computing, fabric-based computing, and dynamic infrastructure.
What is Converged Infrastructure?
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In traditional approach the following steps are performed when servicing a new applications or requirement.
Collect detailed requirements
Architect & Size
DC Planning
Procure Equipment
Detailed Design
Deploy and Test.
This process takes many weeks and it is time consuming.
By using Converged Infrastructure, many of these phases are compressed or removed altogether – customers taking this approach have repeatedly demonstrated more than 50% faster deployment times over traditional approaches .
Traditional Vs Converged Infrastructure
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What comprises a Converged Infrastructure
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These solutions are completely integrated and sold as a completely integrated IT offering, but they are comprised of the following technologies:
Servers
Networking
Storage
Management Software
This unified approach to IT infrastructure simplifies data center manageability and improves flexibility and utilization. It also allows IT to focus more on delivering services to end users, and less on how to piece together disparate IT components and make them work together.
What comprises a Converged Infrastructure
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Converged Infrastructure Architecture (Eg:Flexpod)
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End-to-End Virtualization—
Compute, storage, network and I/O
Resilient—Improved availability using less
infrastructure
Open—Choice, flexibility, and interoperable
Orchestrated—Automated
arrangement, coordination, and management of
complex computer systems, middleware,
and services
Modular—Replace or add any one
component (module) without affecting the rest of the compute
solution
Characteristics of Converged Infrastructure
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Converged Infrastructure platforms deliver quantifiable benefits to an organization, including:
Better performance
Improved cost/performance ratio
Simplified deployment
More optimization
Increased automation
Lower cost of IT operations
Simplified sourcing and support
Support in moving from IT maintenance to IT innovation
Converged Infrastructure Benefits
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Integrated Application Systems — Integrated
infrastructure systems that are pre-integrated with
database and/or application software to provide appliance, or
appliance like functionality
Integrated Infrastructure Systems — Server, shared-storage
and network hardware integrated to provide
shared compute infrastructure
Integrated Reference Architectures — Products in which predefined, pre-
sized components are designated as options for
an integrated system, whereby the user and/or
channel can make configuration choices
between the predefined options
Converged Infrastructure Types
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Converged Infrastructure Types
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Market Share Data
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Converged Infrastructure Vendors include networking vendors like Cisco, server vendors like HP, IBM and Dell, storage vendors like EMC and orchestration vendors like VMware. Also included are strategic and go-to-market alliances such as VCE and FlexPod..
IBM – PureSystems(PureFlex,PureApplication,PureData)
FlexPod – (Cisco, NetApp)
VCE – Vblock (Cisco, EMC, VMware)
EMC – VSPEX (Cisco,EMC,Brocade)
HP – CloudSystem,VirtualSystem,AppSystem
Oracle – Exalogic,Exadata
Dell – vStart
HDS – Unified Compute Platform
The comparison Matrix below shows features of top 3 CI vendors in the market.
Converged Infrastructure Vendors
CI Comparison Matrix
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Vendor Solution Brief Description Notes
Oracle Exadata and Exalogic Single SKU = Oracle server and storage + InfiniBand
networking from Mellanox 2011 Revenue: $1B
VCE Vblock Single SKU = Cisco UCS + Cisco Networking + EMC
Storage + VMware
2011 Revenue: $209M, launched in 2009
NetApp FlexPod (joint solution with
Cisco)
Reference Architecture = Cisco UCS + Cisco Networking + NetApp Storage + VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V or Citrix
Launched in 2010
IBM PureSystems family
Single SKU = Single chassis that has compute, networking
and storage (primarily IBM with some options on
networking) + broad choice on OS/hypervisor
Launched in 2012
HP VirtualSystems
Single SKU = HP blade server + HP storage + HP
networking + VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V
Launched in 2011
Dell vStart
Converged offering = Dell rack server + Dell storage +
Dell PowerConnect networking
Similar to Single SKU, single screen to order, Launched in
2011
HDS Hitachi Unified Compute
Platform Single SKU = Hitachi Blade Server + Hitachi Storage
Launched in 2010
EMC VSPEX
Reference Architecture = Cisco UCS+Cisco/Brocade
networking+EMC Storage + VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V
Launched in 2012
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Positives and Negatives of Converged Infrastructure Vendors
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Understand your own requirements: First step in a successful implementation is to understand which of major capabilities you require and which are optional.
Buy Services from the primary CI vendor: Installation, configuration and integration services will be critical for your CI solution.
Consider prepackaged solutions if you wants the benefits immediately - While most organizations take a step by-step approach towards infrastructure convergence by standardizing, virtualizing and automating their existing environment. In many cased, prepackaged CI solutions can help implement a CI more quickly and therefore realize the cost savings and business value of CI sooner.
Key Recommendations in choosing Converged Infrastructure Vendor
Application-Based Silos
ExternalCloud Services
Zones ofVirtualization
ITaaS(Internal Cloud)
Where are you on this journey?
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CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE- The Evolution of Virtualization and the foundation of the private Cloud
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CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE- The Evolution of Virtualization and the foundation of the private Cloud
Virtualization technologies at the Compute, Storage, and Network ‘layers’ have enabled tremendous advances in efficiency and flexibility through consolidation and software automation. However, these IT stack layers are still largely separate today, with little end-to-end visibility for even management and monitoring, much less automated provisioning, elasticity, or user self-service. To realize true Cloud Computing features and benefits, the infrastructure must operate as a fully-virtualized, fully-integrated entity, with awareness of each layer and integration/coordination between them.
Converged Infrastructure Solutions deliver extreme advances in infrastructure efficiency, flexibility, and responsiveness. allowing you to service your business’s IT needs faster, easier, and less expensively than ever before. Converged Infrastructure/Private Cloud is the next phase in the evolution of virtualization and IT service delivery architecture.
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Converged Infrastructure leverages the virtualization capabilities of each layer, integrates them into a single unified infrastructure, and wraps end-to-end management/automation/orchestration software around the entire stack to enable automated application and business-process-centric provisioning of coordinated IT resources.
CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE- The Evolution of Virtualization and the foundation of the private Cloud
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Reference or Integrated Architecture
Reference architecture Pros: Flexibility:You can select the type --and sometimes the brand-- of components you need Less expensive up front Cons: Lots and lots of documentation Many pieces and parts that may arrive at different times on your loading dock Disjointed support: If it consists of components from different vendors, you typically have
to call the vendor who sells the component that's experiencing issues. It may end up being an issue with another component, in which case you have to call a different vendor.
More expensive over time Integrated Infrastructure Pros: The components are pre-selected for you, and you typically have a few different types from
which to choose, based on your needs The various components are pre-packaged and pre-tested as a system One support # to call when you experience issues Less expensive over time Cons: Limited choices More expensive up front
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Converged Infrastructure –The Next Generation
The converged infrastructure market essentially comprises the entire infrastructure space and is enormous, with a projected $402B total available market (TAM) by 2017.
Nearly 2/3rds of the infrastructure that supports enterprise applications will be packaged in some type of converged solution by 2017.
Reference architectures will capture half of the opportunity by 2017 and represent the largest piece of the converged pie.
The six-year CAGR from 2011 – 2017 for converged reference architectures is 52.5% while single SKU will grow at 63.2% over that same period.
The dramatic shift in landscape below, with legacy roll-your-own, purpose-built infrastructure declining rapidly and becoming too expensive for all but the most demanding and mission critical applications or those that are simply too risky to alter..
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Converged Infrastructure –The Next Generation
Table 2 - Source: Wikibon 2012 Table 2: Converged Infrastructure by Class
As seen in Table 2, while single SKU solutions have created much buzz in the market, the largest opportunity remains with reference architectures, capturing $205.8B or more than half of the TAM. Single SKU solutions offer very little or no choice in terms of technology options. VCE’s Vblock, for example, is limited to VMware as its hypervisor.
The disadvantage is that single SKU solutions offer little or no choice for shops that want heterogeneity. Increasingly, customers and the channel are looking for options and choice, and so-called reference architectures, which are proven and tested in the lab and often in the field, are becoming a popular option with the channel and many end-customers who may specify their own reference architectures internally.
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Segments of the Reference Architecture Opportunity
Figure 2 - Source: Wikibon 2012. Reference Architectures are the Largest Opportunity
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Case Studies
FlexPod
IBM PureFlex
Client : Leading Financial Bank The challenge• Speed up delivery with rapid provisioning copies of the bank• Improve developer productivity• Accelerate time to market for new products and servicesSolution:A new, fully integrated testing and development architecture, including hardware, software and professional servicesBenefits:• Eliminated the time associated with environment provisioning from 12 weeks to 10
minutes• Improved developer productivity with self-service provisioning replacing a process that
previously took eight people three months• Significantly reduced the cost to provision new copies of the bank
Client: Leading Insurance CompanyBusiness need: Customer needed a next-generation, high-speed computing platform to help its customers deploy IBM® PureFlex™ technology in small and rugged form factors in environments beyond the back office.Solution:Customer products leveraged all PureFlex technology, including integrated IBM Flex System™x240 compute nodes, IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 scalable Ethernet switches and IBM Storwize® V7000 storage.Benefits:IBM created a long-term platform solution based on the most powerful IBM high-performance computing (HPC) technology, delivered PureFlex technology to virtually any environment, and provided a clear technology roadmap to customers.
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Case Studies
VCE
HP
Client : Leading Credit Card CompanyChallenge:Clients had to rapidly develop and deploy new applications for a heavy transaction and improve developer productivityThe solutionVblock Systems provided an agile development environment and a robust production infrastructureBenefits:• Client started work in 45 days and rolled out a new service for on-line merchants and
customers—on time FINANCIAL SERVICES
Client: Leading Financial Services Business need:Position the company to handle greater volume and take advantage of expanding market opportunities by refreshing mission-critical transaction processing TechnologySolution:HP Converged Infrastructure enabled higher availability and scalability and reduced overhead Costs and system complexity• Benefits:
Reduced average transaction processing time by 75%• Reduced TCO for transaction processing systems by approximately one-third• Enabled nearly a 5x volume increase at about 25% of the previous processing cost• Reduced cycle time for fully tested and benchmarked hardware- and software-based changes by 75%• Eliminated risks associated with IT changes for client by establishing a test and benchmark environment
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Conclusion
Rapidly proliferating silos of servers, storage, and networking resources combined with countless management tools and operational processes have led to inefficiencies and soaring costs in the data center. Customers require a flexible IT solution that will fit into their current infrastructure, yet will scale for future growth.
Because these building blocks have been pre-designed ad validated—you dramatically reduce the guesswork and risk involved with new data center deployments. Instead, you’ll be able to grow your infrastructure predictably and quickly. Your data center will have improved resiliency and availability because simplified and cohesive management help you proactively and productively manage your infrastructure.
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References
http://www.gartner.com/technology/home.jsp
http://www.forrester.com/home
http://www.cdw.com
http://wikibon.org
http://wikipedia.org
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