How to choose between traditional and hyper-converged infrastructure? Building a modern data center
Today’s business operations and digital transformation processes are data-driven. However, unleashing its potential requires appropriate infrastructure development. Fujitsu experts point out that in the vast majority of cases, traditional data center design makes it impossible to respond quickly enough to the rapidly changing environment and new needs of the business world arise as a result.
The first way to build a data center is the “do it yourself” method, where the company has to complete all the necessary components on its own. The second one is to build a complete infrastructure in cooperation with an expert who, based on the expectations and capabilities of the company, proposes a solution tailored to the needs. What are the practical differences between these two approaches? How to choose the best option if you are, for example, the CEO of a company that faces the necessity of upgrading and expanding its infrastructure?
The shift away from the traditional data center goes on
– The most common structure found at our clients’ premises is a traditional (convergent) infrastructure including classic servers that process data. Of course, it has to be redundant – there are switches that are connected to the servers. Important data is available through classic devices called arrays (external storage systems). At a glance, you can see how dispersed this structure is, how many points of administration it needs and how much work it takes to maintain it – says Robert Pakowski, Data Center Transformation Architect, Fujitsu Poland.
High responsiveness and scalability, for traditional infrastructures based on virtualization, can therefore prove to be quite a challenge. Its operation and expansion can take a lot of time.
A step toward hyper-converged
The alternative is a hyper-converged infrastructure consisting of Ethernet networks and servers that have built-in storage space, where software takes over the array maintenance part. Choosing this infrastructure, we reach for a simplified model that allows to scale the business faster. In the traditional model, there are more elements to take care of, which automatically increases the response time and affects the possibility of scaling, resulting in higher cost of maintenance.
– The hyper-converged solutions we offer thanks to cooperation with Microsoft, VMware or Nutanix, are ready to be implemented very quickly and to adapt to the changes of the digital world, which is transforming so dynamically that the traditional model may simply have trouble keeping up. In the hyper-converged model, we avoid a constantly growing infrastructure, because scalability is achieved by simple implementation of an additional module and easy management from a single point. The work related to the expansion is taken over by software – explains Adam Bielawski, Partner Development Manager, Fujitsu Poland.
And then into the cloud!
Hyper-converged infrastructure can be the foundation for building true hybrid cloud infrastructure. Some resources, data or business applications will be located in a private cloud, while part of them will be available from the public one or will be processed on edge devices. Everything is a matter of project. As the example of modern data centers – built by Fujitsu on the basis of PRIMEFLEX integrated systems – shows, the key to the right choice is definitely the initial meeting, allowing you to define your needs and choose the best model corresponding to them. Its logical continuation is comprehensive technical support, providing the company an individual approach and proper care provided by specialists.
Author:
Fujitsu
Last Updated on January 18, 2022 by Łukasz