Hyperconverged Infrastructure or HCI is a collaboration of building blocks that utilize software technology. This technology combines elements like storage, computing, networking, and others in a single element. It is a system that helps protect an organization’s data by allowing it to compress, duplicate, clone, encrypt, snapshot, and tier data. HCI eliminates an organization’s need for multiple storage servers, virtualization, and other resources. This way, an organization can control costs, check its data footprint and stabilize the IT department.
Many people use HCI and cloud computing interchangeably. However, these two have a difference. HCI offers a centralized data management plan with optimal data protection and workload management. On the other hand, the cloud provides data centers accessible to multiple users over the internet. It provides direct access without the need for direct management. That means organizations don’t need on-premise systems to store and protect their data. The work of HCI is to provide the infrastructure that supports the cloud by giving it a simple and favorable environment for setting up data. It offers a simple, scalable, and less-costly approach for transitioning to the cloud. Therefore, with HCI, your organization has an easy in-house way of deploying cloud infrastructure with optimal security. Cloud and HIC merge to provide efficient workload management, operations deployment, and data recovery. Old habits die hard, and even as the field of HCI continues to grow, there are myths behind it that are still yet to go away. This article will discuss seven of these myths to help you understand HIC better and differentiate facts from myths. Hopefully, it will be able to discourse the confusion many people have on this part.
Table of Contents
HCI Does Not Support High Volumes
This myth was true when HCI was introduced, and the makers needed to help IT executives understand what it was all about. However, it turns out that large organizations with huge demands and high-volume tasks like the federal government use HCI for various tasks like collecting taxes. HCI can satisfy thousands of users’ demands with different expectations, experiences, and perceptions. Its architecture is designed for growth.
Using a Single Vendor is Not a Good Idea
Many organizations diversify their investments. Many prefer not to stack their infrastructure from a single vendor. Therefore, they diversify in case one vendor does not keep its promises. Even though managing risks is vital for every organization, it is also crucial to understand how the risks come by. The main reason for introducing HCI is to provide a single management approach to virtualizing infrastructure rather than multiple platforms. Using a single vendor eliminates the issue of pointing fingers at vendors when something happens. Using a vendor from reliable HCI vendors is easier when solving issues. Another reason a single vendor is preferable is the increased level of integration. It provides a unified way of updating systems where you don’t have to hire a third party for the job. Updating systems separately is not a good idea since every vendor has its own way of doing it. Therefore, these solutions could come with their own set of challenges. That means a single vendor remains the best option.
HCI is Expensive
This perception goes back to when organizations had all the time to do things independently. Unfortunately, some still believe that HCI is costlier than building your own infrastructure. You must know that even with the highest talent, not many IT pros know how HCI is built. That means they have to spend more time learning how to build it. They will also deal with several costly mistakes on the way. Even though elements like licensing are cheap, building your own infrastructure can be expensive in the long run. You will need to hire experts to build HIC for you, which could consume your resources. Therefore, using HCI from vendors like Sangfor Technologies is the best solution. Using and maintaining the infrastructure is cheaper with a reliable vendor.
HCI is Not a Long-term Solution
This myth has already been busted in 2022. HCI has grown in popularity more than it was anticipated in 2019. One major reason HCI is still the most preferred option is its ability to conserve the bandwidth of the network, which comes with numerous benefits for organizations.
HCI Uses Too Many Servers
This is just a myth that mostly comes from people afraid of using HCI. In truth, the infrastructure uses less core and system memory than other storage networks. The good thing is that HCI shows you how much memory you use. This is unlike other storage systems that hide how much memory is used. Therefore, you end up using more memory and resources than you think.
You Should Go for the Cheapest Option
While a cheap option may work for some people, what you go for depends on what you want to achieve. A cheap option can work if you have a small application that does not need to integrate with other systems or does not impact your business. However, cheap is not an option if you need a highly-effective and performing solution. You need to pick a platform that is suitable to solve your problems. Therefore, if you want a scalable and high-performing solution with specs that allow you to solve issues, you will need to pay more for that.
HCI Does Not Handle Enterprise Applications Well
There is also this notion that HCI is incapable of handling enterprise applications well. The truth is that HCI is the most effective platform you need to run your organization’s applications. It is highly available and suitable for handling workloads from your database. In fact, HCI has become an integral element in data-intensive organizations that require robust systems for data backup, storage, protection, and disaster recovery.
Conclusion
These are seven prevalent myths surrounding HCI technology. Hopefully, these myths will disappear with time. However, in the meantime, we hope you understand how HCI works and why it is an integral part of organizations that handle high-volume data. If you want to optimize your cloud plan but are stuck with these myths, this article will help you understand why incorporating HCI is important.
