What Is Hyper Converge Infrastructure?

What Is Hyper Converged Infrastructure?

Hyper converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software-defined, unified system that combines all the elements of a traditional data center: storage, compute, networking and management.

"Hyper converged infrastructure" is an IT term that combines the words of "hyper converged" and "infrastructure". Among them, "infrastructure" refers to the provision of computing, storage, network connection, and other infrastructure services for the IT environment. "Hyper convergence" is formed by adding hyper to converged infrastructure, which means that it can provide further integration to converged architecture.

Hyper converge infrastructure integrates computing, virtualization, storage, and networking into a single cluster. Starting from at least three nodes, users can easily expand the scale according to computing and storage resource requirements. Hyper convergence provides cloud-like simplicity in a single platform that can be deployed on-premises and easily managed. The distributed storage of the X86 server is adopted, and the distributed storage and computing virtualization are deployed in the same server hardware, replacing the complex and expensive traditional infrastructure. Enterprises use a hyper converged architecture to expand the number of nodes in the server, and run software in different nodes, and operate all maintenance functions in a unified manner, with excellent performance and flexibility.

• Storage virtualization
• Computing virtualization
• Network virtualization
• Advanced automated management functions

The virtualization software abstracts the underlying resources, creates a pool, and then dynamically allocates the resources to the application running in the virtual machine or container. It is based on the principle of conforming to the application, so no logic unit is required. Complex structures such as numbering and magnetic zones simplify management.

• Distributed storage architecture
  Through data cutting, the huge amount of information is scattered and stored in multiple independent devices on the network. These are placed on the X86 server, and a set of convenient expansion kits is constructed, giving a very stable storage resource pool.
• Solid State Drive SSD
  SSD uses flash memory to store data, speed up the transmission speed, and greatly improve computer performance. SSD has the advantages of being lightweight, low energy consumption, quiet, and shock resistance. The random performance of SSD makes it able to operate at speeds as high as two orders of magnitude higher that other storage devices. Therefore, unlike the traditional three-tier architecture, additional rack space is required for the storage system, so that storage and computing nodes are integrated and easier to manage.
• Virtualization applications
  Another key technology to realize hyper-converged architecture technology is virtualization. With virtualization technology, distributed storage or storage virtualization solutions can be effectively used to truly utilize the physical hardware that integrates storage and computing on the x86 Server coexistence.
• Central Processing Unit CPU
  With the development of the CPU, with its higher performance and lower the manufacturing cost, sufficient performance can solve computing and storage requirements at the same time.

The management is simple and convenient, hardware cost and space occupied are reduced.  Flexible expansion capabilities, suitable for developing small and medium-sized enterprises, depending on business needs, expand the system scale potentials.

• IT efficiency is higher and management is convenient
  The hyper converged architecture can eliminate manual processes making it no longer necessary to rely on dedicated personnel in the IT team for independent management. By adopting a converged IT team, resources can be monitored and managed at the same time. Storage functions can be improved, and IT resources can be dynamically configured in the form of a storage pool, providing the capacity, performance, and protection required by the system.
• Reduce costs, reduce hardware space, and store more data
  Use the X86 server, the hyper converged architecture can be expanded vertically or horizontally. There is no need to set up a dedicated network, so capital expenditures are reduced. Capacity can be directly increased without the need to increase the hardware configuration, and the system will not be interrupted. With the hyper converged architecture, companies can build data centers of the appropriate scale based on their own needs, avoiding unnecessary system expenditures.
• Strong expansion capability, suitable for small and medium enterprises
  The hyper converged architecture can quickly respond to business needs. The hardware configuration can be completed in just a few hours, and it can be put into operation within a few minutes to create workloads and improve the performance of key business applications such as relational databases.
• Simple maintenance
  Due to the high fault tolerance of the hyper converged architecture, the low risk of data loss, and the short impact on the business, coupled with the advantages of a fast recovery and high degree of automation, system maintenance is simpler than traditional architecture.

• Uses general-purpose server hardware to form the basic unit
  Uses standard commercially available server hardware to form a basic unit that integrates computing and storage units.
• Uses hardware resources in a software-defined way
  Uses virtual machine (VM) as the core and software-defined type to use hardware resources. Resource deployment does not involve the adjustment of the configuration settings of the underlying physical hardware. The underlying hardware resources are planned and used purely in a software-defined manner, and then deliver the required resources to the end-user.
• Clustered architecture
  Through clustering or distributed storage software, multiple basic unit chassis are combined to form a cluster. This cluster provides the necessary hardware, service, and data availability to allow scalability of the IT environment.
• Easy to deploy quickly
  The product has completed the software and hardware installation test in advance, and the user only needs to set the basic environmental parameters to start using it.

How to use hyper converged architecture?

The use of a hyper converged architecture requires the use of the cloud. There are 3 steps from internal to external to integrate private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud applications:

• Build a private cloud:
  Building a cloud infrastructure in the internal deployment environment can not only reduce costs, but also allow for more control, and increase the flexibility and agility of enterprises to deploy new applications, and indirectly improve security.
• Connect to the public cloud:
  Choose to connect the public cloud provided by hyper converged architecture vendors to speed up deployment and reduce infrastructure management time.
• Adopt hybrid cloud:
  Use the hybrid cloud to manage various virtual machines and container applications in data centers, public clouds, and edge environments.

Digital transformation is the key to business success. The accompanying requirements include support for huge amounts of data, artificial intelligence (AI), and hybrid cloud while meeting the rapidly increasing demand of traditional workloads. Under the current IT infrastructure, the data center will be inefficient, due to dull permutations and combinations that are difficult to manage. Current data centers cannot meet the rapid improvement needs of enterprises and the cloud. HCI centralizes resources and management, which not only reduces costs and complexity but also reduces the burden on employees while improving efficiency.