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The hyper-converged infrastructure is IT's next big disruptor.


Johannesburg, 24 Mar 2017
Dean Irwin, Edgetec Systems; Craig Irvine, Nutanix; Michele Groenewald, Lenovo South Africa; and Alan Browning, Lenovo Data Center Group.
Dean Irwin, Edgetec Systems; Craig Irvine, Nutanix; Michele Groenewald, Lenovo South Africa; and Alan Browning, Lenovo Data Center Group.

Developments in IT are all about... well... the technology. But what about the human impact of that technology? Would you find this article more interesting if you knew that the technology it discusses would mean more free time at the weekend, for example? We can get so lost in the wonder of what's possible that we lose sight of the end goal, namely, to make our lives simpler and reduce the amount of time (and money) it takes to do things, both in our professional and personal lives. (And the two are increasingly converging and becoming inseparable - the professional has become personal and the personal professional.)

Craig Irvine, Nutanix OEM Alliance Manager for Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, explains: "People are accustomed to having always-on availability from social media in their personal lives, and are now starting to have the same high expectations in terms of accessibility in their corporate life. Hyper-converged infrastructure can deliver on that."

Simply put, hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) converges compute and storage, on a journey to invisible infrastructure. It blurs the delineation between public and private cloud and results in a single cloud - the enterprise cloud - that offers the best of both.

Irvine says: "It's all about the software-defined data centre and simplifying IT. Legacy infrastructure has become too complex to manage. We're trying to make it simpler and more affordable at the same time. People want a consumer-grade experience, but on-premises."

Three-tier architecture (with its presentation, application and data tiers) is dead and has been replaced by the next big disruptive technology - the hyper-converged infrastructure, says Alan Browning, MEA hyper-converged leader at Lenovo Data Centre Group, Middle East and Africa. "Software-defined storage is the way forward," says Browning, "driven by the applications that enable everything."

Irvine elaborates: "The reason we're moving away from three-tier technology is that businesses are being challenged by their clients to do things differently, yet they're still delivering IT in the same way they did 20 years ago. You can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result. Digital transformation demands that we take a different approach to IT."

"The IT role has moved away from managing infrastructure; everything is about the application and what it enables the business to do. We need to allow companies to start developing applications that differentiate their businesses instead of spending time and money on 'fixing the plumbing', allowing them to focus higher up the value chain and differentiate themselves," says Michele Groenewald, Commercial Account Manager at Lenovo South Africa.

Most legacy infrastructure wasn't designed for the speed that today's business requires - which is why clients are looking for alternatives. They want cloud-like IT, with all the benefits of cloud, but on-premises. HCI provides agility, simplicity, flexibility and lower operational costs.

"For us, it's all about helping our clients get to the next level in IT and attain business excellence," says Dean Irwin, Sales Manager, Edgetec Systems. "We know that our clients want to be at the leading edge of tech innovation and abreast of market trends. However, at the same time, they're looking to reduce operational data centre costs, reduce operational time, and deliver IT quicker to the business.

"Most infrastructure is designed for the historical way that people deployed applications. However, today, people need to deploy applications faster and they need new age infrastructure - such as the HCI - to be able to do that. Basically, HCI gives you cloud within your own data centre, without the risk."

However, businesses can't just order an HCI and have it dropped off at their offices. The software-defined data centre requires an understanding of the business before the customer can be guided on the right journey towards HCI, says Irwin.

Browning agrees: "The way forward is to become a trusted advisor to the customer, so you know and understand their business and advise them around the best solution for their unique requirements. You accompany them on the journey. This approach to consultative selling will see customers getting solutions that they need, without paying for extras until they actually require them."

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