How hyperconverged infrastructures have been transforming data centres

Hyperconverged infrastructures (HCIs) have transformed data centres. In the past, data centres were big and had to accommodate single-purpose hardware for every IT function. This action proved very expensive and inefficient for businesses. Annelie Invansoon and Martin Frederiksen report

In the past, data centres were big and had to accommodate isolated, single-purpose hardware for every IT function. As a result, organisations had to invest vast sums in multiple hardware units, many of which sat idling the majority of the time, creating an environment of high cost and low efficiency. 

HCI allows hardware to be migrated and abstracted into the cloud with low operational costs and better data governance. 

Alongside other additional benefits, HCI offers companies the versatility and optimisation that they need.

In recent years, there has been a new way of thinking around data centres that allows organisations to consolidate resources in a different way. 

By making data centres more hardware efficient, companies can be more agile in the way they manage their computing systems.

First, converged infrastructure brought together diverse IT elements into one box, merging computing units, storage, and networking technologies to create an integrated and unified system that could perform multiple business functions. This gave organisations flexibility, increased available real estate and saved significant costs. 

However, hardware is still required and companies still need to provide a physical location for their servers.

HCI goes one step further. HCI is hardware-agnostic and has heralded the emergence of software-defined data centres (SDDC). 

Virtualisation software enables hardware to be abstracted and migrated to the cloud, creating a single interface with lower operational costs, improved performance for every application, better data governance, and no vendor lock-in.

Most important of all, it gives companies access to on-demand computing, optimising hardware only when it’s needed and exponentially increasing scalability and processing capacity.

HCI solutions give many organisations in diverse vertical markets the versatility they need.

With HCI, there is almost limitless possibility in terms of suppliers and compatibility. You can eliminate vendor lock-in and overprovisioning, meaning greatly reduced infrastructure spending across the entire data centre.

Recab provides bespoke HCI solutions for anyone looking to drive IT efficiencies throughout their business.

One of our areas of specialism is in delivering support for customers operating in environments requiring rugged hardware, such as the defence and aerospace industries, where computing technology not only has to be hyper-connected but meet tough certification standards and be resistant to amongst other extreme shock, vibration and wide temperature ranges.

This kind of customer brief has a high level of complexity and, in the past, would have necessitated many different functions, each requiring an individual hardware unit. But IT infrastructure in these industries has come a long way.

Now, Recab can provide customers with rugged and resistant hardware from the best suppliers around the world, with the simplicity and scalability of best-in-class HCI technology.

We also have the experience and knowhow to put customer plans into action, working alongside them on visualisation and practical implementation to set them up for long-term success. Recab’s network of suppliers from all over the world means we can always deliver the best value, and our technical expertise allows us to provide easy, compact HCI solutions to fit any customer brief.

Annelie Invansoon is Marketing Manager at Recab AB, and Martin Frederiksen is managing director of embedded computing expert Recab UK.