Hyper-converged infrastructure environments are increasing in popularity for many reasons, especially for ROBO (Remote Office / Branch Office) environments. They are integrated software-defined systems that combine compute, network, storage and virtualization with a software layer that provides a single system of managed IT. Hyper-converged infrastructures are easy to deploy, manage and offer IT agility and flexibility as well as a decrease in operational costs and the resources needed to manage them.
Next logical step
Hyper-converged has provided the next logical evolution in IT after converged systems. Converged systems pre-integrate IT components (compute, data storage and networking). These components are pre-validated bundles that are likely from separate hardware manufacturers. They are pre-assembled and configured before shipping to the data center. The end result is a predictable deployment with minimal compatibility issues. Converged infrastructure is designed to operate with specific workload types and capacities that provides customers very predictable and streamlined times to deployment as well as an increased return on their investment.
Hyper-converged solutions offer the next step in IT infrastructure evolution by integrating compute and direct-attached storage into a single software-defined IT resource. This environment is then managed from a common interface. One key characteristic of hyper-converged infrastructures is the ease of scaling when additional storage capacity or processing power is required, simply add additional nodes. Hyper-converged systems provide all-in-one, compute and storage building blocks that can provide many good availability features like self-healing, clustering, replication and failover. These are all good for keeping the platform running, but really don’t complete the data and overall application Availability picture. It’s like ordering a cheeseburger without fries, who does that? Veeam challenges the Availability Gap; the difference between what IT can offer to the business in terms of RTO and RPO versus the demands of their Always-On 24.7.365 business requirements.
Modernize data protection when you modernize your infrastructure
Hyper-convergence gets you part of the way there, but to truly maximize your hyper-converged systems you need to upgrade your data Availability strategy. To achieve the highest levels of data Availability you need the combination of both backup as well as replication. Replication will provide the best RTO’s whereas backup will provide much longer term system archival. Many benefits can be achieved from a solution that was purpose built for highly virtualized environments. For example, a common challenge is testing a DR strategy. A second example, is how fast can I recover an individual item, MS Exchange for instance.
Better together
A good example of getting a complete meal is Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam.
HyperFlex is the Cisco hyper-converged infrastructure offering that provides many built-in platform Availability features like clustering, self-healing and failover. When paired with Veeam Availability solutions you have a robust data Availability solution. This solution will provide incredibly fast restore operations, enhanced application-level item recovery and blazing backups.
Veeam complements Cisco HyperFlex like fries complement a cheeseburger, to ensure Availability by enabling automated recovery, site-to-site replication and the ability to test and verify off-site replica data. Together they are better! Cisco and Veeam enable IT to gain greater efficiency and infrastructure agility, greatly reduce operational costs and dramatically reduce risks. They provide unified data protection, fast and flexible recovery and replication so end users have 24/7 data and application access.
To learn more about Cisco HyperFlex and Veeam together, read the Tech Target white paper. If you’re already running an environment on HyperFlex with Veeam be sure to upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 9.0 Update 2. This update provides support for Direct NFS backup mode.
To truly maximize your investment in hyper-converged or converged infrastructures, be sure to ask for fries with it and get a complete data Availability solution.