Organizations need faster and more reliable storage performance than ever before. Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) provides a path to a secure, modern infrastructure. HCI simplifies management, consolidates resources and reduces costs by combining compute, storage and networking into a single system.

Because of these benefits, HCI adoption continues growing, and many organizations consider the solution critical to their strategic IT priorities. Watch how eight companies use the benefits of hyperconverged infrastructure to modernize the data center for agility, scalability and cost efficiency to support rapid business innovation.

1. Simplify Deployments

VMware deployed its own industry-leading storage virtualization software, VMware vSAN, in its IT environment to power HCI in support of more cost-efficient virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and remote office operations. “This had the additional benefit of simplifying deployment at locations where we may not have local IT staff,” says Chanh Chi, senior director of IT. “Based on our early success in these environments, we gained the confidence to leverage vSAN for mission-critical workloads.” Read more about the backbone of VMware’s HCI strategy.

2. Increase Flexibility

Velcom, a telecommunications leader in Belarus, also uses HCI to support VDI, as well as multiple data centers. “This infrastructure means we can flexibly adjust policies pertaining to the fault tolerance speed of the virtual machines,” says Anton Lushchikov, head of infrastructure development and operations department at Velcom. “It helps Velcom remain a leader in the Belarus market among companies with a virtual infrastructure.” Read the case study to learn more about Velcom’s results.

3. Lower Costs

“Our total cost of ownership has gone down by over 30 percent, and the capacity for the capex and opex spending has gone down by 20 percent. Our time-to-market has also gone down by 15 percent,” Ryan Fay, global CIO of ACI Specialty Benefits, a top-ranked global benefits provider based in San Diego. “We’ve been able to do a lot more with a lot less.”

4. Do More with Less

Cubic, based in San Diego, provides technology solutions for defense missions. With HCI, Cubic makes these solutions lighter, yet still reliable and secure, for teams on the ground and in the air. “Using vSAN hyperconverged infrastructure really has made an improvement,” says Tom Lynott, director of software architecture. “We can reduce the size, weight and power by not using storage appliances.” Cubic estimates a 91-percent reduction in average equipment weight for warfighters, in a case study.

5. Scale Operations

The U.S. Senate Federal Credit Union, based in Alexandria, Va., needs to quickly and securely deliver modern financial services anytime and anywhere to its members on Capitol Hill, including new applications and services at remote branches. “Hyperconverged, for the Credit Union, gives us an opportunity to begin to scale our operations a lot more efficiently,” says Mark Fournier, systems architect.

6. Raise Reliability

Sky UK is a leading provider of TV, internet, phone and mobile services in Europe—services customers expect will be available to use at anytime. The move to HCI solutions drove down costs; improved efficiencies; and, ultimately, ensured higher reliability of these critical, customer-facing services.

“The video transport piece for VMware vSAN, or video streaming, is what powers your linear TV, the live TV channels. It has to be extremely high performant. It has to be extremely reliable. There’s very little room for error in these services,” says David Matthews, lead solution architect of cloud engineering for Sky’s tech UK organization. “By moving to a software-defined environment, we're able to move the failure domain, rather the area of change, down to a much more granular unit … For us, it's really allowing our customers to drive ahead with the software and digital products at Sky.”

7. Maximize Resources

“We have opted to concentrate on hyperconverged infrastructure, and this will enable us to significantly increase system reliability and availability both in terms of computing power and storage availability,” says Maurizio Davini, chief technology officer of the University of Pisa in Italy. “Most of all, it allows us to fully exploit all available resources with maximum flexibility. This means we can provide users with a better service and also reduce our running costs.”

8. Future-Proof IT

HCI solutions are part of “a pragmatic, timely, forward-looking IT infrastructure” for Honda Motor (China) Co. Ltd., an importer and exporter of vehicles and parts. Chung Wai Man, Daphne, manager of the business administration division, says “a reliable, safe and stable operating environment is necessary” to brace for rapid change in China and around the world. So the organization transitioned vital software to HCI, including enterprise resource planning, accounting and human resources information systems.

 

HCI use cases will continuing expanding as companies set a course to the software-defined data center, private and hybrid clouds and the edge. Breaking down silos and easing operations, HCI puts IT in a better position to support business objectives as the pace of innovation and change accelerates.