converged infrastructure 101 - · pdf filehyper-converged infrastructure is a subset of...

Converged Infrastructure 101 Making Sense of Hyper-convergence

Eric Liew

Data Center Sales Specialist

Cisco Malaysia

Hyper-converged Infrastructure

Simple

Automated

Easy To

Deploy

Unified

Lower

TCO Scalable

Easy to

Maintain

Support

Multiple

Workloads

Faster to

Deploy

IT Infrastructure Revolution

In 1966, Maslow said…

“If the only tool you

have is a hammer, you

tend to see every

problem as a nail.”

- The Law of the Instrument, Abraham Maslow

Corollary to the Law of the Instrument…

Cisco is THE Leader in the Gartner Integrated Systems Magic Quadrant

Read the Full Report here:

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner

research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with

respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

By Andrew Butler, George J. Weiss, and Philip Dawson

G00266749, 11 August, 2015, © 2015 Gartner Inc.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and

should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is

available upon request from Cisco.

Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant

for Integrated Systems

https://www.gartner.com/doc/3110224/magic-

quadrant-integrated-systems

Major analysts firms differ slightly on the taxonomy and makeup of the various integrated infrastructure systems that comprise this market segment. However, they do agree that these systems include a combination of servers, storage, networking and management software.

Hyper-converged Infrastructure is a subset of Integrated Systems.

What is an “Integrated System”?

6

Evolution of Integrated Systems

Servers + Hypervisor

Storage Switch

HA Shared Storage

SSD Array

Backup Appliance

WAN Optimization

Cloud Gateway

Storage Caching

Backup Apps

Legacy Stack Convergence 2.0 Hyper-convergence

Converge only storage and server

Convergence 3.0 Beyond Server & Storage

The Best of Both Worlds

Converge the

entire stack

Convergence 1.0 Integrated Infrastructure

Enterprise Capabilities

1. Data Protection 2. Data Efficiency 3. Performance 4. Global Unified

Management

Pre-integrated

storage and

server

Cloud Economics

1. Low Cost

2. x86 Resources

3. Scale-out

Choice of Design:

• Physical vs. Virtual

• Centralized vs Distributed

Design Attributes:

• Scale, Speed, Simplicity

Ultimate Goal:

LOWER TCO

When it comes to Infrastructure …

Network

Storage

Compute

Convergence 1.0: Integrated Infrastructure

• From weeks to days

• Predefined bundles

• Pre-set configs for compute, network & storage

• Faster to design and deploy

Easy Ordering

• Ongoing for lifetime

• UCS Director delivering set up and management

• Cisco ONE Enterprise Cloud Suite expanding on future options

Easy Operation

• From days to hours

• One touch provision

• Comprehensive automation across the infrastructure

• Integration delivered from factory

Easy Deployment

Automation

Standard

Infrastructure Single Pane of

Glass

Drivers for Integrated Infrastructure

Combining best-of-breed technologies Apps/Middleware

Management Software

Cisco Nexus & MDS

Cisco UCS Servers

Storage

Network

Compute Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure

Cisco UCS

Cisco Nexus

Cisco MDS

EMC, IBM , Netapp, Nimble, HDS, RedHat

Cisco Integrated Infrastructure?

Vblock

VCE

Cisco Solutions for

VSPEX

EMC2

HDS UCP Select

Hitachi

SmartStack

Nimble

Storage

Cisco UCS for Red Hat

OpenStack

Red Hat

OpenStack

FlexPod

NetApp IBM

VersaStack

CHOICE OF CONSUMPTION:

On-Premise/Cisco Cloud Provider

Cisco Enterprise Cloud Suite Cisco

UCS

Cisco

Nexus

UCS Integrated Infrastructure

Big Data and Analytics

Cisco

Cisco Integrated Infrastructure Solutions

Solution Scope and Definition Defines system level functional

and performance requirements

for the solution

Solution Architecture Defines the infrastructure

design as well as the hardware

and software required to

achieve the solution goals

Comprehensively Tested Built following best practices

and evaluated to ensure

functionality, scale and

performance

Design & Deployment Guidance A framework incorporating a

broad set of solutions,

technologies, and

applications

Solution Requirements

Technical Requirements

Validation

Cisco Validated Design

Easily Deploy New Systems With Expert Guidance

Consistent, Successful Technology Deployments Addressing Business Initiatives

Cisco Validated Design Process

Product-level Support

Entitled Customer

or Channel Partner

Cisco

Cisco Ecosystem

Partner

Product-level Support Cisco Data Center

Solution Support for Critical

Infrastructure Service Delivery

team

Coordinate

Coordinate

Solution Support Contract

Coordinate

Alternative Support Option (Partner-led) Customer calls the partner first.

Partner delivers Solution Support and resolves Level 1 and 2 product support issues.

Partner escalates for L3 product issues with Cisco and Cisco Ecosystem partners

Preferred Support Option (Cisco-led) Entitled Customer or Channel Partner calls Cisco for all support issues.

Cisco engages product support teams as needed to resolve all support issues.

Single Point of Support

Convergence 2.0: Hyper-convergence

• Hyper-Converged is a cool new marketing term:

• More Converged than Converged!

• Typically based on Software Defined Storage

• Key Points:

• Yet another Converged Infrastructure

• Tight integration of x86 servers for compute, storage, & hypervisors in a physical appliance.

• Network is sometimes included

• Simple Scale one unit/appliance at a time

• Simple Deployment measured in hours

• Centralized Management, intuitive UI

• Perceived lower cost/complexity

• Attractive option for IT challenged customer

What is Hyper-converged Infra (HCI) Controller

VM VM VM VM

Local Physical Storage

Hypervisor

Controller

VM VM VM VM


Hypervisor

Controller

VM VM VM VM


Hypervisor

• Note the Virtualization trend

• Compute virtualization Hypervisors

• Network Virtualization SDN

• Storage Virtualization SDS

• Key points:

• Decouple Storage HW from the SW

• Use commodity HW

• Move SW intelligence to compute layer

• Cost-Benefit analysis:

• Perceived lower cost and complexity

• Emphasis on Services such as Deduplication, Compression

• Bottom line:

• New industry trend that is solving same old problems with a new and different twist

What is Software Defined Storage (SDS)

Software Defined Storage


Hosts

Storage Software can run on bare

metal or as a VM on a hypervisor host

Cisco Hyper-converged Infrastructure Strategy

Customer Needs

Scale

Speed

Simplicity

Technology Options Cisco Strategy

Flexibility of Deployment Options

Best Technology Choice

Comprehensive Validated Designs

Timed with Market Demand

+ +

Cisco UCS

Cisco Nexus

VMware Virtual SAN 6.0 Example of Software Defined Storage

vSphere + Virtual SAN

…

• Software-defined storage optimized for

VMs

• Hypervisor-converged architecture

• Runs on any standard x86 server

• Pools HDD/SSD into a shared datastore

• Delivers enterprise-level scalability and

performance

• Managed through per-VM storage policies

• Deeply integrated with the VMware stack

Overview

Hard disks SSD Hard disks

SSD Hard disks

SSD

Virtual SAN Datastore

VMware Virtual SAN Is Hypervisor-converged

Virtual SAN is embedded in the vSphere Kernel

• Consumes <10% CPU

Simple to manage

• No need to install and manage separate

virtual appliances

• No single point of failure

• Provides the shortest path for I/O

Seamless integration with vSphere and VMware stack

vSphere

Virtual SAN is

Embedded

inside VM

Kernel

Virtual

Storage

Applianc

e

...

Convergence 3.0: Beyond Server & Storage

Recap – Evolution of Integrated Systems


Storage Switch

HA Shared Storage

SSD Array

Backup Appliance

WAN Optimization

Cloud Gateway

Storage Caching

Backup Apps




Converge the

entire stack


Pre-integrated

storage and

server

Data Protection Apps

Backup appliance

Servers

Storage switch

HA shared storage

WAN optimization

Cloud gateway

SSD array

Storage caching

Management

Orchestration

Cisco OmniStack with Simplivity

Hypervisor

The Cisco

Hyper-converged Future

All IT infrastructure

below the hypervisor

Will run on

Cisco UCS

Powered by

Legacy IT Infrastructure

Accelerated Data Efficiency

Dedupe, Compress, Optimize

at Inception

Once and Forever: Primary,

Backup, Archive, WAN, Cloud

Across All Tiers: DRAM, Flash,

HDD

Globally

OmniStack

Accelerator™

Global Unified Management Beyond Hyper-convergence

Single Shared

Resource Pool

Native Data Protection

Native WAN Optimization

Reduced Energy Footprint

Speed of Deployment

Simple Ordering (one SKU!)

3x TCO Savings

vs

Global fabric for managing and

seamlessly moving and

protecting deduped/

compressed data and/or VMs

Globally

One Screen: can be managed

by one person globally

Data Virtualization Platform

Simplivity Core Innovations

“The best IO is the one you don’t have to

do.”

App 3 App 4

HDD

SSD

DRAM

X86 CPU

ESXi

ALL DATA WRITTEN/REGISTERED TO VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM

ONLY UNIQUE DATA WRITTEN TO HDD

DATA MANAGEMENT LAYER

PRESENTATION LAYER

DATA VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM

SimpliVity’s Data Virtualization Platform

“The best IO is the one you don’t have to

do.”


PRESENTATION LAYER

HDD

SSD

DRAM

X86 CPU

ESXi App 4 App 3

SimpliVity’s Data Virtualization Platform

San Francisco

HDD

SSD

DRAM

X86 CPU

ESXi


PRESENTATION LAYER

New York

ESXi


PRESENTATION LAYER

Local, Full VM Backup Remote Full VM Backup

Fast Application Restore from Full

VM Backup

All data is deduplicated and compressed to minimize data flow across geography

App 4

App 3

App 5

Deduplicated Data Replication

A Practical Comparison Legacy

Stack

Integrated

Infrastructure

Hyper-converged /

Software Defined Storage

Infrastructure Choice

Workload Flexibility

Performance

Startup Cost

Scaling Cost

Power & Cooling

Cabling Complexity

Manageability

Support

Physical Space

* When compared with full legacy

stack including WAN optimizer,

backup, replication, etc.

*

Summary – Cisco Means Choice


Storage Switch

HA Shared Storage

SSD Array

Backup Appliance

WAN Optimization

Cloud Gateway

Storage Caching

Backup Apps




Converge the

entire stack


Pre-integrated

storage and

server

Manage with Cisco UCS Director

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