Converged Infrastructure vs. Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

Deciding the IT infrastructure of an enterprise involves investment and hence proper care regarding the same must be taken depending on the factors of workload and agility. Core Technologies Services, Inc. compares the two options of CI and HCI for infrastructure needs and lists below their individual benefits.

Converged Infrastructure (CI)

Converged Infrastructure (CI) is used to centrally manage computation, networking, VDI management and server virtualization into a single unit. The hardware is pre-configured from the vendor, as per expected workload to support all the components of the system. CI can withstand all the processes that it is configured for and works well without additional components from the infrastructure. However, due to pre-configuration, this system does not allow flexibility and therefore cannot be scaled as workload increases. CI is hardware-centric and incurs an increase in cost due to the addition of more hardware components to an existing infrastructure.

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI)

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) takes the basic four aspects of computation, networking, VDI management and server virtualization from CI and provides additional resources like software backup, data deduplication, WAN optimization, inline compression, etc. Basically, it takes the concept of a traditional data center in a single chassis and allows scalability by adding nodes. To expand or shrink its usage, simply adding and removing of any components via a software tool can be done. Thus, HCI being software based allows tier facilities with changing application needs. Since HCI is SDDC based, the configuration at the software level and manipulation of virtual desktop become easy.

With respect to Cloud computing, the above benefits can be derived from Public Cloud. With the advantages of scalability and cost-effective deployment, benefits of HCI can be emulated on the Cloud platform easily. HCI, today, is seen as the building blocks for virtualization via Public Cloud.

We at CoreIT share esteemed partnerships with leading IT companies that rely on day-to-day solutions for their infrastructure needs. With our vast expertise with traditional CI, HCI and Cloud computing services, consult with us while determining the infrastructure for your virtual systems in the most cost-effective manner.

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