A hyper converged system and converged system both are alike to a considerable extent in terms of density of hardware resources logically.
The core difference is software definition. In a hyper converged system there is a management interface that acts as manager if managers to which every element management report - be it network, server, storage or virtualization platform. This manager of managers brings in orchestration, provisioning, automation, processes, monitoring mechanisms, reporting, snapshot backups etc... in a single pane of glass making it a very lucrative cloud in a box kind of option. This is software defined everything kind of stuff.
Another key difference is storage - in HCI you get a software defined storage which is generally a Soft SAN - a blob/object storage. Some HCI solution run absolutely on RAIN and some of them run combination of RAIN & RAID from storage and data redundancy perspective . RAIN architecture for soft SAN needs 3 nodes to workout a redundant soft SAN while RAIN & RAID architecture combined for soft SAN can work with 2 Storage nodes even. That's how HCI is different from CI.
You can even run a combination of soft storage and Traditional storage in most of the HCI solutions and almost every HCI vendor supports it. Such kind of solutions are required in case the application is having the need for very high write IOPS at very low latencies <1 ms.
Its not that HCI is better or CI is better actually the Application type, workload type, Data volume and No. of VMs are some key scenarios that should be considered while designing an Enterprise landscape. Not every Application is designed to perform on HCI but almost all workload types can be run on CI.
HCI is great for latest born on cloud scenarios and generalized VM workloads while CI can be an overkill in terms of cost for setting such a greenfield setup due to higher cost.
Hyper-Converged Infrastructure refers to a system where numerous integrated technologies can be managed within a single system, through one main channel. Typically software-centric, the architecture tightly integrates storage, networking, and virtual machines.
A hyper converged system and converged system both are alike to a considerable extent in terms of density of hardware resources logically.
The core difference is software definition. In a hyper converged system there is a management interface that acts as manager if managers to which every element management report - be it network, server, storage or virtualization platform. This manager of managers brings in orchestration, provisioning, automation, processes, monitoring mechanisms, reporting, snapshot backups etc... in a single pane of glass making it a very lucrative cloud in a box kind of option. This is software defined everything kind of stuff.
Another key difference is storage - in HCI you get a software defined storage which is generally a Soft SAN - a blob/object storage. Some HCI solution run absolutely on RAIN and some of them run combination of RAIN & RAID from storage and data redundancy perspective . RAIN architecture for soft SAN needs 3 nodes to workout a redundant soft SAN while RAIN & RAID architecture combined for soft SAN can work with 2 Storage nodes even. That's how HCI is different from CI.
You can even run a combination of soft storage and Traditional storage in most of the HCI solutions and almost every HCI vendor supports it. Such kind of solutions are required in case the application is having the need for very high write IOPS at very low latencies <1 ms.
Its not that HCI is better or CI is better actually the Application type, workload type, Data volume and No. of VMs are some key scenarios that should be considered while designing an Enterprise landscape. Not every Application is designed to perform on HCI but almost all workload types can be run on CI.
HCI is great for latest born on cloud scenarios and generalized VM workloads while CI can be an overkill in terms of cost for setting such a greenfield setup due to higher cost.
Hi @Danielaramyo @Effort Moyo @reviewer1136580 @Ehsan-Zaidi,
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Thanks!