George Crump

by

August 6th, 2024—Ann Arbor, MI — Organizations seeking a robust VMware alternative often face concerns about the time and operational disruptions associated with migrating to a new platform. VergeIO, a leading innovator in data center virtualization, has addressed these concerns by demonstrating the capability to migrate over 100 VMware Virtual Machines (VMs) in less than five seconds. This remarkable achievement significantly outpaces other alternative solutions, which average 3 to 7 minutes per VM, translating to a lengthy 5 to 12 hours for migrating 100 VMs.

Why Migration Time Matters

Migration speed is critical for several reasons. Firstly, organizations need to thoroughly test their applications for compatibility and performance consistency on the new platform. Slow migration can extend testing periods, potentially resulting in incomplete or inadequate testing and unforeseen issues when the alternative platform goes live.

Secondly, slow migration times can lead to extended downtimes when switching to an alternative solution permanently. After testing, the final migration must capture a clean data copy while the VMware VM is down. Slow migrations either necessitate migrating one VM at a time to minimize outages or result in significant multi-hour outages during the cutover.

VergeIO’s Innovative Solution

VergeOS, VergeIO’s flagship solution, integrates the VMware migration function to convert hundreds of VMs in seconds, addressing both concerns. This rapid migration capability enables the quick creation of test environments. VergeIO’s Virtual Data Center technology allows for multiple instances of each environment to be created simultaneously for parallel testing at scale. Additionally, VergeOS’ integrated global inline deduplication minimizes capacity impact.

Watch The Migration Now

For production environments, VergeOS ensures minimal downtime. The integrated migration function performs block-level updates of VMs, allowing for a quick sync to capture the latest production data set post-testing. IT teams need only to power on the VM, facilitated by VergeOS’ rapid boot times, which are 3x faster than VMware. Consequently, most customers can transition applications from VMware to VergeOS with less than a minute of downtime.

“VergeIO’s migration capabilities exceeded our expectations,” said Darrin Whitney, CIO of YANA Systems. “We were able to migrate hundreds of VMs with minimal downtime, which allowed us to focus on optimizing our environment and providing value to our customers.  VergeOS has significantly improved our operational efficiency.”

Post-Migration Benefits

  1. Cost Efficiency: VergeOS reduces operational costs through optimized resource utilization and reduced infrastructure requirements. This efficiency allows organizations to allocate budgets and resources to other strategic initiatives.
  2. Enhanced Security: VergeOS continues to employ advanced encryption and security protocols to ensure data integrity and confidentiality, providing ongoing protection for sensitive information.
  3. Scalability: VergeOS supports dynamic scaling, allowing organizations to expand their virtual environments as needed easily. This flexibility ensures that IT infrastructure can grow in line with business demands.
  4. Simplified Management: VergeOS offers a user-friendly interface and comprehensive management tools, streamlining ongoing operations and making it easier for IT teams to manage and monitor virtual environments.
  5. Improved Performance: Organizations benefit from VergeOS’ optimized performance, which enhances application speed and reliability. This results in a more responsive and efficient IT environment, contributing to overall operational excellence.

“At VergeIO, we understand the critical importance of minimizing operational disruption during migration. Our ability to migrate over 100 VMs in less than five seconds showcases our commitment to delivering seamless and efficient solutions for our customers,” said Jason Yaeger, SVP of Engineering, VergeIO. “We are proud to offer a technology that not only accelerates the migration process but also ensures compatibility and performance consistency, enabling organizations to transition confidently to VergeOS.”

Live Demonstration

VergeIO will host a live demonstration to showcase this breakthrough in VMware migration technology. During the session, attendees will witness the migration of 100 VMware VMs to VergeOS in real-time, demonstrating the speed and efficiency of our solution. This event will provide a firsthand look at how VergeOS can transform IT operations with minimal disruption. Register here:

OD Reg VMware Migrations at Scale

About VergeIO

VergeIO is the leading VMware Alternative. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), its ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) collapses the traditional IT stack (computing, storage, and networking) into an integrated data center operating environment, VergeOS. Its efficiency enables greater workload density using existing hardware while improving data resiliency. The result is dramatically lower costs, improved availability, and greatly simplified IT.

For media inquiries, please contact: Judy Smith
JPR Communications
[email protected]
818-522-9673

Filed Under: Press Release

by

As IT Professionals review the latest DCIG report, “TOP 5 Enterprise VMware vSphere Alternatives,” they may ask themselves, “Are all VMware alternatives the same?”. Many are very similar. The only real difference between most alternatives and VMware, especially in the post-Broadcom era, is that they are less expensive, from a licensing perspective.

Like VMware, however, they all take a similar path to creating a complete infrastructure solution. They use multiple and separate software applications to build the IT stack. Unlike VMware, most alternatives are not directly responsible for all the components of their infrastructure bundle. This modular approach to infrastructure will leave most organizations with an IT stack that is just as complex, brittle, and ultimately as expensive as VMware.

Are VMware Alternative Hypervisors The Same?

Most VMware alternatives use Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) as their hypervisor. KVM, by itself, only does part of the virtualization, mainly the processor. Quick EMUlator (QEMU) virtualizes the remaining hardware, like storage devices and network cards. Most VMware alternatives use QEMU/KVM as is. KVM is tied so closely to the virtualization hardware in the processors that there is very little that vendors can do to optimize it further since you can’t change the processors. There are opportunities to significantly improve the virtualization of the rest of the server components. However, most vendors use existing libraries and generic libraries like libvirt to manage QEMU/KVM for them and then wrap everything up in a customized GUI. Essentially, their IP is the GUI.

Are All VMware Alternatives the Same

Vendors whose “value add” is a GUI lose the opportunity for optimizations and typically have limited source-code-level expertise. Suppose an issue arises between KVM and other components within their solution stack, which they also don’t have direct control over. In these situations, they often cannot resolve the issue without the community’s help, forcing customers to tolerate the problem longer than if they had a vendor with deep code-level experience.

VergeOS’ Highly Optimized Hypervisor

VergeIO also uses KVM and QEMU inside of VergeOS. However, the VergeIO development team focuses on making storage, memory, networking, and other virtual devices more efficient in minimizing overhead and maximizing performance. Most importantly, instead of separate programs for all of these functions, they have all been integrated as services within VergeOS, work that no other hypervisor vendor has undertaken.

Are VMware Alternative Hypervisors The Same?
Register for our Live Webinar

VergeIO has done deep code optimization into KVM/QEMU to integrate its storage services (VergeFS) and network services (VergeFabric), flattening the IT stack into a single piece of infrastructure software. The goal is to maximize efficiency and unlock the hardware’s performance potential. Unlike other VMware alternative vendors, VergeIO has control of and expertise over all the infrastructure services. As a result, the VergeIO development team has a deep understanding, at a source code level, of both KVM and QEMU.

Are All VMware Alternative Storage Services the Same?

The storage component of VMware alternatives is a little more confusing. Some provide almost no storage services, requiring a standalone storage system. Most traditional KVM-based VMware alternatives will incorporate another open-source software solution like CEPH or ZFS into their package. Again, they typically don’t have a deep understanding of the CEPH or ZFS source code and don’t have direct control over it. These vendors only “integration” is adding support for managing the separate storage software through their GUI.

Several recent entries into the VMware alternative market are companies that used to provide storage services under VMware but are now looking to position themselves for the alternative market. These new VMware alternatives are typically software-defined storage solutions that have created a way to run as a VM under KVM instead of VMware. These vendors have even less knowledge of the KVM source code and have made little or no optimizations to that code. Many vendors can not scale with the hypervisor and must dedicate storage functions to two nodes. Other vendors can’t support external storage and don’t provide a bridge to more affordable hyperconverged storage.

VergeOS’ Optimized Storage Services

Are All VMware Alternatives the Same

VergeIO wrote our storage software from the ground up to be optimized to work in a virtualized environment, something that an object store (CEPH) or file system (ZFS) is not. Second, we wrote VergeFS to integrate into a hypervisor, not be a VM of one. We integrated into VergeOS.

Combining these two design goals creates a highly efficient storage service providing enterprise-class features and performance. VergeFS’ performance often exceeds that of standalone storage arrays and delivers features like:

  • ioClone: Unlimited, independent snapshots with no performance impact.
  • Global Inline Data Deduplication: Infrastructure-wide data efficiency.
  • ioGuardian: maintaining data access even after multiple drive and server failures.
  • Fibre Channel Arrays: VergeOS provides a bridge to hyperconverged infrastructure.
  • Mixed Nodes: Storage-only, Compute-only, and Blade servers are all supported.

Are All VMware Alternative Network Services the Same?

The networking components of VMware alternatives are as confusing as the storage. Most vendors have no additional networking functionality other than what is built into the core hypervisor. Those that rely heavily on third parties. Most customers will continue to use networking appliances instead of counting on any of the hypervisor capabilities, which means they are paying extra for something that should be built into the infrastructure software.

The VMware alternative vendor may or may not be able to manage these network capabilities from the GUI. Problem resolution is a problem for them, as they do not have direct control over the software.

VergeOS Integrates Network Services

VergeOS provides complete Layer 2 / Layer 3 network services, including firewall, routing, and other services. These services are integrated into the VergeOS GUI, simplifying network management. Customers can use their existing network appliances and then gradually transition to VergeOS’ services when ready.

Are All VMWare Alternatives Able to Offer Private Cloud

Take advantage of this part. Every data center, no matter how small or what industry, can benefit by using secure multi-tenancy. Most IT professionals assume that a private cloud is essential only to organizations providing infrastructure (IaaS). IaaS providers have the use case to justify the high cost of private cloud software. However, most organizations can benefit if the private cloud capability is affordable. Unfortunately, with only a few exceptions, most VMware alternatives do not integrate multi-tenancy into their offering. If it is available, it is only as an expensive add-on.

VergeOS Virtual Data Centers Bring Multi-Tenancy to Every Data Center

Virtual Data Centers (VDC) are VergeIO’s take on multi-tenancy integrated into VergeOS. There is no additional charge for their use. A VDC encapsulates the physical data center like a VM encapsulates a physical server. Once encapsulated, you can manipulate it like a VM. They can also be snapshotted using our ioClone technology, making them ideal for patch testing and other virtual lab functionality.

The most universal use case is using VDCs for disaster recovery. By leveraging our built-in replication and global inline deduplication, you can copy a VDC to a remote site and keep that site up to date. When you make this copy, you make a perfectly consistent copy of the data center. Because of the encapsulation, you capture all the VM settings, network configuration, and, of course, all the data. Check out this chalk-talk video to learn more about VDCs.

Are All VMware Alternative Migration Services the Same?

Most VMware Alternatives have some functionality to help you migrate your VMware VMs to the target hypervisor. Usually, these migration services are separate programs that run externally from the core infrastructure software applications. Depending on the vendor migration tool, jobs can take ten minutes or more per VM. As we cover in our article “Minimizing VMware Migration Downtime,”, migration speed is critical for various reasons.

VergeOS Integrated, Fast VMware Migrations

VergeIO VMware migration capability, ioMigrate, is integrated into VergeOS, enabling fast, seamless migration. The first step in the migration process is to “back up” the VMware VM to a VergeOS host. ioMigrate uses VMware’s backup API set to get a complete copy of the entire VM, including its network settings. It is stored on VergeOS and can function as a backup/DR option.

The second step is to import the VM into VergeOS. Before importing the VM, you can take a snapshot of it if something goes wrong in testing. The import process takes seconds, no matter how many VMs are being migrated. The demonstration below shows 10 VMs being converted in less than ten seconds.

Conclusion

While it may seem that all VMware alternatives are essentially the same, significant differences exist in how these alternatives provide a complete infrastructure solution, particularly in handling hypervisors, storage, networking, and migration services. Most alternatives replicate VMware’s modular and complex architecture, providing little beyond a different price tag and a customized GUI. In contrast, VergeIO offers a unique and optimized solution that integrates and refines each component, from its deeply optimized hypervisor and storage services to its comprehensive network capabilities and efficient migration tools.

VergeIO’s approach to creating a cohesive infrastructure operating system sets us apart. By controlling and understanding every aspect of the IT stack at the source code level, VergeIO ensures higher performance, greater reliability, and a smoother user experience. This integrated, efficient, and highly optimized solution not only simplifies IT management but goes far beyond a lower upfront licensing cost, continually reducing the long-term cost of infrastructure.

Filed Under: VMwareExit Tagged With: ,

by

July 23, 2024—Ann Arbor, MI – VergeIO, a leading innovator in data center virtualization, is proud to announce that DCIG has selected VergeOS as one of the DCIG TOP 5 VMware vSphere Alternatives. After an exhaustive review of 19 VMware vSphere alternatives, DCIG recognized VergeOS for its unique and comprehensive approach to data center virtualization. This recognition follows a previous accolade where DCIG selected VergeIO as one of the DCIG TOP 5 hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions.

DCIG evaluated 19 possible VMware vSphere alternatives and made their selection of the DCIG TOP 5 based on the highest ratings in these categories:

  • Ease of Migration
  • Data Protection and Security
  • Deployment Options
  • Licensing and Pricing
  • Management
  • Technical Support

VergeOS scored well across all these categories, solidifying its position as a top choice for enterprises seeking a VMware vSphere alternative.

VergeOS stands out in the market by delivering what VergeIO describes as the next iteration of hyperconverged infrastructure: the ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI). Unlike traditional solutions that virtualize the server stack, VergeOS integrates compute, networking, and storage into a single code base. VergeOS virtualizes the entire data center, prevents performance bottlenecks, and reduces attack vectors (or “improves security”).

By installing VergeOS on bare metal servers, VergeIO manages the servers’ hardware resources, catalogs them, and makes them available to virtual data centers containing virtual networks, virtual machines (VMs), and virtual storage. This direct access and management of server hardware resources enables VergeOS to optimize performance in ways other hypervisors often cannot. For example, VergeOS’ global deduplication feature reduces data storage needs. It enhances efficiency in VM cloning and snapshot replication tasks, making it ideal for edge environments with limited resources.

Jerome Wendt, DCIG’s Principal Analyst who authored the report, commented, “VergeIO’s innovative approach to integrating compute, networking and storage into a single code base sets it apart from traditional hyperconverged solutions. Its ability to virtualize entire data centers efficiently while preventing performance bottlenecks makes VergeOS a standout choice for enterprises looking for an alternative to VMware vSphere.”

VergeOS differentiates itself further with several key features:

  • Multi-tenancy with Virtual Data Centers (VDCs): VergeOS creates its VDCs, each with full data center capabilities. This approach allows enterprises to manage VDCs like virtual private clouds (VPCs) offered by public cloud providers, ensuring robust and secure multi-tenancy.
  • VMware vSphere Migration Service: VergeOS facilitates seamless migration from existing VMware vSphere environments. With the VergeOS VMware service, administrators can easily import VMs from vSphere to VergeOS, enabling immediate use or testing without disrupting production environments.
  • All-inclusive Software Licensing: VergeOS employs a per-physical-server, all-inclusive licensing model. This includes all server virtualization, networking, and storage capabilities and does not require adherence to a specific hardware compatibility list (HCL). Enterprises can leverage existing server hardware to deploy VergeOS, offering significant cost savings and flexibility.
  • Runs on Existing Hardware: – In most cases, VergeOS can run on the customer’s existing hardware, which allows them to migrate from VMware vSphere without compounding capital expense.

“We are honored to be recognized by DCIG as a DCIG TOP 5 VMware vSphere Alternative,” said Greg Campbell, Founder and CTO of VergeIO. “This accolade, along with our previous recognition by DCIG as a DCIG TOP 5 hyperconverged infrastructure solution, validates our commitment to delivering cutting-edge virtualization solutions that empower enterprises to optimize their data center operations.”

Live Webinar Announcement: DCIG and VergeIO will conduct a live webinar on August 1 at 1:00 PM ET to discuss the VMware vSphere Alternatives report results. VergeIO will also demonstrate live how VergeOS achieved its high scores in the evaluated categories. Register for the webinar here.

For more information about VergeOS and how it can transform your data center, please visit VergeIO’s VMware Alternative Resource Guide.

About VergeIO
VergeIO is the leading VMware Alternative. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), its ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) collapses the traditional IT stack (computing, storage, and networking) into an integrated data center operating environment, VergeOS. Its efficiency enables greater workload density using existing hardware while improving data resiliency. The result is dramatically lower costs, improved availability, and greatly simplified IT. VergeIO is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Media Contact: Judy Smith
JPR Communications
[email protected]
818-522-9673

Filed Under: Press Release

by

[Ann Arbor, MI] — [July 16th, 2024] — VergeIO, a leading innovator in data center infrastructure solutions, today announced the launch of its new Value-Added Reseller (VAR) program designed to empower IT resellers with a superior product, seamless migration capabilities, financial incentives, technical assurance, and an optimized sales process. This strategic initiative positions VARs to effectively guide their customers through the post-VMware landscape.

Yan Ness, CEO of VergeIO, stated, “VARs need a better partner. In an industry of constant change, aligning with VergeIO sets VARs apart. Our new program equips VARs with the essential tools and support to offer their customers a dependable, cost-effective alternative to VMware. With superior performance and enhanced resilience to hardware failure, VergeIO ensures customer satisfaction and long-term success.”

Key Benefits of the VergeIO VAR Program:

  • Seamless Transition and Financial Incentives:  VARs can smoothly transition their customers from VMware with strong financial incentives, creating a win-win scenario for all stakeholders.
  • Rock-Solid Software for Technical Assurance: Maintain Trusted Advisor Status by recommending VergeOS—a reliable solution that is easy to install and operate, ensuring consistent performance and dependability.
  • No-Sweat Proof of Concept (POC):  Help customers quickly start their evaluations. VergeOS operates on almost any available server hardware, reducing the need for new investments and accelerating the decision-making process.
  • Guaranteed Customer Satisfaction: VergeIO ensures comprehensive support with real human interactions, providing dedicated assistance to resolve issues efficiently and effectively rather than relying on impersonal log file exchanges.

Partner Portal and Marketing Support

The new partner portal offers extensive training and sales support, including a complete marketing kit to help VARs establish a VMware Alternative Practice. This allows VARs to position themselves as consultative experts, confidently and easily guiding their clients through the transition.

With VergeIO, there is no technical risk. VARs can confidently recommend VergeOS, knowing their customers will benefit from a reliable, well-supported solution that enhances data center infrastructure.

About VergeIO:  

VergeIO is the leading VMware Alternative. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), its ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) collapses the traditional IT stack (computing, storage, and networking) into an integrated data center operating environment, VergeOS. Its efficiency enables greater workload density using existing hardware while improving data resiliency. The result is dramatically lower costs, improved availability, and greatly simplified IT.

For more information about VergeIO’s VAR program, visit [VergeIO Partners – VergeIO ] or contact partners@VergeIO. Also, VergeIO is hosting a special training session this week to help VARs transition customers off VMware. Register here.

Media Contact:

Judy Smith, JPR Communications
818-522-9673
[email protected]

Filed Under: Press Release

by

Many IT professionals are considering alternatives to VMware to reduce licensing costs, but the sustainability benefits of efficient infrastructure software as it replaces VMware should not be overlooked. Infrastructure software that integrates storage services, server virtualization, and network services into a single code base can improve power and cooling costs, as well as resource utilization, to enable organizations to meet sustainability goals.

the sustainability benefits of efficient infrastructure software

By requiring less CPU overhead, these solutions can significantly increase processor efficiency, which enables more virtual machines (VMs) per server, thereby reducing the number of physical servers required. It also extends the operational life of servers. These benefits contribute to environmental sustainability and cost efficiency. An efficient infrastructure software solution can also eliminate vendor lock-in, ensure long-term hardware flexibility, replace dedicated all-flash storage arrays with server-class SSDs, and incorporate backup best practices into the core infrastructure software. Additionally, solutions can reduce power, cooling, data center footprint, and server acquisition costs.

Enhancing Server Performance and Reducing Physical Server Count

Integrating storage, virtualization, and network services into a unified software package can improve server performance. Such software can handle more workloads with fewer physical servers by optimizing resource allocation and management. This reduction in physical infrastructure leads to several sustainability benefits:

  1. Lower Energy Consumption: Fewer servers mean reduced energy requirements for operation and cooling, directly lowering the data center’s carbon footprint.
  2. Reduced E-Waste: Minimizing the number of physical servers significantly decreases the amount of electronic waste generated from obsolete hardware.
  3. Cost Savings: Lower energy consumption and reduced hardware needs translate to substantial cost savings in capital and operational expenditures.

Elimination of Vendor Lock-In with Efficient Infrastructure Software

Vendor lock-in has long been a challenge in enterprise IT environments, and it impacts the sustainability benefits of efficient infrastructure software. Traditional infrastructure solutions bind organizations to specific hardware vendors, limiting flexibility and driving up costs. An efficient infrastructure software solution mitigates this issue by providing hardware-agnostic capabilities:

  1. Freedom of Choice: Organizations can choose hardware based on performance, cost, and sustainability criteria rather than being constrained by vendor compatibility.
  2. Competitive Pricing: The ability to mix and match hardware from different vendors fosters a competitive market, driving down prices and encouraging innovation.
  3. Sustainability Through Longevity: Hardware-agnostic software can support older servers, extending their useful life and reducing the need for frequent hardware replacements.

Efficient Infrastructure Software Delivers Long-Term Hardware Flexibility

One of the significant sustainability benefits of an efficient infrastructure software solution is its support for long-term hardware flexibility. This capability allows organizations to extend the operational life of their servers well beyond the original warranties:

  1. Extended Lifespan: With the correct software optimizations, servers can remain functional and efficient for many years, delaying the need for new hardware.
  2. Reduced Resource Consumption: By prolonging the life of existing hardware, the demand for raw materials and energy associated with manufacturing new servers is minimized.
  3. Economic Efficiency: Extending hardware lifespan translates to reduced capital expenditure on new equipment and better return on investment for existing assets.

However, as servers age, the risk of hardware failure increases. To mitigate this risk, built-in server redundancy and seamless failover capabilities are essential. Efficient infrastructure software should include these features to ensure continuous operation if an older server fails. This built-in redundancy allows workloads to be automatically transferred to functioning servers without disruption, maintaining high availability and reliability. Such resilience ensures that the extended use of older hardware does not compromise the overall stability and performance of the IT environment.

Eliminating Dedicated All-Flash Storage Arrays

Traditional data centers rely on dedicated all-flash storage arrays to meet high-performance processing and storage demands. However, this approach can be resource-intensive and costly. By integrating storage services directly into the server infrastructure and utilizing server-class SSDs, organizations can achieve comparable, if not superior, performance with greater efficiency:

  1. Cost Efficiency: Server-class SSDs are typically more cost-effective than dedicated all-flash storage arrays, reducing initial investment and ongoing maintenance costs.
  2. Improved Resource Utilization: Integrating storage into server infrastructure optimizes the use of existing resources, enhancing overall efficiency.
  3. Environmental Impact: The production of server-class SSDs generally requires fewer resources than all-flash storage arrays, contributing to a smaller environmental footprint.
  4. Elimination of Separate Network Infrastructure: Efficient infrastructure software eliminates the need for a separate network infrastructure dedicated solely to storage traffic, such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI. By consolidating storage traffic over existing Ethernet networks, organizations can reduce complexity, lower costs, and decrease the physical footprint of networking hardware. This simplification also reduces power and cooling requirements, further enhancing the sustainability of the IT environment.

Integrating Backup Best Practices Into Efficient Infrastructure Software

Incorporating backup and data protection best practices directly into the core infrastructure software eliminates the need for separate data protection architectures. This integration offers several sustainability and efficiency benefits:

  1. Simplified Management: A unified approach to data protection streamlines management processes, reducing the need for additional hardware and administrative overhead.
  2. Enhanced Resiliency: Integrated backup solutions ensure that data is consistently protected and readily recoverable, minimizing downtime and data loss.
  3. Resource Optimization: By leveraging existing infrastructure for backup purposes, organizations can avoid the additional energy and material costs associated with dedicated backup systems.
  4. Elimination of Separate Storage Systems and Servers: The integration of the data protection architecture eliminates the need for separate storage systems to store backup data and separate servers to run the backup software. This consolidation reduces the overall hardware footprint, significantly saving space, power, and cooling costs.

The Requirements of Efficient Infrastructure Software

the sustainability benefits of efficient infrastructure software

Efficient infrastructure software must meet several essential requirements to support modern data centers effectively while promoting sustainability and cost-efficiency. These requirements include integrating essential components, multi-tenancy capabilities, data resiliency, high availability, and scalability.

  • Integration of Major Components: The software must integrate the three major components of the data center—storage services, virtualization software, and networking services—into a single piece of software.
  • Integrated Multi-Tenancy: The software should provide integrated multi-tenancy to eliminate the noisy neighbor problem and ensure fair resource distribution among different workloads.
  • Data Resiliency and High Availability It should integrate data resiliency and high-availability features for servers to protect against hardware failures and ensure continuous operation.
  • Scalability: The software must scale from as few as two servers to hundreds of servers, allowing it to meet a wide range of use cases from Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) setups all the way up to large Enterprise environments.

Conclusion

Verge.io’s VergeOS meets all the requirements for efficient infrastructure software and delivers on the sustainability benefits discussed. VergeOS integrates storage services, server virtualization, and networking services into a single, cohesive platform, ensuring seamless operation and high performance. Its built-in multi-tenancy eliminates the noisy neighbor problem, and its data resiliency and high-availability features protect against hardware failures.

In addition to these technical advantages, VergeOS offers significant cost savings. Its licensing model is per server instead of per core, enabling customers to purchase fewer, more CPU-dense servers. This approach reduces licensing costs and lowers the overall number of servers required, enhancing sustainability by reducing energy consumption and electronic waste. VergeOS is also software-based, which means you can use your existing hardware or purchase new servers from the vendor of your choice.

Organizations adopting VergeOS can achieve all the sustainability benefits while enjoying upfront savings compared to VMware. VergeOS’s ability to scale from two servers to 200 makes it versatile for various use cases, from small remote offices to large enterprise environments. By choosing VergeOS, organizations can meet their environmental goals and achieve long-term operational success.

Filed Under: Private Cloud Tagged With: ,

by

There are best practices that on-premises IT can learn from MSPs to streamline operations, improve responsiveness, and enhance efficiency simply by applying them. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Cloud Service Providers are adept at navigating a rapidly evolving technological landscape, under constant pressure to lower costs. They excel in efficiency, scalability, and security across numerous customers while focusing on cost management, data resiliency, and disaster recovery.

Live Interview and Demo Thursday, June 27th at 1:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM PT – Register Now!

Modernized infrastructure software is critical in enabling MSPs and On-Premises IT to meet these challenges. Modernized infrastructure software combines virtualization services delivered via a hypervisor, storage services, networking services, and cloud services like multi-tenancy.

Applying MSP/CSP Best Practices for Server Longevity

While MSPs/CSPs provide infrastructure to their customers on a subscription basis, they, in most cases, must pay for the hardware upfront. The longer they can extract useful life from that hardware, the better the return on its investment. Maximizing hardware longevity requires infrastructure software with low overhead that leaves more of the available compute resources for customer virtual machines (VMs). It also requires software abstracted from the hardware so that it does not have to remove support for specific hardware configurations as they age and the software advances. Nothing is more frustrating and wasteful than having hardware idle because the software no longer supports it.

In terms of resiliency, the infrastructure software must move beyond no single point of failure, to multiple points of redundancy. Aging hardware is more likely to fail than new hardware; also, maintaining aging hardware under a service contract is more expensive. The infrastructure software should deliver such high levels of redundancy and availability that older servers can run until they fail, and when they fail, there is minimal disruption to operations. This capability also requires the software to be able to mix servers within the infrastructure from different server brands, processor generations, and storage configurations.

On-Premises Server Longevity

On-premises IT can learn from MSPs and use a similar strategy. In these data centers, there are often more than enough computing resources, and the only reason for a server refresh is to maintain warranty coverage. Suppose the infrastructure software can enable these servers to operate safely and with support beyond their original warranty. In that case, the on-premises IT operator can meet the challenge of flat or shrinking IT budgets. If the infrastructure software can also support the intermixing of new and old servers on-premises, IT can gradually add servers to the infrastructure, finally ending the never-ending cycle of storage refreshes and mass migrations.

VergeOS Extends The Life of Servers

VergeOS is unique in infrastructure software. Instead of creating an “IT stack” of loosely coupled software applications, we tightly integrated all infrastructure services into a single code base. This code base includes all the services required for infrastructure, including virtualization services, storage services, networking services, and cloud services. The integration enables VergeOS to deliver near-bare-metal CPU performance, outperform dedicated all-flash arrays, and maximize network efficiency.

VergeOS is also highly portable. It runs on your existing hardware. Its unprecedented level of abstraction from the hardware means that within the same instance, it can support servers of different brands, CPU generations, and storage media types. Six-year-old servers can run alongside six-month-old servers with operational simplicity. As a result, IT can scale its environment from two nodes to over 200 servers within a single instance, and those nodes can come from various server manufacturers with different configurations.

on-premises IT can learn from MSPs

Lastly, VergeOS is resilient. High availability is built into the software. It protects from drive and server failures, and ioGuardian extends the resiliency to withstand multiple drive failures and near-catastrophic server outages. Its Virtual Data Center (VDC) tenant technology, popular with MSPs to isolate customers, also simplifies disaster recovery for on-premises IT because it encapsulates the entire data center as a single, consistent object that makes replication and recovery at a remote site work the first time every time.

Applying MSP/CSP Best Practices for Data Center Density

Successful MSPs/CSPs face the challenge of building highly compact data centers. On-premises IT can learn from MSPs because, like them, they are always looking for ways to reduce their physical footprint, which lowers power and cooling costs. MSPs must also maximize the number of VMs per physical host without compromising performance. This requires an infrastructure software solution that doesn’t burden CPU resources, protects against the disruptive effects of ‘noisy neighbors,’ and has a licensing model that doesn’t penalize customers for investing in robust, dense, quad-processor servers. No one in IT wants to have to explain why the software is twice the price of the hardware.

On-Premises IT Density

On-premises IT operators can benefit from a similar strategy. Imagine cutting the physical server count by two-thirds. While quad-processor servers are more expensive than dual-processor servers, you will need fewer of them, so there is a significant opportunity to reduce server acquisition costs, which will lower power and cooling costs. Using highly dense servers to decrease footprint generally has two problems. First, most infrastructure software solutions are licensed by the number of cores, often making the software more expensive than the server itself.

The second problem is managing potentially double the number of VMs per physical server and protecting against the “noisy neighbor” problem. Most infrastructure software solutions are complex and limited in their ability to isolate workloads.

VergeOS Delivers Affordable Density

VergeOS solves the licensing and noisy neighbor problems. First, it is licensed by the physical host, not by the number of processors or cores. Customers can use the most potent servers without fear of a software penalty. Second, it enables on-premises IT to allocate specific physical hardware resources to specific VDCs. Mission-critical or performance-sensitive workloads could be placed in a particular VDC, and resources could be hard allocated to those VDCs and made available exclusively to those workloads.

Applying MSP/CSP Best Practices for Security

Security is a, if not the, top concern of MSPs. If, for example, ransomware sneaks its way into their environment because of a careless customer, all the customers in their environment could potentially be impacted. They must ensure they invest in capabilities to detect an attack, minimize its impact, and rapidly recover customers in the event of a ransomware detonation. MSPs are looking to move away from the multiple-point solutions they are using to protect and recover from the various attack angles. Instead, they are looking for software that takes an infrastructure-wide approach that is resilient to an attack and can aid recovery.

On-Premises IT Security

On-premises IT can learn from MSPs’ attention to security details. Ransomware protection and recovery are priorities for all organizations, not just MSPs. While the scope of the ransomware event may not be as broad, on-premises IT doesn’t have the same time, budget, or personnel available as MSPs. In addition to the MSP requirements of limiting the attack surface, detection, and recovery, simplicity must be added to the on-premises IT requirements.

VergeOS Delivers Ransomware Resiliency

Storage Features Only

VergeOS takes an infrastructure-wide approach to ransomware protection and recovery. First, it uses multi-factor authentication for all login attempts. Second, when VergeOS is installed, it is installed read-only so that it cannot be modified during an attack. When a VDC is created, a read-write copy of VergeOS is placed inside the VDC. If the OS within the VDC is ever compromised, a quick refresh of the VDC loads a new copy of VergeOS. Each VDC is firewalled off from the others, so an attack within the VDC will not spread to other VDCs. Our alert subscription technology powers our ioFortify product, and you can build an alerting mechanism that allows you to receive near real-time notifications in the event of an attack. We’ve demonstrated this capability on multiple live webinars where we’ve detected an attack within five minutes. Finally, our snapshots are read-only and protected from attack.

All of these capabilities work together to enable you to limit the spread of an attack, detect an attack quickly, and recover to the last known good snapshot prior to the attack within minutes. A typical recovery time for a VergeOS customer to successfully recover from and eliminate a ransomware attack is less than thirty minutes.

Conclusion

On-premises IT can learn from MSPs by adopting their best practices. These practices enhance efficiency, scalability, security, and cost management. Modern infrastructure software, like VergeOS, integrates virtualization, storage, networking, and cloud services, extending server longevity and supporting diverse hardware configurations while ensuring high availability and reducing the need for frequent server refreshes. This approach achieves greater data center density with efficient resource utilization and cost-effective licensing models. VergeOS enhances security with features like multi-factor authentication, read-only OS installations, and isolated Virtual Data Centers (VDCs), ensuring rapid recovery from cyber threats.

Filed Under: MSP Tagged With: , ,