George Crump

by

Transitioning from VMware to an alternative hypervisor is a significant decision that requires the careful consideration of several factors, especially when protecting a VMware alternative. Data protection and application availability shouldn’t be sacrificed to lower licensing costs. Here’s an overview of the essential features to look for in a VMware alternative to ensure you maintain high standards in data protection while reducing infrastructure costs.

To learn more about ensuring that your VMware Alternative doesn’t take you backward regarding data protection, join our live video broadcast with the team at TruthInIT on June 12th at 1:00pm ET / 10:00 AM PT. Register here.

Integrated Data Protection and Application Availability

When evaluating a VMware alternative, ensuring that the new solution offers robust data protection and application availability is crucial. Look for a solution that integrates virtualization, storage, and networking into a cohesive infrastructure, providing infrastructure-wide availability without additional costs. Also, look for a solution that can leverage your existing backup investment.

Comprehensive Data Availability

Data availability is a critical factor in protecting a VMware alternative. The solution should write data redundantly across multiple nodes and drives, ensuring continuous access even during failures. This drive failure protection should be built into the solution and not require a separate RAID card or external array (although the solution should support the external arrays you have).

However, protecting from a single drive failure is table stakes in the enterprise. Although flash drives are very reliable, when they do fail, they can fail in batches because of write thresholds. It is critical to look for a solution that can handle multiple drive or server failures without data loss or downtime. This capability should be integrated into the system to simplify the data protection process and reduce costs.

protecting a VMware alternative

VergeOS’ method of ensuring data availability involves writing data redundantly across multiple nodes and drives, ensuring continuous access even during failures. In the case of multiple drive failures, ioGuardian delivers real-time missing data segments to VMs, allowing continuous operation even during significant hardware failures. This feature is integrated into the system, simplifying the data protection process and reducing costs.

Automated Application Availability

Another aspect of protecting a VMware alternative is ensuring the solution guarantees application availability. In the event of a server failure, all virtual machines (VMs) should seamlessly migrate to other servers within the instance. In the case of planned downtime, this migration should be transparent. In the case of a hard server crash, the outage should only be for as long as it takes to reboot the VMs on the remaining hosts. Ideally, the solution should use predictive algorithms to determine the best possible server node for VM relocation, ensuring minimal disruption and optimal performance.

VergeOS ensures that in the event of a server failure, all virtual machines (VMs) seamlessly migrate to other servers within the instance. It employs an AI algorithm to determine the best possible node for relocation, ensuring minimal disruption and optimal performance.

Advanced Snapshot Technology

Protecting a VMware alternative requires advanced snapshot technology. Unlimited snapshots with minimal performance impact are a must-have. The problem is that most VMware alternatives have restrictive snapshot capabilities and can’t play a significant role in data protection. Instead, look for technology that allows frequent snapshots that act like independent, standalone clones, which is vital for compliance with backup best practices like the 3-2-1 rule. Of course, the solution must integrate deduplication so that these clones consume less disk capacity, making them impractical for long-term retention.

VergeOS provides advanced always-on global inline deduplication. Because of its integration into the core of VergeOS, our deduplication significantly reduces storage capacity requirements while maintaining high performance with minimal CPU and RAM consumption. Instead of using legacy snapshot techniques, our ioClone snapshot technology leverages our deduplication, allowing more frequent snapshots that act like independent, standalone clones, vital for compliance with backup best practices like the 3-2-1 rule.

Holistic Disaster Recovery

The most critical aspect of protecting a VMware alternative is making sure it can provide a comprehensive disaster recovery strategy. That strategy should be straightforward to implement and manage, and data replication should be integrated into the solution. However, most VMware alternatives stop there and continue to make DR complex, sewing together multiple data protection events, data, network configurations, storage configurations, and VM boot configurations.

protecting a VMware alternative

VergeOS uses multi-tenant virtual data centers (VDCs) that encapsulate the entire data center, including VMs and network settings. This allows easy replication and ensures functionality on different hardware during a disaster. Thanks to encapsulation, DR is a straightforward movement that includes all the necessary components for disaster recovery.

Flexibility with Backup Solutions

Even with integrated data protection, protecting a VMware alternative may require a third-party backup solution for various reasons, such as compliance or vendor-independent data copies. The VMware alternative must leverage your organization’s backup software and storage investment. VergeOS can enhance your data protection using the above capabilities and even augment it using the below:

Backup of Last Resort

VergeOS supports exporting the environment to a commonly accessible storage location, like an NFS mount point. This feature helps maintain an independent copy of data outside the VergeOS production instance. It also enables you to leverage the backup software’s capability to copy data to the cloud or to tape.

Browsable Single-File Restoration

While VergeOS snapshots can be browsed and single files copied out of them, some VMs will benefit from browsable, single-file restoration from backup copies. VergeOS supports installing operating-specific agents inside VMs for this purpose. Push installation of agents and resource requirements of those agents have improved significantly over the past few years. Since VergeOS is more efficient at CPU utilization than VMware, there is no perceivable application impact when using them.

Hosting Third-Party Backup Software

Hosting third-party backup software within VergeOS’ infrastructure adds another layer of flexibility. Our VDCs enable you to place the backup software and its repository in a VDC, which provides an internal firewall to add another layer of resilience for protected data copies. Also, VergeOS supports hard disk drives in addition to Flash, which may be more appropriate for the backup storage use case.

Conclusion

Selecting a VMware alternative requires looking beyond license cost savings and ensuring you do not compromise on data protection and application availability. Look for a comprehensive suite of capabilities, including automated high availability, advanced data protection, innovative snapshot technology, and holistic disaster recovery. The flexibility to integrate with existing backup solutions and host third-party software within virtual data centers further enhances the appeal of a cost-effective and resilient solution for modern IT infrastructures.

Next Steps

Filed Under: Protection

by

Ann Arbor, Michigan—May 14, 2024 — VergeIO, the leading VMware alternative, today announced the addition of Jason Yaeger as its new Senior Vice President of Engineering. Yaeger joins the VergeIO leadership team to steer its engineering initiatives into new frontiers of the Infrastructure as Software marketplace.

With a 15-year distinguished career in technology and engineering leadership, Yaeger brings a wealth of experience to his new role at VergeIO. His extensive expertise and proven track record make him the ideal candidate to oversee VergeIO’s engineering operations. His responsibilities will include driving product development, ensuring robust technology governance, and fostering a culture of innovation within the engineering teams.

As Senior Vice President of Engineering, Yaeger will oversee all engineering operations, focusing on advancing product strategy, optimizing technology governance, and fostering an environment of innovation. His leadership will be instrumental as VergeIO continues to foster its move toward Infrastructure as Software.

Jason brings a tremendous track record of strategic leadership and technical expertise,” said Yan Ness, CEO of VergeIO. “His addition to the team is pivotal as we continue to enhance our position as the leading VMware alternative and drive the move toward Infrastructure as Software.”

Under Yaeger’s direction, VergeIO will prioritize maintaining its world-class technical support capabilities and playing a vital role in product strategy and roadmap.

About VergeIO :
VergeIO stands out as the leading alternative to VMware. Its Ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) disrupts the IT landscape by collapsing the traditional IT stack (virtualization, storage, and networking) into a single data center operating environment, VergeOS. This innovative approach not only maximizes workload density using existing hardware but also enhances data resiliency. The result? A significant reduction in costs, improved availability, and a simplified IT environment.

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

Filed Under: Press Release

by

When IT considers a VMware alternative, calculating VMware migration costs is critical in understanding the total cost of ownership (TCO). The path to the alternative should be seamless and staged so the organization can transition at a comfortable pace, but IT should determine that pace, not the software. The longer and more complex the migration cycle, the higher the overall TCO of the alternative is. These costs include running dual systems, application outages, and extra IT staff hours. The ideal alternative should enable IT to perform the migration as fast as they are comfortable, and with as minimal an outage as possible.

Prerequisite of a VMware Migration

calculating VMware migration costs

The first step in calculating VMware migration costs is not migration planning. You can’t plan the migration until you know the requirements of the VMware alternative you are selecting. Understanding the requirements of the alternative goes beyond the migration function itself. Many VMware alternatives require that you replace your existing servers with a group of their servers as part of a “turnkey” solution or one of their “certified” vendor configurations. With other solutions, the process is so slow and disruptive that you have to have two groups of servers to sustain operations while you migrate.

These requirements mean that you must have two stacks of servers running while you transition, which could take six months or more because of the slowness of the process. These two stacks have a ripple effect, consuming double the network ports, potentially double the storage, doubling the power and cooling requirements, and doubling the data protection requirement.

The Cost of VMware Migration Time

While many VMware alternatives have a VMware migration capability, understanding the time it takes to transfer and convert virtual machines (VM) between the two platforms is the critical next step in calculating VMware migration costs. Some alternatives take 10-30 minutes per VM, while others require creating a new VM, installing the application, and copying the data over, which to get it right could take hours per VM. In most cases, these are not batch jobs that can be set to run and returned to later; IT needs to keep a careful eye on the process to ensure it completes successfully.

The Cost of VMware Migration Testing

calculating VMware migration costs

The transfer and conversion time impacts the ability to test workloads on the alternative before the final cut-over. It is also an essential aspect of calculating VMware migration costs. A common-sense process is to migrate a group of VMs to the VMware alternative, test them for a few days to ensure they work as expected, and then do a final migration. That means that the conversion time is felt twice, which now means each VM will require 30-90 minutes of conversion time in total. If the VM needs to be shut down for all of this migration time, that is a significant outage.

The Cost of VMware Migration Application Outages

The time it takes to initially test and then permanently migrate VMs to the VMware alternative also impacts when you can migrate. If there is a significant application outage, you can’t migrate during the typical workday or over a few weekday evenings. You will need to allocate multiple weekends to the process. The when migration component means you must run dual systems longer and complicates network configuration and data protection since now you must continue to protect the legacy VMware environment and protect the new hypervisor environment as each week it gains a few more production applications.

The Cost of Learning The VMware Alternative

The final component in calculating VMware migration costs is the cost of learning the new platform. If it takes you weeks or months to learn how to use the VMware alternative effectively, then it takes longer for you to test migrated VMs before moving them to production. A long learning curve consumes more time to complete the migration, increasing the time you need to run dual systems.

Slow Migration Means New Hardware

While many VMware alternatives require buying new servers, a few claim to use your existing hardware. However, a slow and complex migration process eliminates that possibility. The customer is forced to buy new hardware and run parallel systems to move through the sluggish migrate, test, and migrate cycle again. As a result, they will need to be prepared to run these parallel systems for a long time.

VergeOS – Migrate Better

Calculating VMware migration costs is easy with VergeIO. There are none. We have integrated its VMware migration functionality directly into the core of VergeOS. Log VergeOS into your vCenter to start a migration, select the VMs you want to migrate, and click the migrate button. The migration function transfers the VM data to VergeOS as fast as VMware can send it. The process stores the VMware VMs as backup files; you can even update them with change block tracking (CBT). When you need to test those VMs under VergeOS, converting them to a VergeIO VM takes a few seconds, and you are all set to begin testing.

ChalkTalk VMware to VergeOS Migration

The process is so seamless and fast that many customers will select and copy all their VMs at once, again keeping them updated with CBT. They will then use VergeOS as a robust DR solution with our ioProtect functionality. ioProtect enables the initial investment in VergeOS to add value while you are migrating. As you are performing your testing, the original VMware VMs are kept up to date, so if you need to re-test, the VMware version is always up to date. When you are ready to make the final cutover, perform one more quick data sync, shut down your VMware VM, and start your VergeOS VM. The VM is only down for the 20-30 seconds it takes to boot, minimizing any production impact.

The speed of VergeOS’s migration capabilities makes it practical to use existing hardware and do an “in-place” migration. All you have to do is clear off one physical server, load VergeOS onto it, and then begin the migration process, clearing the VMs from another host and starting them under VergeOS. As each server is freed of its VMware responsibilities, it can be added to the VergeOS instance. We’ve employed this process many times to enable customers to utilize their existing hardware without disrupting users.

VergeIO’s zero-cost migration capabilities are just one way to reduce the total cost of data center infrastructure. Thanks to VergeOS’ efficiency, you’ll be able to slow down the pace at which you buy servers, lower the cost of storage capacity, and simplify operations. At the same time, you experience the peace of mind of an infrastructure-wide approach to data protection and high availability that is the best in the industry.

Want to learn more? Use this link to arrange a time for us to conduct a technical whiteboard session on how VergeOS’ elegant architecture is uniquely positioned to deliver on all of these promises.

Filed Under: VMwareExit Tagged With: ,

by

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [Ann Arbor, MI: April, 30th] – CenterGrid, a prominent Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Cloud Services Provider (CSP), delivering services since 2009,, has announced a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure with the implementation of VergeIO’s Ultraconverged Infrastructure (UCI). This strategic shift significantly advances CenterGrid’s service offerings, particularly in the demanding Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector and GPU-powered workloads such as VFX and AI.

Revolutionizing Managed IT Services

CenterGrid has evolved from providing essential infrastructure services to comprehensive, turnkey-managed IT solutions, including Cloud services. This evolution was driven by the need to respond swiftly to dynamic IT requests, including deploying new systems or scaling existing ones, while adhering to stringent timelines.

Specialization in Media and Entertainment Industry

Recognizing the unique challenges in the M&E industry, CenterGrid has developed a specialization that addresses the limitations of traditional MSP data centers, particularly those imposed by legacy infrastructure software. These challenges include restricted virtual machine density and inadequate graphics processing capabilities.

Overcoming the Legacy Virtualization Challenge

Chris Beard, COO of CenterGrid, identified restrictive hardware support and high resource consumption as significant hurdles when using legacy hypervisors that make up the core of an infrastructure software solution. “The limitations imposed by legacy infrastructure software’s support of hardware variability and its performance penalties were throttling our ability to meet our client’s needs, especially in the rapidly evolving Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector,” Beard stated.

Embracing VergeIO’s Innovative Solution

After extensive testing of various alternative hypervisors, CenterGrid discovered VergeIO. VergeIO’s UCI solution, VergeOS, stood out for its per-server licensing model, comprehensive networking, virtualization, and storage integration. CenterGrid was particularly impressed with VergeOS’s exceptional migration capabilities from legacy infrastructure software solutions.

Yan Ness, CEO of VergeIO, expressed enthusiasm about this partnership: “We are thrilled to see CenterGrid leverage VergeOS to its full potential. Our vision has always been to provide a versatile and powerful platform for Mid-sized data centers, enterprises, and service providers. It provides unique benefits to service providers like CenterGrid, enabling them to excel in service delivery.”

Operational Excellence Achieved

CenterGrid’s rigorous testing proved that VergeOS matched and exceeded their previous solution’s capabilities, especially in terms of setup, operation, and GPU support. The platform’s responsiveness in large-scale environments was a game-changer for CenterGrid’s operations.

Significant Cost Savings and Enhanced Efficiency

The transition to VergeOS has led to considerable cost savings for CenterGrid, especially in licensing fees. “The shift to VergeOS is not just a technical upgrade; it’s a strategic move that aligns with our vision of cost-efficiency and operational excellence,” added Beard.

Future Outlook

With the successful implementation of VergeOS, CenterGrid is now well-positioned to focus on expanding its customer base and enhancing service offerings, moving away from the constraints of infrastructure management.

About CenterGrid CenterGrid has grown into a leading MSP and CSP, specializing in providing comprehensive IT services with a focus on the Media and Entertainment industry. With a commitment to innovation and customer service, CenterGrid continues to set the standard in managed IT solutions.

About VergeIO VergeIO is the leading VMware Alternative. Unlike hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), its ultraconverged infrastructure (UCI) rotates 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.

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: ,

by

Understanding Data Center Multi-Tenancy

Data center multi-tenancy enables IT professionals to transcend the traditional confines of cloud service providers (CSP) and managed service providers (MSP) use cases so that enterprises and even small data centers can benefit from them. However, adding multi-tenancy functionality to these existing hypervisor solutions incurs a high licensing cost.

Because of the high cost of the multi-tenancy add-on, most organizations must dedicate hardware components to specific, standalone deployments. This approach can lead to significant resource underutilization, as each component (CPU, memory, storage) is confined to a single deployment, even if it’s not being used to its full potential. This setup inherently limits flexibility and can lead to inefficient resource allocation, where some resources may sit idle while others are overtaxed.

Comparing Data Center Multi-Tenancy to a VLAN

Understanding Data Center Multi-Tenancy

A common workaround for the lack of or high cost of multi-tenancy is using a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) for each “tenant.” It partitions a physical network at the data link layer (layer 2). VLANs segregate network traffic based on a group ID applied to each packet, thus separating the traffic of different users or departments within the same physical network.  While VLANs offer a basic level of network segmentation, they lack the robustness, security, and flexibility provided by a fully realized multi-tenant data center architecture.

A Multi-tenant data center is a single instance of physical infrastructure serving multiple logical or virtual tenant organizations. Cloud computing involves securely sharing resources like storage, networking, and computing capacity among various organizations to enhance efficiency and cut costs. 

Data center multi-tenancy enables IT to provide comprehensive resource isolation, better scalability, enhanced security features, and greater tenant autonomy in managing network configurations. This makes it ideal for complex and scalable cloud environments with highly variable and specific tenant demands. It also makes it well-suited for smaller environments that don’t have the IT team resources to manage the complexity of a more extensive VLAN configuration.

Challenges with Traditional Data Center Multi-Tenancy

The High Licensing Cost of Multi-Tenancy

The common perception is that multi-tenancy architectures are primarily beneficial for CSP/MSP use cases because they can share resources efficiently while maintaining strict separation between clients. The number of clients these organizations tend to support makes the high cost of multi-tenancy, although still a significant pain point, more tenable.

However, if the cost barriers associated with implementing multi-tenancy were removed, this technology could appeal to a broader spectrum of organizations. From small businesses to large corporations, all could leverage the enhanced resource utilization, simplified management, and improved operational flexibility that multi-tenancy offers, transforming how they approach IT infrastructure.

Traditional multi-tenancy also poses these challenges:

  1. Security Vulnerabilities: The shared nature of resources can lead to potential data leaks between tenants.
  2. Resource Contention: Overlapping demands can affect performance, where one tenant’s heavy usage diminishes resource availability for others.
  3. Management Complexity: Ensuring compliance and equitable resource distribution adds operational complexity.
  4. Customization Constraints: Standardization needs can limit tenants’ ability to tailor resources to their specific requirements.

Virtual Data Centers – Data center multi-tenancy for ALL

VergeOS’ Virtual Data Center (VDC) technology delivers multi-tenancy at no additional cost. VDCs do for the entire data center what a virtual machine does for a physical server: encapsulation. VDC encapsulates the data center into a single object that is isolated from the other virtual data centers or tenants while sharing the same hardware. While the use case for multi-tenancy is evident for our many Managed Service Provider (MSP) customers, it also has value for enterprises, educational institutions, government agencies, and small data center customers. The advantages range from simplifying disaster recovery to isolating specific workloads from other workloads or isolating specific resources from specific workloads.

Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) powered by VergeOS address many traditional multi-tenancy issues:

Complete Isolation: Each VDC is fully isolated, functioning as an independent data center. This separation ensures that one tenant’s activities do not impact others, significantly enhancing security and performance.

Simplified Management: VergeOS facilitates easy management and automation across VDCs, reducing the complexity associated with multi-tenant environments.

Enhanced Customization: Tenants can customize their VDCs extensively to meet specific operational needs, offering flexibility that traditional multi-tenant models often lack.

Economic Efficiency: By optimizing resource usage, VergeIO provides a cost-effective solution that maintains multi-tenancy benefits while minimizing its drawbacks.

VergeOS uses our VDC technology for customers who don’t have available hardware but want to test drive the solution.

Critical Use Cases of VergeIO Virtual Data Centers

Disaster Recovery (DR): VergeIO’s VDCs excel in disaster recovery scenarios. Each VDC can be configured with specific DR protocols, ensuring business continuity without impacting other tenants. This isolated environment allows organizations to seamlessly replicate a single object instead of separate tiers and implement failover processes, enhancing resilience against data loss and downtime.

Patch Testing: Patch testing ensures software updates do not disrupt operations. VergeIO’s VDCs provide an ideal environment for patch testing by allowing organizations to deploy and test updates in a controlled, isolated setting before full-scale implementation. This minimizes risks associated with deploying untested patches in a production environment.

Understanding Data Center Multi-Tenancy

Ransomware Protection: Data Centers of all sizes can benefit from better ransomware protection. VDCs are the first layer of VergeIO’s infrastructure-wide ransomware protection strategy. If ransomware gets into your organization, each VDC is isolated, and as a result, the ransomware can’t spread and is contained, shrinking the attack surface. Then, using VergeIO’s ioFortify, you can quickly recover from the attack altogether.

Service Providers: For service providers, VergeIO’s VDCs offer a scalable and secure platform to host services for multiple clients. Providers can manage separate VDCs for each client, ensuring tailored service delivery, robust security, and compliance with individual client contracts and regulatory requirements.

Resource Management: VDCs within VergeOS offer the capability for precise resource dedication. While VergeOS employs sophisticated AI to fine-tune performance consistently, certain scenarios demand designated resources for specific workloads. With VDCs, it’s possible to earmark exact amounts of processing power, memory, or storage for individual VDCs, ensuring a high level of service quality. This dedicated allocation eliminates the possibility of resource competition, providing a stable environment for applications to perform reliably at all times. Additionally, this feature empowers managed service providers (MSPs) and cloud service providers (CSPs) to assure their clients of the resources they’re entitled to, with absolute certainty.

Conclusion

Key to understanding data center multi-tenancy is learning about VergeIO’s Virtual Data Centers. They bring tenancy to all data centers and provide a state-of-the-art solution for multi-tenancy, combining traditional benefits with advanced virtualization technologies. By addressing common issues related to security, performance, and management complexity and offering tailored use cases like DR, service provision, and patch testing, VergeIO’s VDCs represent a significant evolution in data center technology, poised to meet the diverse needs of modern organizations.

Filed Under: Private Cloud

by

IT professionals often reject hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) because they want to integrate HCI into their traditional three-tier architecture, and most HCI solutions can’t meet this requirement. HCI vendors also only focus on three tiers of the typical data center: networking, virtualization, and storage. However, a fourth tier is far too often overlooked: data availability and protection.

VergeOS’ Ultraconverged Infrastructure (UCI) can integrate into a customer’s traditional three-tier architecture. In this article, we will cover how VergeOS enables a more gradual onramp to UCI instead of a complete overhaul on day one and allows you to use components from each of your existing tiers.

UCI, an HCI Solution You Actually Want

Integrate HCI into a Three-Tier Architecture

The concept of HCI has merit. Take the data center tiers running on dedicated, vendor-provided hardware and reenable them as software, converging that software onto a single commodity server, liberating the organization from vendor lock-in and markups. The problem faced when IT attempts to integrate HCI into a traditional three-tier architecture is that HCI doesn’t truly converge anything. HCI stacks these tiers as software packages on top of each other, essentially recreating the same technology stack within a single server. It also forces them to exclude external SANs and existing servers.

UCI changes this by collapsing these stacks into a single, cohesive operating environment that is significantly more efficient. This elegant code base reduces overhead by as much as 30% while improving performance. The result is a VMware Alternative that is more portable, performs better, and provides improved data resilience.

UCI, an HCI Solution That Supports Fibre Channel SANs

One of the largest investments in the data center is the storage tier. If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in a fibre-channel (FC) storage area network (SAN), you will want to integrate HCI into your traditional three-tier architecture so that you can continue to benefit from your significant investment. The problem is that most HCI solutions don’t support them. Because VergeIO owns all the code within VergeOS at a very deep level, we have taken the necessary steps to support fibre-channel-attached storage.

Click to Register

When using VergeIO and a FC SAN, you’ll need a physically local drive in each server to load VergeOS and store metadata, but the VM data can reside on the FC array. You’ll create a LUN as a virtual drive for each node that contributes to storage for the VergeOS instance. The VergeOS will manage and aggregate virtual drives into a pool that the VMs can use for data storage. VergeOS will also provide an additional layer of protection from hardware failure and add a deduplication capability. If your array already has deduplication, you can turn it off or leave it on; we’ve been unable to measure any noticeable performance impact.

In the future, when it is time to add additional capacity to the environment, you have options. First, you can continue to add capacity to your existing FC array, or you can take advantage of the 10X cost savings of using internal server class NVMe SSDs and/or HDDs. Also, as new storage technologies come to market, there is a much higher likelihood of them being supported sooner under VergeOS than waiting for the storage vendor to retrofit their designs to support them.

UCI, an HCI Solution That Supports Blade Servers

VergeOS is unique in that it can run a variety of different servers within the same instance. You can mix different server manufacturers, processor generations, and even processor manufacturers (Intel and AMD). You can also mix different server configurations. Some servers can be storage-heavy, and others can be processor-heavy.

Integrate HCI into a Three-Tier Architecture

Blade servers are processor-heavy nodes because they can only support a limited amount of internal storage. This makes blade servers problematic for IT professionals looking to integrate HCI into a traditional three-tier architecture. It forces them to reconsider the server strategy, which blade server customers are reluctant to do.

To incorporate a blade server into the VergeIO instance, you need to have either one internal drive store to boot VergeOS, or VergeOS also supports PXE booting, so an internal drive is not required. From there, the blade server can access its data from the shared pool of storage that VergeOS creates from the other nodes, or in the aforementioned FC SAN. In fact, if the blade server is FC equipped, it can “contribute” storage to the overall instance by assigning it a LUN as described above. Hosting storage does require slightly more RAM, so it is best to review the exact configuration with our technical architects.

As is the case with storage, VergeOS brings added flexibility for server expansion or refreshes. When it comes time to upgrade or expand your server infrastructure, you can continue to add blade servers or use standard 1U, 2U, or larger commodity servers of your choice.

UCI, an HCI Solution That Supports External Networks

Integrate HCI into a Three-Tier Architecture

VergeOS has a robust set of layer 2 and layer 3 networking functionality, but its use is optional. If you’ve invested in one of the market leaders for networking functionality, VergeOS can easily interoperate with them. As with the above, as time goes on, you can decide to use some of the network functionality built into VergeOS, saving you the cost of additional dedicated appliances, or you can continue to use your current vendor. To learn more about VergeOS, watch our Networking Fundamentals video.

UCI, an HCI Solution That Supports Third-Party Backup

VergeOS’ Data Availability Services combined with ioGuardian capabilities lessen IT’s dependency on the backup infrastructure for most recovery efforts, and many customers decide that is all the protection they need. VergeOS provides an in-guest agent that can quiesce when applying consistent snapshots. Still, some customers want to use third-party backup solutions to meet these requirements:

Copy of Last Resort

VergeOS can export the VMs’ raw files via an NFS mount point that almost any backup product can browse to meet compliance or vendor-independent data copy requirements to a different storage system, even tape.

File Level Restoration

As we show in this video, several types of file-level restoration can be done by leveraging VergeOS snapshots. Customers who want a centralized file-level recovery can install an in-guest agent from their backup software application into the virtual machines that are likely to require single-file recoveries.

Again, most customers find they can meet 100% of their data protection and recovery needs using VergeIO. Still, its support of third-party backup products enables IT to continue to use these solutions if required, or until they gain full confidence in VergOS’ capabilities.

Conclusion

Schedule a Technical Deep Dive on VergeOS

VergeOS’ Ultraconverged Infrastructure (UCI) effectively addresses the challenges of integrating HCI into a traditional three-tier architecture by supporting diverse hardware, including blade servers and FC SANs, and offering robust networking capabilities and data protection. As a versatile VMware alternative, VergeOS truly converges data center tiers into an efficient environment, allowing organizations to leverage existing investments and adapt to future technologies. This combination of compatibility, enhanced performance, and cost savings makes VergeOS’ UCI a very practical choice for modernizing IT infrastructure.

Filed Under: Storage Tagged With: , ,