IT infrastructure

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Advanced Data Resilience

An advanced data resilience strategy is crucial when evaluating alternatives to VMware. As organizations begin their research, they encounter many hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions. However, legitimate HCI performance and resilience concerns arise, leading many to hesitate about leaving familiar All-Flash Arrays (AFAs) and traditional three-tier architectures.

The VergeOS white paper, “Solving the HCI High-Performance Problem,” addresses these performance issues. This article focuses on advanced data resilience, detailing how VergeOS resolves common HCI resiliency limitations, enabling organizations to confidently transition away from traditional architectures and AFAs.

Executive Summary – Advanced Data Resilience

VergeOS provides a sophisticated and comprehensive advanced data resilience architecture designed to outperform traditional All-Flash Array (AFA) and Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions. Its multi-layered design includes synchronous replication, High Availability (HA) clustering, ioGuardian fault tolerance, and ioClone snapshot technology, ensuring continuous operations and superior resilience even during severe hardware failures. This technical brief details how VergeOS’s integrated solutions deliver exceptional reliability, backed by compelling real-world use cases and measurable customer outcomes.

Attend our upcoming webinar, How to Replace Your AFA, where we will cover all aspects of VMware and AFA replacement, including migration, performance, and data resiliency.

Advanced Data Resilience Foundation: Drive Protection

Architecture Overview

VergeOS implements synchronous replication to ensure immediate redundancy of data across all cluster nodes. Write operations are confirmed only after successfully synchronizing with all replicas, maintaining strict data consistency and preventing data loss, a significant advancement over traditional RAID systems. This replication occurs in real-time and utilizes global inline deduplication, minimizing storage overhead and network bandwidth requirements. Unlike traditional RAID controllers and external arrays, VergeOS’s replication mechanism efficiently mirrors only unique data segments, enhancing performance and simplifying storage management.

Operational Mechanics of Advanced Data Resilience

When a drive failure occurs, virtual machines (VMs) continue running without interruption on their original hosts. VergeOS employs advanced network protocols that transparently retrieve mirrored data from healthy cluster nodes, ensuring uninterrupted operations without performance degradation.

Advanced Data Resilience: Continuity

Failover Architecture

VergeOS’s HA clustering ensures that complete server node failures do not lead to service interruptions. In the event of a full node outage, affected virtual machines automatically migrate to healthy cluster nodes. This migration leverages already synchronized data replicas, ensuring immediate data availability and continuous service operation.

Advanced Data Resilience AND Rapid Recovery

Rigorous production environment testing demonstrates VergeOS’s capability to recover from a full server node failure within approximately 90 seconds, including a complete VM restart. Rapid recovery is achievable due to pre-existing data mirrors and streamlined failover mechanisms, outperforming traditional SAN and AFA systems, which typically experience longer downtime periods.

Intelligent Resource Orchestration

HA clustering in VergeOS features intelligent orchestration that selects the optimal target host based on current resource availability. This automated and dynamic resource allocation prevents contention, maintains high performance levels, and guarantees consistent service delivery during and after failover events.

Advanced Data Resilience: N+X Protection

Superior Multi-Fault Protection

ioGuardian technology sets VergeOS apart by maintaining continuous data access even when experiencing simultaneous failures across multiple drives and nodes. This advanced fault-tolerant mechanism surpasses the redundancy provided by traditional AFAs and competitive hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) platforms, ensuring superior reliability in catastrophic failure scenarios.

Continuous Operation in Extreme Scenarios Delivers Advanced Data Resilience

ioGuardian ensures continuous VM operation even during severe hardware failures. It creates an independent, third copy of data stored on a separate VergeOS server(s), external to the primary production environment. When the production environment experiences multiple simultaneous node or drive failures, the ioGuardian server provides data fragments to instantly reconstruct any required data in real-time. This capability enables uninterrupted VM access, eliminating downtime or noticeable degradation during extreme failure conditions.

Technical Implementation

The ioGuardian architecture includes an external VergeOS instance that stores an independent third-party data replica. Advanced algorithms within the primary VergeOS environment dynamically leverage this external copy. As long as at least one node remains active in the production cluster, ioGuardian reconstructs and delivers necessary data fragments instantly and transparently. This design ensures continuous VM availability and operational integrity, exceeding the fault tolerance capabilities of traditional AFAs or HCI solutions.

Advanced Data Resilience: Recovery

Storage-Layer Snapshots

VergeOS’s ioClone technology provides instant snapshot capabilities directly at the storage layer without impacting the performance of running applications. Unlike traditional snapshot approaches that rely on incremental data chains or external backup systems, ioClone provides immediate, independent, and reliable recovery points.

Space-Efficient Retention

Global inline deduplication enables ioClone to store snapshots efficiently, using minimal storage resources. This efficiency allows organizations to maintain unlimited snapshots over extended periods, addressing the retention challenges and storage constraints commonly associated with traditional snapshot technologies.

Granular and Rapid Recovery

ioClone facilitates recovery at multiple granular levels—individual files, full virtual machines, or entire Virtual Data Centers (VDCs). Recovery operations complete in seconds, dramatically enhancing operational agility and ensuring compliance with rigorous data protection and recovery requirements.

Advanced Data Resilience: Networking

Eliminating Data Locality Limitations

VergeOS uses an optimized internode networking protocol designed to accelerate data transfer between cluster nodes. Unlike traditional architectures dependent on data locality, VergeOS retrieves data across nodes rapidly and efficiently. VergeOS’s deduplication engine, as it is available to the entire infrastructure, reduces network traffic by 60-80%, thereby lowering bandwidth demands and maintaining optimal performance even during fault conditions. The combination of the network protocol and data efficiency is critical in high-performance and data-intensive environments.

Accelerating Synchronous Replication and ioGuardian

The optimized networking protocol powers VergeOS’s synchronous replication and ioGuardian technologies. Synchronous replication instantly mirrors data, thanks to fast communication between nodes. Similarly, ioGuardian leverages rapid cross-node data retrieval to reconstruct data fragments instantly, providing continuous access during severe failure scenarios.

Technical Advantages

The efficiency of VergeOS internode communication results in sub-millisecond latency during cross-node data access. Extensive testing demonstrates consistent performance that exceeds that of traditional SAN or HCI solutions. This capability enhances system responsiveness, reliability, and advanced data resilience, allowing IT teams to confidently eliminate data locality constraints from infrastructure design.

Conclusion

VergeOS’s integrated, multi-layered, advanced data resilience approach delivers superior data protection, operational resilience, and infrastructure simplification. By combining synchronous replication, High Availability clustering, ioGuardian fault tolerance, and ioClone snapshot capabilities, organizations can confidently transition from traditional AFA solutions, avoiding the AFA tax, to VergeOS. For a deeper dive into these topics, register for our “Data Availability Analysis” white paper.

Filed Under: Storage Tagged With: , , , ,

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For Immediate Release

Ann Arbor, MI – July 8th, 2025 – St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA), which provides centralized IT services for five school districts, a local community college, and seven municipalities in Michigan, has successfully modernized its infrastructure by replacing VMware and Veeam with VergeIO’s software-defined infrastructure platform, VergeOS.

Faced with mounting costs, hardware limitations, and industry disruptions, RESA initiated a complete reevaluation of its IT environment. “We were hit with a one-two-three punch,” said James Marsack, Senior Network Engineer at RESA. “First, NetApp announced the end-of-life for our SolidFire array. Then Broadcom acquired VMware and froze all updates while raising prices. Finally, our Cisco UCS environment brought supply chain delays and massive hardware maintenance costs. We needed more than a patch—we needed an infrastructure rethink.”

RESA found its answer in VergeOS, a single software platform that combines virtualization, storage, and networking with built-in backup and disaster recovery. Introduced to VergeIO through Cambridge Computer, Marsack said, “VergeOS didn’t just preserve what we relied on—it expanded it. It allowed us to simplify management, reduce licensing costs, and improve performance. And it just works.”

Key Results:

  • High-Efficiency Storage: VergeOS’ VSAN with global inline deduplication achieved a 16:1 efficiency ratio, compared to 3.7:1 with SolidFire.
  • Backup and DR Simplified: Replaced a half-rack QNAP array and Veeam with VergeOS’ integrated snapshot and replication system.
  • Hourly Snapshots: Eliminated daily backup windows and increased resiliency with hourly, space-efficient snapshots and transparent recovery via ioGuardian.
  • Secure Self-Service: VergeOS’ secure, multi-tenant architecture empowered districts and municipalities with self-service capabilities, dramatically lowering operational overhead.

“Veeam jobs failed regularly. With VergeOS, we get hourly snapshots, instant rollback, and reliable replication—no third-party dependencies,” said Marsack.

RESA also improved security and control. “VergeOS’ tenanting system is elegant—brilliant, even. With SSO and two-factor authentication, it’s vastly more secure than VMware,” Marsack added. “Now, our customers can manage their own VMs, which reduces our management burden and increases their satisfaction.”

Marsack credited Cambridge Computer for facilitating the transformation. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation if it wasn’t for Cambridge. They introduced us to VergeIO, and it changed everything.”

Click here to read the in-depth Case Study about St. Clair RESA’s journey to VergeOS.

VergeIO will be hosting a webinar on July 17th at 1:00 PM ET, featuring RESA.  Click here to register.

About VergeIO

VergeIO is the leading VMware alternative, providing a unified data center operating system that converges virtualization, storage, networking, and backup into a single piece of software. VergeOS simplifies IT operations, reduces costs, and enables rapid infrastructure deployment on new or repurposed hardware. For more information, visit www.verge.io.

About St. Clair County RESA

St. Clair County Regional Educational Service Agency (RESA) is one of Michigan’s 56 intermediate school districts. It provides centralized IT, administrative, and instructional services to five local K-12 school districts, a community college, and multiple municipal entities across the region. RESA’s mission is to deliver cost-effective, high-quality solutions that empower its educational and civic partners to serve their communities more effectively.

Media Contact:
Judy Smith
JPR for VergeIO
[email protected]
(818) 522-9673

Filed Under: Press Release Tagged With: , , ,

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the infrastructure problem

VMware’s pricing changes, cloud cost overruns, or the AI skills shortage are symptoms of the infrastructure problem: legacy environments that demand new layers of complexity with every new initiative. Each shift in strategy—whether it’s migrating to the cloud, deploying AI workloads, or navigating vendor transitions—exposes just how fragile and fragmented traditional architectures have become. IT teams are forced to bolt on new platforms, hire niche expertise, or overprovision resources just to keep up. The result isn’t innovation—it’s operational drag. It’s time to rethink infrastructure from the ground up.

Watch our on-demand industry briefing with ESG to learn the impact of these challenges and how to solve them

According to recent (May 2025) ESG research titled “Private AI, Virtualization, and Cloud: Transforming the Future of Infrastructure Modernization,” a survey of 380 mid-sized to large data centers, organizations everywhere are scrambling to address these top challenges:

  1. VMware’s acquisition by Broadcom has created uncertainty for the 80% of enterprises relying on their virtualization platform.
  2. Simultaneously, 75% of organizations are rethinking their cloud strategies as costs spiral beyond projections.
  3. And 53% of organizations plan to deploy private, on-premises AI infrastructure within the next two years, but 70% struggle to find qualified staff to manage increasingly complex infrastructure environments.

IT leaders are approaching these as separate crises requiring individual solutions. But what if there’s a single root cause driving all these problems?

The Symptoms of the Infrastructure Problem

the infrastructure problem

The evidence of the infrastructure problem is everywhere:

  • VMware’s disruption has left organizations hunting for hypervisor alternatives, only to discover that most options require new skill sets and architectural approaches.
  • Cloud repatriation is accelerating as the economics of long-term workloads in public cloud environments prove unsustainable—what promised operational flexibility has become a financial burden.
  • AI adoption is stalling because implementing on-premises AI is a must-have to mine proprietary data, but vendors are suggesting it requires building separate infrastructure stacks with specialized hardware, networking, and storage.
  • Talent acquisition has become nearly impossible as the complexity of managing modern infrastructure outpaces the available skill pool.

These issues dominate IT planning discussions, budget meetings, and strategic reviews. However, focusing on symptoms instead of causes leads to fragmented solutions that exacerbate the underlying problem.

Software is the Source of the Infrastructure Problem

The source of the infrastructure problem isn’t any single vendor, technology, or market force. It’s the acceptance of fundamentally flawed infrastructure software that forces fragmentation by design.

For over two decades, the industry has normalized building data centers by assembling disconnected components—hypervisors that require separate storage systems, networking hardware that needs additional security appliances, backup solutions that demand their own management consoles, and now AI platforms that require new and again isolated stacks.

This fragmented approach creates four compounding problems:

Hardware Vendor Lock-In: Traditional infrastructure software ties organizations to proprietary hardware ecosystems. Storage controllers costing 10X what they should, certified network switches, rigid hardware compatibility lists—all designed to extract maximum revenue rather than deliver maximum value.

Operational Silos: Every new initiative spawns its own infrastructure requirements. Virtualization teams, storage specialists, network engineers, backup administrators, and now AI infrastructure experts—each managing separate tools, consoles, and technologies that barely communicate with each other.

The Add-On Trap: Poor infrastructure software creates gaps that must be filled with additional vendor solutions. What starts as “adding backup capabilities” becomes an ecosystem of interconnected products, each requiring its own licensing, hardware, support contracts, and specialized expertise.

the infrastructure problem

Complexity Explosion: The staffing crisis isn’t just about finding qualified people—it’s about the exponential complexity created when organizations need specialists for every infrastructure domain, plus the integration expertise to make them work together.

How to Solve the Infrastructure Problem

Solving the infrastructure problem becomes possible when infrastructure software is designed correctly from the ground up. VergeOS demonstrates this approach by integrating virtualization, storage, networking, and AI capabilities into a single codebase, creating a unified platform.

Instead of assembling separate components, organizations get unified functionality that eliminates vendor lock-in, operational silos, add-on complexity, and excessive staffing requirements while leveraging existing hardware. A single platform addresses what organizations currently treat as separate problems: VMware alternatives, cloud cost optimization, AI infrastructure deployment, and skills shortage mitigation.

This isn’t theoretical—it’s happening today. Read our case studies to learn how organizations using VergeOS report reducing infrastructure costs, in some cases, by over 90%, eliminating multiple vendor relationships, and enabling single administrators to manage entire infrastructure stacks that previously required specialized teams.

The Path Forward

The infrastructure challenges consuming your planning cycles aren’t inevitable. They’re the predictable result of accepting software that forces fragmentation rather than enabling consolidation.

VMware disruption, cloud cost overruns, AI deployment complexity, and skills shortages are symptoms of a deeper architectural problem. Addressing symptoms individually—such as finding new hypervisors, optimizing cloud spend, building AI infrastructure, and hiring more specialists—treats the effects while leaving the cause untouched.

The solution requires recognizing that modern infrastructure demands modern architecture. Software that natively integrates all infrastructure functions. Platforms that work with commodity hardware rather than forcing proprietary purchases. Systems that simplify rather than complicate operations.

Organizations that recognize this shift now will gain significant advantages over those that focus on treating symptoms instead of addressing the underlying problem.

To learn more, download our white paper, “Four Forces Accelerating Infrastructure Modernization.”

Filed Under: Virtualization Tagged With: , , , ,

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Improving IT operational performance should be a key criterion when selecting a VMware alternative. Yes, lowering licensing fees and improving hardware performance will factor into the decision. Still, the project’s long-term success will depend on whether the new infrastructure software helps raise the IT operational bar so IT can be significantly more responsive and efficient after the switch.

Improving IT operational performance

In today’s highly competitive IT landscape, internal IT teams are increasingly benchmarked against Managed Service Providers (MSPs). MSPs, in turn, face comparisons against Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), and CSPs against hyperscale cloud providers. This competitive environment highlights operational performance as the crucial differentiator. Infrastructure software’s effectiveness and IT skills determine an organization’s ability to deliver superior operational outcomes and gain a competitive edge.

Shifting from Raw Performance to Operational Efficiency

Raw performance once dominated IT discussions, driving infrastructure investments to achieve incremental gains. However, as processing power has become plentiful and high-speed NVMe flash storage has become more cost-effective, businesses face diminishing returns on investment from raw hardware upgrades alone. The real competitive differentiator now lies in operational capabilities and efficient utilization of the hardware investment enabled by choosing the right infrastructure software:

  • Enhanced Observability: The ability to proactively monitor and manage infrastructure health in real-time.
  • Rapid Deployment: Quickly and reliably deploying new workloads or scaling into new locations.
  • Extended Hardware Lifecycles: Safely and reliably leveraging existing hardware resources over a longer period, aiming for hardware lifespans of up to a decade.

Why Operational Performance Matters

Improving IT operational performance directly impacts agility, reliability, and cost efficiency. Organizations excelling in these areas will outperform competitors, reduce unnecessary costs, and respond swiftly to market demands. Rather than merely upgrading hardware, IT departments must now prioritize improving operational workflows and infrastructure visibility and selecting infrastructure software that aligns with these strategic goals.

Raising the Operational Efficiency Bar

VergeOS is designed to help organizations exceed operational performance expectations, offering robust capabilities beyond those found in conventional solutions like VMware. Here’s how VergeOS achieves this:

Improving IT operational performance

Unmatched Observability

Through its ioMetrics integration, VergeOS provides comprehensive, real-time infrastructure monitoring. IT teams leverage tools like Prometheus and Grafana to gain detailed visibility into system performance, proactively identifying and resolving issues before they impact business operations.

Accelerated Workload Deployment

Improving IT operational performance can also be achieved through seamless integration with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) platforms like Terraform. With its native Terraform provider, VergeOS enables rapid and predictable deployment of new workloads or locations. Organizations can automate infrastructure deployment and configuration, significantly reducing manual errors and operational overhead.

Raising the Operational Efficiency of Hardware

Improving IT operational performance includes enhancing the efficiency of the IT hardware assets. You are being asked to do more with less, so should your hardware. VergeOS ensures hardware resources are utilized to their full potential without compromising critical capabilities. It supports many virtual machines per node and maximizes storage capacity per node, enabling IT teams to leverage their infrastructure fully. Additionally, VergeOS provides unmatched node flexibility, incorporating compute-only, GPU-only, or storage-only nodes, seamlessly integrating these diverse resources into a cohesive, holistic group. This level of flexibility and efficiency enables organizations to tailor their infrastructure precisely to their operational needs, optimizing resource allocation and minimizing waste.

Improving IT operational performance

Extending Hardware Life

Unlike traditional hypervisor environments, VergeOS’s architecture efficiently utilizes hardware resources, extending its functional lifespan. By maximizing hardware usage in a safe, resilient manner, organizations can confidently stretch hardware cycles closer to a decade, substantially improving ROI.

Operational Efficiency Requires Quality Technical Support

A critical component of operational performance is the quality of technical support that the VMware alternative vendor provides. No matter how robust the infrastructure software is, exceptional support is essential when issues arise. VergeIO’s technical support consistently receives high praise from customers:

“The responsiveness and knowledge of VergeIO’s support team are second to none. They quickly resolve any issues, minimizing downtime and maintaining our operational continuity.” — Eric Miller, Manager of Information Services, Lancaster Central School District

“We genuinely feel like VergeIO’s support team is an extension of our own IT department. Their proactive approach has significantly improved our infrastructure reliability.” — Kelley Allen, CEO of CCSI

Don’t take our word for it—explore detailed experiences and case studies by visiting our case studies page.

When Raw Performance Matters

While improving IT operational performance has become the critical differentiator in most scenarios, there are specific situations where raw performance remains essential. In these cases, it is crucial to ensure your infrastructure software fully extracts the potential from your hardware, something VergeOS has consistently demonstrated leadership in achieving, yet our competitors have been suspiciously quiet about.

VergeOS has delivered impressive performance benchmarks, including:

  • Launching 1,000 virtual machines in just 70 seconds.
  • Achieving over 1 million IOPS with 23 GB/s throughput using real-world workloads.
  • Maintaining sub-millisecond latency for critical applications, even under intense workloads.

As organizations begin deploying private AI workloads, raw performance and near-bare-metal efficiency will undoubtedly rise in importance. However, even in AI-centric deployments, improving IT operational performance by ensuring ease of deployment, robust observability, and hardware lifecycle optimization will continue to serve as the critical success criterion.

Moving Beyond VMware

While VMware remains a widely used hypervisor platform, it often lacks the robust operational capabilities now demanded by modern IT teams. VergeOS provides a compelling VMware alternative, enhancing operational agility, infrastructure observability, hardware longevity, and ensuring the infrastructure software chosen fully supports these strategic priorities.

For organizations evaluating their hypervisor strategy, it’s essential to consider these operational performance metrics carefully. Storage Switzerland recently highlighted crucial factors in their Critical Capabilities for Service Providers Evaluating VMware Alternatives, reinforcing the need for comprehensive operational excellence rather than mere cost reductions.

See VergeOS Operational Performance in Action

Interested in seeing how improving IT operational performance is made possible with VergeOS? Explore our on-demand demonstration to understand how VergeOS practically transforms IT operational performance. This session showcases VergeOS’s automation and observability capabilities, providing tangible insights into how your organization can exceed traditional operational benchmarks.

Register for the on-demand demo here.

Filed Under: Virtualization Tagged With:

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simplifying virtualization operations

Organizations should also consider simplifying virtualization operations when looking at a VMware alternative. The key to that goal is to look for a VMware alternative that, in addition to lowering licensing costs, can enable automation for consistent and accurate infrastructure deployment. Using Terraform’s declarative configuration language, the VergeIO Terraform Provider allows users to define, manage, and automate VergeIO resources such as virtual machines, networks, and storage. This integration simplifies the deployment and management of IT infrastructure by enabling infrastructure-as-code practices for VergeOS environments.

What is Terraform?

Terraform is an open-source software tool that allows users to define and manage infrastructure through code. By using a high-level configuration language, Terraform helps automate the setup and management of IT environments. This approach ensures consistent deployments, reduces errors, and streamlines the overall process. VergeIO’s Terraform Provider integrates VergeOS with Terraform, allowing users to manage their resources more simply.

What is VergeOS?

VergeOS is a virtualization software developed by VergeIO that simplifies IT infrastructure by integrating virtualization, storage, and networking into a single, unified platform, making it the ideal alternative to VMware. Unlike traditional virtualization stacks that rely on multiple layers and restrictive hardware requirements, VergeOS runs on various commodity hardware within that same instance, extending its lifespan and reducing overall costs. It uses AI-driven self-management to optimize performance and eliminate the need for hardware compatibility lists. This makes it possible for IT generalists to quickly deploy and manage entire virtual data centers, making robust IT environments more accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Simplifying Virtualization Operations With VergeOS and Terraform

The integration of VergeOS with Terraform represents a powerful combination for IT administrators looking to streamline and automate their infrastructure management. By combining VergeOS’s unified approach to virtualization with Terraform’s infrastructure-as-code capabilities, organizations can achieve a level of simplicity and efficiency previously difficult to attain.

Sign up for this Friday’s live demonstration of our new Terraform provider in action. Learn how to use Terraform and VergeOS to simplify virtualization.

With VergeOS handling the complexities of virtualization and Terraform providing a consistent, code-based approach to infrastructure management, IT teams can automate the entire lifecycle of their virtual environments. This includes everything from initial provisioning and configuration to ongoing management and scaling. The result is a more agile infrastructure that can adapt quickly to changing business needs without the overhead and complexity of traditional IT setups.

Moreover, this combination allows for more predictable and repeatable deployments. Since both VergeOS and Terraform emphasize consistency and automation, IT administrators can ensure that their infrastructure is deployed the same way every time across all environments. This reduces the risk of configuration drift and makes it easier to manage large-scale deployments.

For organizations looking to modernize their IT operations, the synergy between VergeOS and Terraform offers a path to greater flexibility, reduced operational costs, and faster time-to-value. It empowers IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than getting bogged down in the day-to-day management of complex systems.

The Benefits of Simplifying Virtualization Operations with VergeOS and Terraform

1. Simplified Infrastructure Management

VergeIO’s Terraform Provider allows administrators to manage resources using Terraform’s configuration language. This means infrastructure can be managed as code, making setting up and maintaining environments faster and less prone to errors. By automating tasks that were once manual, administrators save time and reduce the chance of mistakes.

2. Increased Automation

The integration with Terraform enables greater automation in managing VergeIO resources. Administrators can automate the provisioning and management of infrastructure, freeing them to focus on higher-level tasks. For organizations already using Terraform, adding VergeIO resources to their workflows is straightforward, allowing for a smooth transition and easier adoption.

3. Consistency and Version Control

With Terraform, infrastructure is treated as code, which can be version-controlled like any other software. This allows administrators to track changes, revert to previous configurations if needed, and collaborate more effectively. The consistent deployment of resources across different environments ensures stability and reliability, which is essential for maintaining a healthy IT ecosystem.

4. Easier Adoption for New Users

For organizations new to VergeIO, the Terraform integration makes it easier to start using the platform. By leveraging Terraform, a familiar tool for many IT professionals, the barrier to entry is lowered. This accessibility is particularly beneficial for smaller teams or organizations with limited resources, enabling them to take advantage of VergeIO’s virtualization without a steep learning curve.

5. Preparing for the Future

The need for flexible and scalable solutions will only increase as IT environments grow. VergeIO’s Terraform integration ensures that organizations are well-equipped to manage their infrastructure today while being ready to scale as demands change. By combining VergeOS with Terraform, administrators can maintain a more agile and responsive IT setup.

Conclusion

VergeIO’s Terraform integration is an important advancement in simplifying IT management. By providing tools that allow for automation, consistency, and easier adoption, VergeIO is helping organizations reduce complexity and improve their infrastructure management. Whether you’re an IT administrator looking for a better way to manage your resources or an organization seeking a more accessible virtualization solution, VergeIO’s Terraform integration offers the tools needed to succeed.

Filed Under: Private Cloud Tagged With: ,

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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: ,