In this overview, we provide a quick explanation of how data center architectures benefit from hyperconvergence. You will see systems, software examples, and recommendations to get you started. As organizations continue to look for ways to handle growing demands on the technology infrastructure, the limitations of traditional hardware defined infrastructures create pain points that cannot be resolved with traditional thinking. With SDS moving into the servers, new thinking and new architectural approaches are possible. The fusion of SDS and server virtualization enables hyperconvergence, moving Lenovo™ customers a giant leap toward a 100 percent software defined future. Hyperconvergence is the hot new trend in IT— are you on top of It? Software defined infrastructure is no longer the future. It is now. Hyperconvergence is the next natural step in the evolution of the data center. Learn everything you need to know about hyperconvergence and how data center architectures benefit.

Complex IT infrastructures are shifting away from familiar hardware defined systems toward the new software defined reality. Proprietary SAN attached storage systems will slowly disappear from most environments, and be replaced by more efficient, modular hyperconverged building blocks. Reducing complexity to lower costs. According to the Storage Networking Industry Association™ (SNIA™), about 60 percent of data center capex and OPEX is spent on SANs and SAN attached storage. Hyperconvergence potentially eliminates all of these costs. By converging storage, storage management, and the SAN at the hypervisor level and placing the SDS stack adjacent to the workloads, hyperconvergence reduces IT complexity, increases application performance, and delivers a dramatically more adaptive infrastructure. Storage intensive applications become easier to deploy, manage, and scale than on traditional systems. This in turn reduces capital and operating costs — a critical consideration at a time when data is growing far faster than budgets.

Faster To Deploy

In a hyperconverged architecture, compute, storage, networking, and I/O functions are all collapsed into a single, software defined infrastructure that can be deployed or scaled in a fraction of the time required for conventional hardware defined, discrete elements. By eliminating purpose—built or monolithic storage hardware and SAN switches, IT has far fewer physical elements to purchase and deploy and can do the job much more quickly. Data efficiency—one of the most important benefits of a hyperconverged data center is that the entire infrastructure is managed in a single system. This creates greater efficiency for your IT workforce, enabling them to focus on projects critical to your organization. Data protection—backup, recovery, and disaster recovery are easier to implement in software defined and hyperconverged infrastructures—frequently eliminating the need to purchase and manage multiple disparate products.

Hyperconverged Data Center

Lenovo™ and Nutanix™—Lenovo’s™ global strategic partnership with Nutanix™ combines the industry leading reliability of Lenovo™ enterprise systems with software from the industry leader in hyperconverged appliances since 2011. The partnership will reduce IT complexity and cost and increase greater efficiency and agility in data centers of all sizes through a jointly developed and branded family of Lenovo™ appliances powered by Nutanix™ software and sizable investments by both companies in joint platform development, performance engineering, and a dedicated and skilled sales force. Lenovo Converged HX™ series powered by Nutanix™ deliver ready to deploy appliances designed to simplify every aspect of the data center infrastructure lifecycle—from procurement and deployment to management, scalability, and support. Customer benefits include Increase reliability — with trusted Nutanix™ infrastructure solutions and industry leading Lenovo™ enterprise systems. Reduce costs—by implementing only what you need and then easily scale as needed. Simplify IT infrastructure—by integrating server, storage, and virtualization in a centrally managed appliance with built—in predictive analytics.

Features And Benefits

Best of breed interoperability—there’s no “one size fits all” to optimize efficiency in the data center. That’s why Lenovo™ offers world—class data center systems built to seamlessly work with leading solutions providers. Built for the data center—Lenovo™ offerings deliver enterprise class features designed specifically to meet the demands of data centers. For example, industry leading cooling in the Lenovo System x3650™ server supports a thermal range from 5° to 40°C. Customer satisfaction—in survey after survey by Technology Business Research™, Lenovo™ ranks No. 1 in customer satisfaction for Lenovo System x™. In the past five quarters, Lenovo’s™ six month, one time services and setup satisfaction score increased. Satisfaction continues post purchase as Lenovo™ customers reported the highest satisfaction with customer care. High performance—Lenovo™ brings industry leading performance to hyperconvergence in the data center. Lenovo System x3650 M5™ server platforms are rated No. 1 in x86 reliability and achieve superior performance with Intel Xeon™ processors. The entire Lenovo System x™ product line offers the lowest downtime of any x86 servers.