A Quick Review of Nimble Storage dHCI: Everything You Need to Know
At its core, a hyperconverged infrastructure (also referred to as HCI for short) is a software-based, unified solution that brings together the major elements that make up a data center—from storage to compute power to networking, management and beyond—into a single platform for the benefit of users everywhere. Rather than forcing people to deal with expansive (not to mention expensive) purpose-built hardware, they’re get an environment that reduces the complicated nature of a traditional data center while increasing the inherent scalability they need in one fell swoop.
Not only does this help dramatically reduce an organization’s costs by allowing greater agility in terms of elements like provisioning, it’s also an essential stepping stone that allows businesses to embrace the hybrid cloud model. But, as is true with most areas of technology, there’s always room for optimization.
Now, thanks to Nimble Storage dHCI, a hybrid model is more accessible than ever.
The acronym dHCI is short for “disaggregated hyperconverged infrastructure,” and it essentially takes the benefits of traditional HCI to the next level. All told, it offers a wide range of advantages, all of which are worth a closer look.
Nimble Storage dHCI is Powered by Uncoupling Compute From Storage
In general, dHCI and HCI have a lot in common particularly in terms of how they both allow storage, compute and networking to all be managed from a single solution at any given time. Where dHCI differs, however, is that it no longer requires storage and compute to be coupled together. With that one change, data centers now have the ability to expand deployments in a far more universal manner, thus avoiding stranded and/or unwanted resources, which has always been a major issue that HCI deployments carry.
One of the reasons that HCI deployments often run into this issue is that it’s fairly rare for applications to have compute needs that grow at the same rate as their storage requirements. By uncoupling compute from storage, dHCI is a solution that is better suited to meet unique needs on a client-by-client basis.
Operate Nimble Storage dHCI through a Single Management Console
Another major advantage of dHCI has to do with how, by design, it makes day-to-day operations easier than ever. Absolutely everything—from monitoring to maintenance to adding both compute and storage resources—can be executed from a single management console. In the case of HPE, this is all handled by way of the dHCI plugin with vCenter.
vCenter is an advanced server management platform for handling all VMware vSphere environments. This alone frees up as much of the user’s valuable time as possible so that they can focus on matters that truly need them.
Double Check Setup with Inherent Tools
In regards to Nimble Storage dHCI in particular, users can take advantage of innovative features like the dHCI Configuration Checker. As the name suggests, this is a simple tool that allows you to instantly ensure your dHCI deployment is set up correctly.
It lets you instantly take a closer look at everything from storage paths to iLO admin privilege rules and if any errors are identified, you’ll be notified about it immediately. This is a perfect opportunity to stop a small problem now before it has a chance to become a much bigger (and potentially costlier) one down the road.
Note that the dHCI Configuration Checker is also what makes it easy to scale compute and storage independently of one another, as outlined above. Adding additional ESXi servers to an existing dHCI cluster is literally accomplished with just a few quick clicks of your mouse.
InfoSight + Nimble dHCI Offers Predictive Remediation of Issues
But in terms of Nimble Storage dCHI, one of the most powerful benefits takes the form of InfoSight—an engine that uses system modeling, predictive analytics and other features to extract invaluable data from your systems. It runs entirely in the cloud and is accessed through the HPE InfoSight Portal. It includes preemptive system alerts to clue users into the overall health of their environments. You can see the total number of virtual machines that have been deployed, get access to metrics for your cluster’s resource usage and more, allowing it to essentially act as a “single source of truth” for your entire environment.
In the end, Nimble Storage dHCI offers a host of unique advantages and opportunities, many of which technology teams would be hard-pressed to accomplish through other means. For many, the ability to scale compute and storage totally independently of one another would be more than worth the investment. But by also dramatically reducing the complexity of day-to-day operations, as well as by creating a central management plane that can significantly increase ease-of-use, it’s easy to see why Nimble Storage dHCI has become so valuable and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Interested in refreshing your company’s infrastructure? Consider HPE Nimble Storage dHCI and ComportSecure’s other infrastructure offerings to find the solution that best fits your business needs.
