2. Howdy
• VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) #104
– Data Center and Network Virtualization
• Tech, Lab, Certs, Reviews, Videos
– WahlNetwork.com
• Pluralsight Author
– Upgrading your vSphere Environment
– CCNA Data Center
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10. Market Leaders
Nutanix and Simplivity are the
major incumbents in the data
center / enterprise class HCI
space.
Nutanix
o Founded in 2009
o Started shipping in 2011
o 5 rounds / 9 investors
o 312.2 MM in investments
SimpliVity
o Founded in 2009
o Started shipping in 2013
o 5 rounds / 7 investors
o 276.5 MM in investments
11. Let’s Get Under the Hood
How do you turn DAS into a Virtual SAN?
19. Design, Deploy, Consume
• Design considerations
– Storage or compute heavy?
– Redundancy: N+1, N+2, 4N (Block), Rack?
– Typical sizing + growth + workload types
• Deployment
– Usually takes longer to remove from box
– Often 4 hours from shipping dock to usable cluster(s)
20. Hypervisor Perspective
• Hypervisor sees the scale-out storage pool
• Leverage Intel VT-d for Direct I/O
– Storage devices are passed through to SDS stack
• Examples:
– Nutanix CVM virtual controller
– SimpliVity OmniStack virtual controller
21. Value from the Software Goodies
Operations
• Full stack patch, driver,
firmware, and version control
• Abstraction from archaic
resource control (LUNs,
volumes)
• Accelerated feature adoption
rate - it’s software!
Financials
• Iterative growth patterns
• Linear scale of the “food
groups” (this is good & bad)
• Depreciating assets are also
providing immediate value
• Higher VAR margins, but on
lower CapEx and rarely
requires services
23. Why is Hyper-Converged So Attractive?
• IT has been given some serious black eyes
– Large outsourcing movements to MSPs in the mid 2000’s
– Followed by messy insourcing movements
• Technology disconnect
– Viewed as a cost center, under staffed to be super agile
• Users have freedom of choice
– Our iron fist of control has evaporated. Thanks, Amazon!
26. Managed Service Providers (MSP)
Method for offloading the
“engineering” day-to-day
tasks to 3rd party
Adds to days needed to
deliver services
Adds complexity across
workflows
Reduces flexibility in tools
and processes
27. How HCI Helps vs MSP
HCI stack manages
majority of day-to-day
tasks
Offload firmware,
patching, and even OS
versions to HCI
RESTful APIs make
building workflows
simple and flexible
28. We’re Not An “IT Business”
Transforming IT from a
cost center to a
competitive advantage
Highly automated and
self-healing infrastructure
Doing vastly more with
significantly less
29. How HCI Helps vs “I’m a Cost Center”
Offload vast majority of
infrastructure headache
Focus on building service
catalog
Focus on building
orchestrated workflows
Add value to services
30. If I had asked people what they wanted,
they would have said faster horses.
31. Additional Resources
Visit WahlNetwork.com for Deep Dives,
Home Lab Tips, Reviews, and More!
Check out “Networking for VMware
Administrators” by VMware Press
Over 30 hours of my video training
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