perconvergence is the newest IT architecture that is removing both cost and complexity from virtualization infrastructure. This article assumes you are aware of the advantages of hyperconvergence and how it applies to the business end of your small to medium business. What we are going to discuss is how to ensure that you are getting the TRUE advantages from Hyperconvergence over what all those fancy marketing papers say you can.
A small to medium business(SMB) doesn't mean just a tiny kiosk in the mall that only has a single POS computer. We're talking about SMB in terms of between 50 to 500 employees with an IT staff of up to 5 full or part-time staffers.
There are a lot of claims out there around hyperconvergence technologies. At the top of the list is reducing costs. Also, it claims to be a simpler environment for your IT staff - increasing productivity. As the business owner, what questions do you need to ask to ensure that your hard-earned capital is well spent?
Among all the claims, there are 5 things that you need to look for in a hyperconverged solution to ensure that your solution brings everything to your business that it can.
Vendors in the solution
One of the claims of hyperconvergence is simplification of the solution. This is potentially achieved by eliminating the multitude of vendors that are part of a traditional virtualized solution. This solution involves how many vendors? Where do the individual responsibilities of each vendor start and stop? Will you need multiple support contracts, or is everything covered under one master contract? Is there a central support number to call, or is there the possibility of finger-pointing between various manufacturers? In this vein, is the solution the intellectual property of one company, or are there different licensing agreements in place? How could this affect YOUR investment in the event of a manufacturer bankruptcy?
Licensing
The initial install of the solution is probably correctly sized for your business. What happens if you need to expand that installation? If you need more virtual servers, or to add more users, are there going to be any additional license fees (Vmware)? What about yearly maintenance fees, will those grow, too? What if we expand and I want to add virtual servers at another location? Are my licenses "tiered" or do they get more expensive for additional functionality or when I hit a certain license count? These are not necessarily deal-breakers, but fore-warned is fore-armed. It sure helps to have a reliable idea of licensing costs when budget time rolls around.
Expandability
Hyperconverged solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Different solutions exist for a dozen virtualized servers, and for several hundred virtual servers. Whichever you have is not as important as the answer to the question Is the solution expandable? Does the solution have the ability to cover your business as it grows, without the dreaded "fork-lift upgrade", which means downtime for the profit-centers of your business. In addition to this, if upgrades are possible, do they involve downtime? Can your sales department sell while the upgrades occur?
Installation
Sure, everyone will be more than happy to install this beast once you have signed on the dotted line, but just how complex is that installation? Can we operate on the existing systems and minimize downtime while the installation occurs? How complex is the switchover to the new systems (Easily migrating VMs or data)? Can your IT staff shadow the installation? Is it easy enough that they can do it themselves with just a bit of guidance? Can your staff expand the system, or will you need outside help?
Ease of Use
Now that we have it and everything is running, just how difficult is it to get my IT staff up to speed on the product? Is there additional training that will take my staff off site in order to learn how to use this product? Once I train my staff, am I in danger of losing them to a competitor willing to pay more for those certifications? When we add additional virtual servers to the environment, will my staff be able to do that? How difficult is it, and how long will it take? Since my staff isn't as large as some of the big-guys, how difficult is it to cross-train?
Summary
Hyperconvergence is an amazing leap forward for IT virtualization. Correctly sized, designed, and implemented it promises a lot to the small to medium business. But like most things in life, one size doesn't necessarily fit all. Spending money wisely requires due diligence. Make sure the business squeezes all of the value that you paid for from this solution. Address the questions around vendors, licensing, systems expandability, installation and ease of use.
Engage with the manufacturers and ask the solutions provider the next step questions addressed in this article. This will ensure that you enjoy the advantages advertised while getting the exact solution to benefit
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