When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn Converged and now hyper-converged and super-converged systems are emerging
significantly as a new framework for business IT architectures.
With converged systems, there’s a focus on consolidating multiple aspects of
a technology architecture. Hyper-convergence and super-convergence build on
this model: super-converged systems integrate network, storage, compute,
virtualization and management components into one overarching platform. Similarly,
hyper-converged systems typically integrate networking, computing, storage and
virtualization resources into a single system.
Some of the major benefits of these systems involve consolidating platforms
for performance and storage, connecting part of a process to make it more
universal, and continuing to decrease the investment and maintenance burdens
for hardware and software systems in general.
Converged, super-converged and hyper-converged systems can make it easier to
back up data, may assist in handling bottlenecks, and can decrease costs in IT.
All of this makes the converged, hyper-converged and super-converged models likely to take over
the industry, to a significant extent.
Much like the trends toward software as a service and cloud technologies,
converged, super-converged and hyper-converged systems seem to be catching on
across most industries for the above reasons. Where software as a service and
cloud eliminated the need for buying software out of a box and wrestling with
drivers and physical compact discs, converged and hyper-converged systems
eliminate the need to manually tie storage to operations and deal with external
storage facilities for data. Experts describe convergence and hyper-convergence
as a “plug-and-play” model, one that breaks down silos and makes larger IT
systems much easier to manage.
At the same time, like other innovations, converged, super-converged and
hyper-converged models may not lead to the total elimination of standalone
server setups. One case is where a system is small enough not to benefit as
much from the principles of convergence – where small-business systems may be
able to run quite well on a standalone basis. Another case would be where systems
have been set up deliberately to achieve “retro” or historical operations. Some
IT people will still see benefits in constructing standalone server systems
from the perspective of handling and maintaining data requests. So although
converged and hyper-converged systems, along with super-converged systems, may
be replacing standalone server systems at a rapid rate, it’s unlikely for that
takeover to be completely universal, at least anytime soon.
