Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2018. Read them in this 10th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Yoram Novick, founder and CEO Maxta Inc.
Three Ways Hyperconvergence (HCI) Will Change the Game in 2018
Even though the
hyperconverged market is still somewhat new, some tectonic shifts took place in
it during 2017 with acquisitions and new entrants. While 2018 may not have this
same level of M&A activity, major shifts are expected as the hyperconverged
market matures. Here are three predictions for hyperconvergence in 2018:
1. Hyperconvergence shifts
to software, but appliance vendors will struggle to make this shift
It
wasn't terribly long ago that members of the analyst community defined the hyperconverged
category strictly as appliances. Even
VMware vSAN was not considered a hyperconvergence infrastructure (HCI) vendor
and was left out of key analyst reports because it was...software. That tide has started
to turn.
In
2017, hyperconverged appliance vendors announced their intent to shift to
software-only. In 2018, they will begin to offer software-only versions of
their products. HCI appliance vendors know very well that a software business
is much more profitable.
However,
"de-integrating" a hyperconverged appliance and delivering HCI as software-only is easier said than done. Retrofitting software that was designed and
optimized for a single hardware configuration to run on all or most x86
standard configurations is going to be more difficult and will take longer than
most people expect.
Moreover,
the real challenge is going to be about cost structure and business model. Several
successful hardware companies tried to pivot to a software company in the past and
failed not due to lack of technology but due to inappropriate business model. Selling software means significantly less
revenue, at least initially, and a software company requires a different structure
than a hardware company.
2. Service providers turn
to hyperconvergence to be more cloud-like
Hyperscale
cloud providers like AWS and Google have honed the cost models and operational
efficiencies to a level that makes them the envy of any organization that has
to procure and manage IT infrastructure. Can service providers and managed
service providers (xSPs) compete with the economies of public clouds leveraging
a legacy three-tier architecture of servers, storage, and storage networking? I
believe that the answer is No.
xSPs
will have to move to a hyperconverged model to have any chance of coming close
to public cloud economics. However, xSPs will have to move directly to a
hyperconvergence software model since most hyperconverged appliances are more
expensive than storage arrays and have a rigid scaling model that doesn't fit
the agility needs of xSPs.
3. Hypervisor support
begins to matter
While
there are several hypervisors in the market, to this point VMware dominated the
space. Thanks in part to improved
compatibility and migration, RedHat and other Linux-based hypervisors will gain
traction in 2018. Organizations see benefits from being able to choose the
hypervisor that best fits the needs of their applications and workloads. While
many organizations are looking for alternatives to eliminate the "VMware Tax,"
they will want to ensure that they are not jumping out of the frying pan into
the fire. They will look for hypervisors that are full-featured, commercially
hardened and fully supported. While support for multiple hypervisors,
especially VMware and RedHat, will be essential with HCI, the ability to
migrate from one hypervisor to another, and possibly back again, really brings
the choice of hypervisors to life.
2018 will become
the "year of choice" for the hyperconverged market. When customers have a
choice of hardware vendors, a choice of using existing hardware or new
hardware, a choice of hypervisor, and a choice of form factor (software or
appliances), it only benefits the hyperconverged market in general and becomes
a no-brainer when compared to a legacy storage model.
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About the Author
With a proven track record of building successful startups, and deep
expertise in enterprise systems, storage, and software, Yoram drives
Maxta's vision and strategy.
Prior to founding Maxta, he founded Topio, known for its data
replication and recovery prowess, and led the company as its CEO from
inception until it was acquired by NetApp. Following the Topio
acquisition, Yoram served as Vice President and General Manager of
NetApp's Data Replication Business Unit. Prior to Topio, he spent 13
years at IBM in storage research and development capacities.
Yoram holds 25 patents in the systems and storage domains and sits on
several boards of directors, guiding other entrepreneurial tech
companies down their own paths to market success. He holds a bachelor's
and a master's degree in computer science from Ben-Gurion University of
the Negev, both Summa CumLaude.