5 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Buying HCI Solutions

6 years ago | Posted in: Business, Technology | 853 Views

Companies are switching to HIC model due to its simplicity. Gone are the days when users would be forced to plan, build, and implement three-tier architecture around their storage, servers, and other components of networking. Users now use advanced options to merge these functions HCI appliances. However, there is still a need for users to deploy converged systems in different locations. In fact, some IT managers are overspending as they strive to achieve their goals. Here are five mistakes to avoid when buying hyper-converged infrastructure models.

Overspending on Hardware Deployment

Many HCI models often come as pre-configured appliances. As such, IT managers can fall into the trap of deploying hardware that has more storage or networking than needed. It is crucial for users to analyze their storage and networking requirements before making a final purchase decision.

That will help them remain within budget constraints and reduce excess wastage. While IT staff can turn to HCI appliances for its simplicity, certain hidden costs can break your bank. For example, users often incur extra costs of buying new nodes when they realize that their HCI appliances need additional storage capacity. Users can end up spending a lot of money on hardware deployment if they are not careful.

Buying Solutions that are Better Suited for Data Centers

While most HCI appliances are designed for data centers, IT managers can overkill some of these solutions for edge deployment. The cost of deploying these solutions at small-scale organizations can be too high. It is vital for customers to ask their HCI solutions providers a few fundamental questions to avoid overspending on solutions that are better suited for large data centers. It is critical to query the number of nodes that you require before buying your HCI appliances. Ask whether the system will or not respond automatically when one mobile commerce device or node fails.

Users should also look for a network that can operate both the witness server and local cluster appliances. Most HCI models require 1Gbit or 10Gbit to run the cluster appliances. Edge environments are often in remote locations where networking with high bandwidth is impossible. You can review different solutions and decline any features that don’t fit your edge environment. Many HCI appliances come with datacenter features that raise the overall costs and are rarely used.

Use of All-Flash When is Not Necessary

Hyper-converged appliances and all-flash arrays are used in data centers for extreme performance. Flash arrays are costly since flash can be ten times the cost of disk drives and not all applications require them. Users should look for caching software that can enable them to optimize data placement without paying a premium. However, all-flash arrays are ideal for applications that require extreme performance. A mix of storage options such as system memory and spinning disks can be suitable for everyday applications that just need average performance.

Not Creating Room for Future Growth

Many users often purchase a hyper-converged infrastructure based on their immediate needs. However, it is imperative to look at the impact of the structure in the future. Leverage technology to project the expected data growth rates, assess if your HCI appliance can handle multiple applications simultaneously, and understand your workload requirements. That can help you address any concern associated with data locality.

Introducing Different Vendors into Your IT infrastructure

The primary benefit of shifting to hyper-converged infrastructure architecture is to consolidate your applications. HCI architecture allows users to move from a discrete storage tier to a combined computing layer. That helps reduce costs by eliminating the physical footprint within your data center.

In turn, your power consumption and cooling needs reduce significantly. Similar benefits can apply to someone who purchases HCI solutions from their current IT vendor. It makes no sense to consolidate your infrastructure and introduce a new vendor into your IT infrastructure. The new vendor will require adapting to your management system and IT infrastructure. Committing to a single vendor can be advantageous since you can request your vendor to design customized features.

 

by: Vincent StokesĀ 

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