What is hyperconverged infrastructure?

Whereas a traditional data center uses different pieces of hardware for various functions, hyperconverged systems use virtual machines (VMs) to create abstracts of each component, all contained within commercially available commodity hardware. In this way, IT infrastructure solutions that use hyperconvergence can streamline data center management and operations for an on-premises, high-performance and cost-effective alternative to traditional data centers, or public cloud computing.

The rising demand for data centers to accelerate business growth has placed a greater need for hyperconverged infrastructure. In a report from Fortune Business Insights, the global HCI market size was valued at USD 9.66 billion in 2023. In 2024, it is projected to grow from USD 11.98 billion to USD 61.49 billion by 2032 (with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7%).¹

To gain a better understanding of hyperconverged infrastructure, it helps to compare the differences between hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and converged infrastructure (CI).

To combine compute, networking and storage features into one manageable system, data centers that employ a converged methodology integrate various components. These elements can include servers, processors, storage and networking into singular, pre-engineered solutions consisting of modular or purpose-built hardware.

CI systems do simplify deployment and management compared to non-converged systems, but fail to take full advantage of software virtualization. Although some elements of converged infrastructure are combined, these systems still require multiple pieces of unique hardware (which can be specialized and expensive) and IT support to integrate and manage the system.

Hyperconverged systems take convergence a step further. Instead of integrating various specialized hardware components, hyperconverged systems create virtual versions of each data center component (compute, storage and networking) within an industry-standard x86 server.

Hyperconverged infrastructure solutions include Nutanix Cloud Platform (NCP), Dell EMC VxRail, IBM Fusion HCI, VMware vSAN and Microsoft Azure HCI Stack.

Both hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) and more traditional forms of IT infrastructure, such as converged infrastructure (CI) and non-converged infrastructure, use different components to enable smooth business operations. However, while previous infrastructure models use different physical hardware components to accomplish different tasks, HCI hardware creates virtualized abstracts of each component within a single piece of hardware.

The power, storage (for example, NAS, SAN, NVMe-based flash storage) and capacity of HCI hardware are scalable and cloud native. HCI can scale up to increase total infrastructure resources or scale out to increase individual component performance within a single piece of hardware.

HCI virtualizes traditional infrastructure components and also adds a few new components to enable hyperconvergence.

The main software components of HCI include: 

• Hypervisor: A hypervisor is a specialized software layer that manages the workloads of hyperconverged systems by creating virtual machines (VMs), which function like digital representations of unique hardware components.

• Nodes: Within an HCI environment, a node is a self-contained unit comprising compute, storage and networking resources. Nodes work together to create a unified, virtualized IT infrastructure environment.

• Compute: Compute components run VMs and apps within hyperconverged platforms. 

• Software-defined networking (SDN): The networking component of each node uses software-defined networking (SDN) to enable communication between nodes and facilitate data transfer within the HCI.

• Software-defined storage (SDS): Software-defined storage (SDS) abstracts and virtualizes the underlying physical storage of data center components. This key aspect of hyperconverged storage eliminates the need for specialized storage arrays and allows for a more efficient partitioning of total storage resources. These benefits can be achieved whether using traditional solid-state drives (SSD) or non-volatile memory express (NVMe) storage.

While hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) might not be suitable for every application, it does offer many benefits over more traditional types of IT infrastructure. Notably, HCI increases IT efficiency by automatically pooling resources and dynamically allocating those resources on demand.

Through automation, HCI can help reduce the burden on IT teams and eliminate siloed or manual operations while maximizing resource usage. Also, HCI simplifies system upgrades and maintenance.

Some additional advantages offered by HCI include:

• Scalability

• Data protection

• Cost-effectiveness

• Automation

• Compatibility
  
  

The transformative power of hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) offers ample potential benefits to numerous sectors. A highly adaptable form of IT infrastructure, HCI can be applied across a wide range of applications and is suitable for most organizations. It offers an agile, efficient and scalable IT solution capable of handling heavy workloads and large amounts of data storage.

The ability to efficiently simplify infrastructure while accommodating organizational growth has made HCI a leading choice across a diverse range of use cases. Some of these applications range from government and civil service operations to large-scale public works and utilities.

• Healthcare

• Financial services

• Retail

• Manufacturing
  
  

In the challenging field of healthcare, HCI has become a cornerstone of modernized and optimized data center infrastructure. By converging disparate systems, HCI streamlines electronic health record management while also ensuring compliance within a strict regulatory environment. HCI systems make safeguarding sensitive patient data easier, while also making that data easier to store and access.

For educational institutions studying the field of medicine, HCI allows students, faculty and researchers seamless access to virtual learning environments powered by high-performance infrastructure.

Elsewhere, HCI has also emerged as a valuable resource in the high-stakes financial services sector. Favored for its scalability and agility, financial institutions are using HCI to quickly deploy critical applications, including online banking platforms, trading systems and risk management tools.

Whereas scaling traditional forms of infrastructure can carry increased costs both in terms of money and time, HCI enhances operational efficiency for quick scalability without expensive, purpose-built hardware.

Retail is another sector taking advantage of HCI to integrate various disparate systems. HCI’s dynamic resource allocation allows retailers to dynamically manage complex tasks like inventory management, customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM). It also helps merge online and brick-and-mortar business operations.

With the power of HCI, retailers can better deliver personalized customer experiences to efficiently convert more sales with less wasted effort and energy.

HCI has also proved to be highly valuable in the manufacturing sector, where streamlining demanding tasks like production, inventory management and logistics is a welcome benefit. HCI provides manufacturers with an optimized solution that offers increased resource efficiency, capability and scalability well suited to meet fluctuating market conditions.

Beyond these key sectors, the versatile nature of HCI excels in several modern business applications that provide value across many different types of industries. Some IT environments and general business applications and IT environments that benefit from HCI’s efficient adaptability include:

• Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI): The efficient and scalable nature of HCI makes it a top choice for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments. HCI can help improve the user experience and simplify virtual desktop provisioning. 

• Remote office or branch office (ROBO): HCI supports ROBO environments—office or branch locations located away from the organization’s headquarters or main office. Through a centralized management interface, HCI helps reduce the need for an onsite IT staff and support resources at remote locations.

• High-performance applications: HCI systems are designed to accommodate even the most demanding workloads. Tasks requiring high-performance hardware—such as data analytics or advanced simulations—benefit from HCI’s ability to provide flexible compute and storage resources. 

• Edge computing: Compact, scalable and virtualized by nature, HCI is well suited for developing edge computing infrastructure, which seeks to decrease latency by processing cloud services physically closer to the actual user.

• Multicloud environments: CI’s component consolidation is highly compatible with various cloud environments. This feature allows organizations to adopt a hybrid cloud or multicloud strategy incorporating on-premises private cloud infrastructure and public cloud services.

• Artificial intelligence (AI): HCI supports artificial intelligence (AI) use cases by providing a scalable, simplified platform for AI workloads, encompassing training, management and deployment. By integrating compute, storage and networking resources into a single system, it enables the processing of large amounts of data in real or near real time for large language models (LLMs) and other AI applications.