WHITE PAPER

BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE

FOR HYPER-CONVERGED
INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)
Move Your Organization Toward a Brighter Future
BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

Table of Contents
Ushering in a New Era of IT 3
Data Delivery Done Differently. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

An Evolution Toward Hyper-Convergence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Businesses Need Hyper-Converged Infrastructure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Market Leader in HCI Solutions 4

Why Organizations Choose VMware vSAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Cost Savings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Enterprise-Grade Scale and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Simplicity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Future-Ready Architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
When Is the Best Time to Deploy HCI?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of HCI 7

How to Get Started 9

Conclusion 9

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BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

Ushering in a New Era of IT

Technology has always been in a state of constant change. But recent innovations like
big data, cloud-based services, and mobile applications have added layers of complexity
that put tremendous pressure on ITand legacy systems arent helping.

Traditional IT infrastructure is siloed and fragmented, unable to match the business

need for agility and scalabilitytwo requirements for every organization that wants to
stay competitive. Flat or declining IT budgets add even more stress.

Amid these rapid changes and evolving demands, theres no doubt: IT is entering a
whole new age.

Data Delivery Done Differently

As people consume data in new and different ways, it makes a direct impact on how
organizations deliver and process that data. How organizations handle this is influenced
by technological advances such as the commoditization of servers, the declining cost
of all-flash, and the widespread adoption of virtualization, coupled with contemporary
applications like cloud-native apps and micro-services.

In grappling with what approach to take, IT must consider the following factors:
Exploding data growth requires the scalability of a grow-as-you-go model
Unpredictable business environments require a flexible infrastructure capable of
supporting the apps of todayand tomorrow
Mission-critical applications require consistent levels of performance
An always-on world cannot tolerate downtime and disruptions
Strict SLAs require simplified management by automating manual and repetitive tasks

The bottom line: This isnt easy. Simply throwing more IT staff, more money, and more
hardware at the challenge wont solve it.

Its time for change at the infrastructure level.

Hyper-Converged Software Industry-Standard Hardware

Compute, storage, Convergence of

and management physical storage on
x86 hardware
Tightly integrated
software stack Building-block approach

Figure 1. Illustration of two HCI components: the hyper-converged software stack and industry-standard
x86 servers

1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, 14 July 2015.Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service
depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other
designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartners research organization and should not be construed as
statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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 BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)
VMWARE: THE MARKET LEADER
More than 500,000 enterprises,
including 100% of the Fortune 100,
trust VMware as their virtualization
infrastructure platform.
VMware has been recognized
as a leader in the 2015 Gartner
Magic Quadrant for x86 Server
Virtualization Infrastructure. This
is the sixth year in a row VMware
has received this recognition.1
An Evolution Toward Hyper-Convergence
Driven by the need to deploy, manage, and support a growing volume of data and
applications, data center infrastructure is undergoing a total transformation.
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) has emerged as a smart, future-ready solution
that eliminates silos and allows organizations to move at the speed of business. HCI
allows the convergence of compute, storage, and management onto industry-standard
x86 servers. All key data center functions run as software on the hypervisor in a tightly
integrated software layer.
In this way, HCI delivers services that were typically provided by hardware-centric
infrastructure through software, for big improvements in cost, agility, and efficiency.
Businesses Need Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
Where does your business struggle? Where does it thrive? Understanding your
strengthsand your weaknesseswill help you learn just where an HCI solution can
help you most.
VMware powers the lowest-cost and highest-performance next-generation HCI
solutions with radically simple VMware vSAN storage, the market-leading VMware
vSphere hypervisor, and the VMware vCenter Server unified management platform.
From seamless deployment and maintenance to greater stability and availability,
VMware vSAN can help you meet your goals.
The Market Leader in HCI Solutions
HCI powered by vSAN is the industry-leading HCI solution for a reason. With vSAN,
you can expect cost savings, enterprise-grade scale and performance, simplicity, and
the ability to adapt in the future.
What were the three most important criteria that helped you
choose your VMware vSAN solution?
Integration with
Hypervisor of Choice 57%
Fast, Easy Deployment 44%
Low Purchase Price/TCO 38%
Already Have a
Relationship with Vendor
33%
Vendor Reputation 25%
Hardware/Software
Certification and Support
23%
Figure 2. Survey results on VMware vSAN selection criteria
Why Organizations are Choose VMware vSAN
Among the many reasons organizations choose vSAN, the fact that it can easily be
integrated with an existing hypervisor is at the top of the list.
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 BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

In the past, we were Cost Savings

always worried about
overprovisioning, but
with the thin provisioning
afforded by VMware vSAN,
weve gained so much
space this is simply not
an issue.
Lowers hardware spend by enabling the use of industry-standard hardware
Reduces OpEx and accelerates responsiveness by automating operational processes
and eliminating support silos
Eliminates overprovisioning with scale-up and scale-out on-demand capabilities
Enables rapid deployment and fast time to valuenative architecture requires
zero installation so you can be up and running with your HCI appliance in less than
15 minutes

NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR
STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH Traditional Upfront Storage vs. Effective $/GB Paid for
Granular Scale-Out Utilized Capacity
Hybrid
Array
$100,000 $6.7

$5.0
vSAN
$10,000 $41,000
$4.0

$9,000

$22,000
$1.60
$1.42
$1.45

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Year 1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 TOTAL
vSAN $/GB Hybrid Array $/GB

Figure 3. Cost comparison between vSAN and traditional hardware solutions

Enterprise-Grade Scale and Performance

Delivers better performance at a lower cost with all-flash optimization

Supports the next-generation hardware technologies so you can adopt them as soon
as they become available

Removes dependence on longer, slower hardware refresh cycles

Provides efficient resource utilization so you can enjoy greater virtual machine
density, and higher virtual machine consolidation ratios

Delivers elastic and linear scalability so you can scale to your needs. Start small with
a 2- or 3-node configuration and scale up to a 64-node cluster.

Embeds storage directly into the hypervisor, optimizing the I/O path to deliver
consistently fast response times.

Highest Performance and Maximum Scalability per vSAN Cluster

Figure 4. Performance characteristics of VMware vSAN

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 BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)
Everything is right there
inside the VMware console,
so there were no new
interfaces to install or
learn. And we no longer
have to watch the storage
allocation constantly,
always asking if we still
need this server, or if a
LUN is using too much
disk space. We dont have
to worry about LUNs and
provisioning anymore.
CARL SHRIVER
IT OPERATIONS MANAGER
WACHTER, INC.
Our customers are
surprised by the speed and
responsiveness of their
applications. Cloud Carib
now has the ability to host
any demanding application
a customer wants to run.
STELIOS XEROUDAKIS
FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
CLOUD CARIB
Simplicity
Reduces complexity with a single integrated software stack
Automatically rebuilds and rebalances storage and compute with automated storage
provisioning and a self-tuning platform
Identifies problems early with centralized policy-based management that enables
enhanced monitoring and built-in reporting
Leverages existing investments and skill sets by providing a familiar interface
Eliminates costly and risky hardware forklift upgrades during the normal 3- to 5-year
hardware refresh cycle
In-Kernel Architecture Delivers Greater Efficiency
Storage VM
VM VM VM VM
(Per Server)
vSphere vSphere & vSAN
Storage VM consumes resources 2x CPU and 3x memory efficiency
Data paths are inefficient Native vMotion and DRS
Management must be bolted on Simple, single management pane
Figure 5. Comparison of storage efficiency between traditional and hyper-converged architecture
Future-Ready Architecture
Can easily expand with network virtualization and advanced management
Offers a scalable, high-performance solution for cloud-native applications,
containers, and microservices
Enables streamlined data management and data governance by reducing time spent
on infrastructure management
Gives teams the ability to focus on data, instead of storage infrastructure
Ensure a Seamless Path to Private and Public Clouds
AP AP AP AP AP
P P P P P
VMware Cloud Foundation
vSphere vSAN NSX
Private cloud Public cloud
Figure 6. Illustration of the VMware foundation for multi-cloud environments
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BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

When Is the Best Time to Deploy HCI?

Many IT organizations start looking at HCI when they need to make a change in their
environment, such as refreshing servers or refreshing, expanding, or upgrading storage.

Deploying VMware vSphere for the first time is another common trigger. Projects that
need modern infrastructure provide a great opportunity to investigate.

Understanding the use cases for HCI can help you build a strong business case around
it. Here are some of the most common ways organizations are using HCI:

Business-Critical Management Disaster Virtual Desktop

Apps Clusters Recovery Infrastructure

DMZ Staging Test/Dev ROBO

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of HCI

Traditional infrastructure comes with a high price tag, but moving to HCI provides
reductions across the board. Its important to know that the cost composition changes
over a 3- to 5-year period. OpEx costs tend to grow larger than CapEx over a period
of years, so youll want to look at the broad view.

HARD SAVINGS

CapEx Cost type Discussion

Hardware New systems With HCI, you can use industry standard x86 hardware
costs resulting a big reduction in overall cost.

Storage costs HCI causes storage costs to plummet, both in terms of

capacity ($/GB) and performance ($/IOPS). Data
efficiency features like deduplication and compression
reduce storage hardware costs even further.

Overbuying HCI offers a grow-as-you-go model, eliminating the cost

of overbuying upfront with traditional infrastructure.
Furthermore, the excess capacity from overbuying with
traditional infrastructure also incurs additional costs from
more rack space, power, and cooling.

Software Licensing Pay as low as $0 in software licensing fees for some

HCI solutions. vSAN is included in Horizon Advanced
and Enterprise Suite, so theres no additional cost
for licensing.

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 BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

REAL-WORLD RESULTS
OpEx Cost type Discussion
VMware vSAN customers are
realizing significant savings from
their HCI solutionsand that Services Installation and Use existing interfaces and skill sets to deploy HCI,
number is expected to grow as configuration with some solutions requiring zero installation due to
services native architecture.
they increase their use of vSAN
and migrate additional workloads
to the systems. An IDC survey3 Migration and HCI solutions with native architecture minimize the
integration cost of migrating from or integrating with existing IT
of vSAN customers showed that
infrastructure.
they experienced:
32% reduction in CapEx costs Support Maintenance Eliminate separate server, storage, and networking
compared to their previous fees equipment support costs to lower maintenance fees.
hardware solution
23% reduction in IT staff time Support calls Reduce infrastructure-related support calls/tickets due
spent on managing storage to less complexity.

12% reduction in cost of data

Infrastructure Power and HCIs compact and efficient form factor provides power
center/facility space
consolidation cooling savings.
10.4% reduction in total cost to
power and cool the solutions Real estate/ HCI provides space savings due to its smaller footprint.
Floor space
5% reduction in the number of
full-time employees required to
manage resources Hard costs arent the only things eating away at your budget. There are also more
subtle expenses that add up over timeexpenses that can easily be overlooked, yet
make a big difference in the total cost of ownership.

SOFT SAVINGS

IT Efficiency Discussion

VM administration HCI accelerates responsiveness by providing faster, more efficient

planning, deployment, and streamlined day-to-day operations. Enjoy
single-pane-of-glass management and single-vendor support that
enables IT to be more efficient.

Available time Auto-provisioning, automated performance monitoring, and capacity

optimization free up IT to focus on differentiation.

User Productivity

Less downtime VMware-powered HCI provides 5-nines availability and non-disruptive

upgrades. Faster time to deployment and the more agile infrastructure
of HCI mean less downtimesaving organizations up to $7,900/minute
on unplanned downtime.2

Time to Value

Opportunity cost With HCI, refresh is ongoing, making it possible to use newer and faster
technologies as they become available.

2 Data Center Knowledge, Study: Data Center Downtime Costs $7,900 Per Minute, 2013

3 IDC White Paper, sponsored by VMware, Reviewing the Current State of Hyperconvergence and Real-World Benefits of VMware vSAN
Deployments, July 2016

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BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE (HCI)

How to Get Started

Getting started with vSAN isnt as complicated as it seems. Youll need to:
Get management buy-in all the way. Eliminate politics between different silos, so you
can actively collaborate with others on virtualization, cloud, and SDDC teams. Work
together to develop policies, apply automation, and find ways to further innovation.
Trust but verify. Start with a Proof of Concept (POC). Use a small pilot project,
or a specific use case, such as VDI refresh, to get a better idea of what works
for you.
Do your homework. Understand your existing environment and goals before
you build a business case. Learn about the different automation tools and look
for opportunities where you can add business value. Youll also want to pick a
market-leading vendor that can provide the support you need.
Broaden your approach. To convince stakeholders across the company, youll need
to shift from a vertical perspective to a broader knowledge of the entire data center
and how it makes an impact on business priorities. As your role changes in response
to a software-defined infrastructure, youll need to learn new things.
Leverage practical tools. Take advantage of the vSAN assessment process,
including the Virtual Infrastructure Planner (VIP) tool, and our online sizing and
TCO calculator.

Conclusion
Legacy infrastructures can no longer meet the growing demand for speed and agility.
As a result, many organizations are under pressure to implement changeand the
simple, modular architecture that HCI provides is exactly what they need.

For your IT organization to justify this move, its important to build a good business
case, taking into account both the hard and soft cost benefits, and selecting the right
HCI solution that meets your specific needs. The data from your cost-benefit analysis
can help you build a business case for making hyper-converged the new standard for
data center infrastructure purchases.

Why VMware-powered Hyper-Converged Infrastructure?

VMware, the market leader in hyper-converged infrastructure, enables the
lowest-cost and highest-performance next-generation HCI solutions. The natively
integrated software from VMware combines radically simple vSAN storage, the
market-leading vSphere hypervisor, and the vCenter Server unified management
solution with the broadest and deepest set of HCI deployment choices.

CHOOSE THE MARKET LEADER

Learn more about VMware-powered HCI >

Try vSAN in a Hands-on Lab >

Join Us Online:

W H I T E PA P E R | 9
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