Key Takeaways:

• With the majority of workloads still not migrated to the public cloud, the ability of local infrastructure to provide cloud-inspired and cloud-native capabilities is increasingly important.
• There are a variety of cloud computing and data center technology routes that support both on-premises and hybrid deployments. Among these, full-stack hyperconverged software, as “a fully featured cloud-inspired deployment,” is the primary technology route in both models.
• Hybrid cloud deployment models have resulted in multiple markets related to cloud infrastructure and platform service, with a growing market for hyperconverged integrated systems and integrated reference architecture.
• Gartner recommends different vendors for every technology route, and SmartX, as a representative vendor of full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure, is among the recommendations.

As the data center infrastructure and cloud computing markets evolve, the demand for cloud deployment of various workloads in enterprises is also growing rapidly. But due to the limitations of the public cloud, 70% of all workloads (more than 85% are mission- and business-critical applications) have not been migrated to the public cloud. 

Rising demand for digital solutions is driving the need for infrastructure that delivers greater levels of cloud-inspired and cloud-native capabilities. But the growing number of vendors, technologies and overlapping markets makes it difficult to identify the optimal choice for an organization’s unique circumstances and needs.

In this context, Gartner released Navigate Cloud Computing and Data Center Infrastructure Markets, evaluating cloud computing and data center technology routes that enable on-premises and hybrid deployments.

On-premises Deployments

For on-premises deployments, Gartner mentions that the difficulty in establishing standard infrastructure patterns leads to  limited automation and self-service capabilities of existing on-premises workloads (such as scalability, composability or integrated observability). Thus many enterprises have pursued expanding their on-premises environments to be cloud-inspired (that is, to showcase many cloudlike attributes).

Figure 1 shows the market segments where vendors offer products that deliver on-premises capabilities. The markets are mapped against a range of capabilities, from server virtualization to cloud computing.

• Server virtualization: A hypervisor technology with possible integration to storage and networking capabilities. Vendors offering solutions include Microsoft, Nutanix, VMware.
• Integrated infrastructure systems: An integrated virtualization environment. Vendors offering solutions include Dell VxBlock systems, HPE Alletra dHCI.
• Integrated stack systems: A virtualized software (including application software) and hardware deployment with cloud-inspired features. Vendors offering solutions include Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Fujitsu Integrated System PRIMEFLEX for SAP HANA.
• Integrated reference architecture: A flexibly sourced virtualized deployment with cloud-inspired features. Vendors offering solutions include Dell EMC Ready Stack, NetApp-Cisco FlexPod XCS, Pure Storage-NVIDIA AIRI//S.
• Hyperconverged infrastructure systems: A combined hardware and software cloud-inspired deployment. Vendors offering solutions include Cisco HyperFlex, Dell VxRail, HPE SimpliVity.
• Hyperconverged software only: A software cloud-inspired deployment. Vendors offering solutions include VMware vSAN, Nutanix AOS Storage.
• Full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure systems (HCIS): A fully featured cloud-inspired deployment. Vendors offering solutions include Nutanix Cloud Platform, SmartX HCI, VMware Cloud Foundation.
• Cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS): A cloud provider technology that is expanded and deployed on-premises. Vendors offering solutions include Alibaba, AWS, Google.
• Infrastructure consumption services (ICS): Targeting specialized workloads with software, hardware, service level agreements or other services (e.g., professional services, operations management and lifecycle management) and packaging them around flexible pricing models. Vendors offering solutions include Dell, HPE, IBM. 

Gartner describes “full-stack hyperconvered infrastructure systems” as a “A fully featured cloud-inspired deployment.” It not only has the advantages of software-defined structure, distributed and integrated deployment, but also provides a complete software solution covering virtualized computing, storage, and networking, while increasing support for Kubernetes integration.

In the previously released report “Market Guide for Full-Stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software,” Gartner conducted a key analysis of the hyperconverged infrastructure software market and related vendors for the first time, marking the entry of hyperconvergence into a mature market period. (Click on the link to learn more.)

Hybrid Deployments

For hybrid deployments, Gartner points out that although public clouds deliver many benefits (including innovation, agility, scalability, and elasticity), their utility can be limited when deployed outside the locations chosen by public cloud providers. Additionally, they lack enterprise features in support of hypercritical on-premises use cases. Cloud service providers attempt to address these limitations through distributed cloud offerings, but many of these solutions are not comparable to current on-premises offerings.

Therefore, enterprises need hybrid capabilities and always will. Figure 2 shows different sets of requirements from diverse enterprises that have caused the general CIPS (cloud infrastructure and platform services) market to break into different markets.

These niche markets include DevOps platforms, server virtualization, markets related to data center infrastructure (DCI), distributed hybrid infrastructure (DHI), infrastructure consumption services (ICS), container management and strategic cloud platform services (SCPS).

Among the markets related to data center infrastructure (DCI) highlighted by Gartner, hyperconverged integrated systems and integrated reference architecture are growing markets, while the integrated stack systems market is declining. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate the future evolution of the market related to cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS).

According to this report, whether in local deployment or hybrid deployment, hyperconvergence has become a key technological route. With the continuous changes in the market related to cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS), the importance of hyperconvergence has become increasingly prominent.

As Asia/Pacific customers’ choice, SmartX has helped thousands of customers in cloud infrastructure upgrade based on HCI. SmartX HCI provides virtualization, distributed storage, software-defined network and security, container management and service, data protection and disaster recovery, and other capabilities defined by Gartner’s Market Guide for Full-Stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure Software.

SmartX HCI has been largely deployed in the production environments of various industry leaders, achieving infrastructure upgrade. 

• Bank of Communications: Deployed in HQ datacenter and branch offices. Achieved complete decoupling in cloud management, hardware and PaaS with SmartX. Compatible with various CPUs and hardware platforms, all supporting critical apps.
• Guotai Junan Securities: Deployed in HQ datacenter and branch offices. One platform to manage 2 cities, 3 data centers, multiple IDC server rooms. Formed a strategic cooperation.
• Foxconn: Deployed in branch factory locations (5 factories in China and Vietnam). Supported branch locations’ production line systems. Will adopt SmartX HCI in more branch locations (replacing OpenStack & Ceph). 
• Cafe24: Deployed in Korea HQ datacenter. Replaced KVM and Ceph, supports critical apps and over 2000 PostgreSQL databases. Korean #1 global e-commerce platform, continues to add more SmartX HCI nodes.

Learn more about SmartX HCI: Product Portfolio Brief

Reference: Navigate Cloud Computing and Data Center Infrastructure Markets, Gartner