From VMware and Nutanix to SmartX: HCI Cloud Transformation Practices

Before adopting hyper-converged infrastructure, Zheshang Securities primarily deployed its peripheral business systems and testing environments using x86 servers + VMware virtualization software + centralized storage, with manual resource allocation managed through vCenter. As usage scaled, this architecture faced challenges including insufficient storage performance and lengthy expansion cycles.

In 2018, Zheshang Securities built a private cloud environment using VMware vSAN and Nutanix hyperconverged products to meet the demand for elastic infrastructure resource scaling. By implementing VMware vRealize Automation, the company achieved self-service cloud resource provisioning and automated rapid delivery, addressing the shortcomings of the original architecture and supporting the company's rapid business growth.

In 2020, Zheshang Securities initiated plans for domestic transformation, introducing domestic hyper-converged products like SmartX for POC comparisons against foreign solutions.

During Oracle 11g stability testing simulating Hang Seng order scenarios, SmartX's hyper-converged platform maintained a consistent insertion rate of 60,000 to 100,000 transactions per second throughout testing, matching the performance observed in Nutanix and vSAN environments. In contrast, other domestic hyper-converged platforms tested experienced insertion rates plummeting below 1,000 TPS with recovery times exceeding 5-10 seconds, failing to meet production environment stability requirements.

In MySQL database performance validation, the MySQL database virtual machines hosted on the SmartX hyper-converged platform demonstrated superior TPS and task completion times compared to the existing VMware vSAN platform, achieving up to 20% improvement. Furthermore, the native virtualization platform (ELF) of SmartX hyper-convergence delivered better test results than the VMware ESXi virtualization platform (using the same distributed storage software, ZBS).

Based on the above test results, Zheshang Securities ultimately adopted the SmartX hyper-converged architecture to build a lightweight cloud. Multiple cloud platform resource pools were deployed using Hygon x86 servers and SmartX hyper-converged software, respectively supporting development/testing operations and production operations. SmartX hyper-converged infrastructure maintained stable operation even with each node averaging nearly 40 virtual machines.

In other environments, Zheshang Securities built production, development, and disaster recovery resource pools using x86 servers with Intel chips from various brands alongside SmartX hyper-converged software.

Currently, SmartX hyper-converged resource pools are deployed across production and testing environments at the Xiasha Data Center and production environments at the Yuhang Data Center, all managed uniformly through CloudTower.

Zheshang Securities has introduced a third-party cloud management platform to centrally manage VMware, SmartX, private cloud, public cloud resources, and physical machines. This enables unified resource scheduling, provides users with a single portal entry point, enhances delivery efficiency, and facilitates the centralized deployment and installation of middleware, monitoring tools, basic security measures, and CMDB agents.

Simultaneously, the cloud management platform integrates with ITIL and CMDB systems. Users can initiate resource requests directly from the cloud management platform, triggering automated ITIL workflow approvals, resource provisioning, and subsequent monitoring. This automates CMDB updates, foundational security configurations, and firewall processes, enabling comprehensive lifecycle management of resources.