The step by step evolution of an organisation from a Small Business to a Large Enterprise necessitates infrastructure growth which meets the varying needs of the organisation. Infrastructure not just in the technology sense but the growth of Human Resources, Finance, Recruiting, Compliance, Governance and other administrative functions. These are the backbones which support the sales and operational arms of the company.

The glue to bind all these moving pieces together is often the underlying technology solutions that have been implemented. As the company is adding these functions to strengthen its core, so too must the technology keep pace. In an ideal scenario the technology will be the pacemaker out in front that will allow for growth without major difficulty.

Supporting all these functions will inevitably lead to growing complexity. Traditionally technology providers accepted such and simply provided more resources to the customer when required.

Example: you add network appliances, servers and storage where required. More staff are hired based on the staffing model to support the additional hardware and so on.

Some entrepreneurs disagreed with this notion and set forth to break the paradigm. What came out of this was a technology segment referred to as Hyper Converged Networks. In simple terms, the goal of the Hyper Converged Network is to allow growth, while reducing management complexity and providing a bundled set of services all accessible through one portal. In a traditional environment, this would have required multiple systems from different vendors.

What does a Hyper Converged Network do for my business?

Freeing up internal resources

All of the features and services are manageable from a single pane of glass. Your internal team is less consumed with traditional run and maintain functions. Now your team has the capacity to focus on learning new technologies and expanding their range of skills. Technologies that could benefit the business can be brought in and your IT department can focus on better optimising your existing setup. More time can be spent collaborating with other teams within the business in order to build on new technologies that can automate existing manual workflows.

Consolidation and simplified vendor management

Less maintenance agreements to manage. Less time spent on aligning technology roadmaps from different vendors when developing your internal roadmap. No longer required to have a working knowledge of all the different vendor technologies. A reduced data centre footprint.

Scale up or out, or both!

Grow the system by simply adding more nodes to the data centre or remote branches. Still retain the convenience of managing all locations through the same interface. Easy integration also means the monitoring systems automatically recognise and react to changes in the environment. Built in sophistication on the software side starts working on data optimisation immediately, without the complex scheduling and coordination typically needed for maintenance windows.

Cloud based monitoring

Tribal knowledge is one of the largest concerns within technology teams. A key engineer moving on from the company is often tense as there is rarely adequate time for a complete information transfer to the other members of the team. However, with Hyper Converged vendors, having the team working in conjunction with the vendor through a cloud based central portal means you limit the risk to the organisation. It also significantly speeds up the time of onboarding new engineers and getting them comfortable with their new environment.

Reduced compliance and governance overhead

As the regulatory landscape evolves a greater emphasis is placed on data security. Being ahead of the curve with your technology will continue to prove to be the best method of addressing these concerns. Compliance can be achieved without hampering the growth of the business.

Is a Hyper Converged Network a good fit for my company?

If you find that the above points resonate with you, the next logical step is to sit down and meet with a Technology Solution Provider who views Hyper Converged Networks as the core of their practice.

From our own experience, we’ve always found it best to meet with our customers first in order to learn their circumstances. Learning as much as we can about their specific business needs and pain points before discussing any vendor solutions or options. A good Technology Solutions Provider will give you honest and frank advice on whether Hyper Converged Networks are a realistic and beneficial option for your business going forward.

The aim, as always, is to deliver the right solution that provides maximum advantage and impact on your business.