Since NetApp launched their HCI solution in October 2017, there's a been a lot of talk whether it was actually HCI at all or just CI. NetApp was very clear from the outset that they wanted to give customers the ability to scale compute and storage independently whilst still providing the simplicity of other HCI propositions on the market.
Whatever you called it, NetApp took the benefits that generation 1 HCI solutions had delivered and reengineered it to suite enterprise applications making balancing and scaling compute and storage much more flexible, and dispite not meeting the analysts definitions of what HCI was and wasn't, customers saw the value in NetApp's solution.
IDC have today announced that they are expanding their definition of HCI to include what they are calling 'Disaggregated Hyperconverged Systems'; those that are designed from the ground up to only support distinct/separate compute and storage nodes. Specifically calling out the NetApp implementation as an example, IDC see this as a natural evolution toward new architecture types, which is in response to the market that is entering a new phase of market adoption and maturity; expect to see further subcategories for containers and microservices added in the future.
This is a big deal for NetApp and a step in the right direction. As IDC states "this is a niche market with big potential", and although there's still a way to go, it's only a matter of time before it gets widespread acknowledgement. Let's hope that Gartner follow suite and include NetApp's HCI solution in their MQ too.
I'm excited about his new perspective on the HCI market and will continue to assist my customers in evaluting HCI systems to address their business challenges.
More info on NetApp HCI can be found here
And the IDC update can be found here
Whatever you called it, NetApp took the benefits that generation 1 HCI solutions had delivered and reengineered it to suite enterprise applications making balancing and scaling compute and storage much more flexible, and dispite not meeting the analysts definitions of what HCI was and wasn't, customers saw the value in NetApp's solution.
IDC have today announced that they are expanding their definition of HCI to include what they are calling 'Disaggregated Hyperconverged Systems'; those that are designed from the ground up to only support distinct/separate compute and storage nodes. Specifically calling out the NetApp implementation as an example, IDC see this as a natural evolution toward new architecture types, which is in response to the market that is entering a new phase of market adoption and maturity; expect to see further subcategories for containers and microservices added in the future.
This is a big deal for NetApp and a step in the right direction. As IDC states "this is a niche market with big potential", and although there's still a way to go, it's only a matter of time before it gets widespread acknowledgement. Let's hope that Gartner follow suite and include NetApp's HCI solution in their MQ too.
I'm excited about his new perspective on the HCI market and will continue to assist my customers in evaluting HCI systems to address their business challenges.
More info on NetApp HCI can be found here
And the IDC update can be found here