Converged Architecture: Simplifying Scale-Out

Scaling out is a process by which you increase the number of instances a workload runs on. For example, increasing capacity by having a workload shift from running on 10 computers or virtual machines to running on 20 computers or virtual machines.

It’s important to note that not every workload can be scaled out. For example, while you can increase the capacity of a website by increasing the number of computers or virtual machines the website is hosted on, and then load balancing that website across all those instances, you can’t really do the same thing with a file server simply because of the way clients interact with both workloads. It doesn’t matter what computer or virtual machine a client accesses when accessing a Web page, as long as they all host the same content; it does matter what computer or virtual machine a client accesses when trying to edit a file.

With that said, companies can increase capacity by scaling out virtualization hosts. For example, a single HPE Converged Architecture 700 with two blades supports about 128 virtual machines, depending on how the VMs consume storage. HPE Converged Architecture can scale from two blades to 128 blades in its maximum configuration, and can, depending on how the VMs consume storage on the 1,920 drives available in this configuration, scale to more than 9,000 virtual machines.

The advantage of converged architecture over traditional off-the-shelf server hardware is that the scaling out process has been simplified. It’s simply a matter of adding converged architecture capacity as required. When an organization starts out with off-the-shelf hardware, smooth scale-out will be a challenge if you can’t consistently source the same hardware over the lifetime of the workload. For example, you might purchase 10 blade servers off a vendor’s website in 2016 and then figure out in 2018 that you need another 10, only to find that the currently available models have different performance characteristics. Being able to consistently source the same hardware over the lifetime of the workload is one of the great benefits of converged architecture.

What are your company’s scale-out needs? How are you meeting them? Let us know in the comments section below.

Underwritten by HPE

Part of HPE’s Power of One strategy, HPE Converged Architecture 700 delivers infrastructure as one integrated stack. HPE Converged Architecture 700 delivers proven, repeatable building blocks of infrastructure maintained by one management platform (HPE OneView), built and delivered exclusively by qualified HPE Channel Partners. This methodology saves considerable time and resources, compared to the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.

Based on a complete HPE stack consisting of HPE BladeSystem with Intel® Xeon® E5 v3-based HPE ProLiant BL460c Gen9 blades, HPE 3PAR StoreServ all-flash storage, HPE Networking, and HPE OneView infrastructure management software, the HPE Converged Architecture 700 can be easily modified to fit within your existing IT environment.