Software-defined storage

Abstracts the storage intelligence from the underlying storage infrastructure.

Virtualizes direct-attach storage into a shared pool.

Automates provisioning and load balancing.

Allows a business to increase available storage resources, both capacity and processing power, by adding entire nodes (e.g. a server with storage software and media) to a cluster. The resulting cluster of nodes in turn acts as a single pool of storage capacity.

Virtualization

Abstracts compute and network functions.

Enables physical resources to be shared.

Improves utilization, mobility and security.

x86 servers

High performance processors, large memory.

Flash media delivers consistent, predictable performance.

Solid-state storage

Uses solid-state drives (most frequently various types of flash memory) to store data. This storage can reside in a storage controller or in a server, but for this assessment we are considering use cases limited to tiered and All-Flash storage arrays.

In hybrid arrays, a portion of the drives in the array are solid-state and house the most active data on the array.

In All-Flash arrays, all drives in the array are solid-state.

High-speed networks

Connects nodes together to create cluster.

Enables HCI to deliver IOPS and reduced latencies.

Connect applications to users