What is Hyper-Converged Storage ?

WHAT IS HYPER-CONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE?

Hyperconverged infrastructure combines x86-based compute and storage resources with intelligent software to create flexible building blocks that replace legacy infrastructure consisting of separate servers, storage networks, and storage arrays.

At its simplest, storage virtualisation abstracts all the available physical storage – whether inside servers or in separate storage subsystems – into generic virtualised blocks. These are added to a shared pool which can then be carved up into new logical volumes, all managed by a distributed storage controller. A logical volume could draw its individual blocks from multiple physical devices, plus the controller supports multiple storage classes, and therefore tiers. It may also be able to replicate, mirror, snapshot and migrate data in the background, invisibly to the host file systems, never mind the applications.

“The storage virtualisation layer is what makes hyper-convergence data center-friendly,” explains Everett Dolgner, director of storage and replication product management for WAN specialist Silver Peak. “[Hyper-convergence] puts all the storage back in the server, but without an abstraction layer that's a problem – there's a reason we took it out of the servers and invented SANs in the first place!”

Generally speaking, there are two approaches companies can take to building a converged infrastructure:

• The hardware-focused, building-block approach of VCE (a joint venture of EMC, Cisco, and VMware), simply known as converged infrastructure;
• The software defined approach of Nutanix, VMware, and others called hyper-converged infrastructure

How Nutanix Hyper-Converged works ?

The Nutanix Solution Nutanix converges the entire datacenter stack including compute, storage, storage networking, and virtualization. Complex and expensive legacy infrastructure is replaced by simple 2U appliances that enable enterprises to start small and scale one node at a time. Each server, also known as a node, includes Intel-powered x86 hardware with flash SSDs and HDDs. Nutanix software running on each node distributes all operating functions across the cluster for superior performance and resilience. 

In order to understand what is Converged and Hyper-converged Infrastructure , please see below video tutorial. 

Who is leader in the market ? 

Nutanix

Simplivity

Pivot3

Atlantis Computing 

EMC

VMware

Cisco

HP

Huawei

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3112622/hardware/12-most-powerful-hyperconverged-infrastructure-vendors.html