HPE downs Nimble-ful of HCI, lobs third hyperconverged system into its portfolio HPE has generated a third hyperconverged system from its acquired Nimble Storage tech, providing yet another ProLiant server route to market. Not content with touting its SimpliVity line and doing a semi-detached dance with Nutanix in GreenLake, HPE has slung out a third hyperconverged system – the Nimble dHCI. The product …
Curious why HP didn't just go the synergy route with this solution. I mean plug a module or two in for nimble controllers, plug one of those storage modules in(apparently can do 40x2.5" drives which is plenty for all flash), a couple more servers for the hypervisor stuff, and integrated networking. No need for having to ship a rack, or much cabling, and plenty of capacity to scale out inside and/or outside the enclosure.
I suppose the main reason is it would probably cost a bit more, so perhaps offer it as a option (I suppose the obvious option would be a Nimble solution that runs inside a Synergy enclosure which really should be trivial I think Nimble uses just regular servers no special hardware architecture).
What I REALLY don't understand is the Nimble chassis was literally designed to have plug in compute blades in a "hyperConverged" form factor. Why would they go this route and have it outside the chassis, leaving the giant piles of wasted space in the Nimble chassis, when it doesn't actually add anything over a Nimble + DL360 + competent engineer?
Pretty sure that is EXACTLY what they are saying...
But more importantly, there is NO SUCH THING as HCI in the market today. Not a single "HCI" vendor offers what the term "Hyper-Converged Infrastructure" set out to mean.
What Nutanix, Simplivity, Hyperflex, Scale, etc. are offering is "Converged in a Box", NOT HCI!
With this offering HPE has broken the "mold" of HCI to actually get closer to offering what HCI has always attempted to promise: Centralized Management, Control, Support, Analytics...as well as independent scale.
Current solutions centralize HyperVisor, Compute, and Storage, but they don't offer networking (...no they don't, external networking, and thus additional management is required), and they do not offer independent scale (...no they don't, "storage only nodes" still have to have compute and other requirements).
Once HPE networking becomes part of this stack...HCI will actually "exist", because HCI was never meant to be about hardware/components/etc. anyway, it was all about management, control, and support!
...so in the effort to depart from HCI by using the term dHCI, HPE is actually moving closer to "true" HCI!
We will see how the market embraces that move...and what the "HCI" MQ will look like in the future...my guess is it will be devoid of hardware players, and comprised of software/API/Automation players...and all will be right in the world!
Just my $.02
Not HCI.... Even after buying Lefthand and Sipmlivity, HPe still can't manage to figure out how to build hyperconverged or even what it really means. They have bolted together different pieces from different acquisitions, slapped a "me too" label on it, and hope to get some traction in the HCI space.... (way behind the curve after forgetting to bring a ruler to the Simplivity fire sale). As far as VXRail and Scale Computing go - neither one uses a virtual san appliance approach. I would have expected El Reg to know better than that. Final point -Adding Maxta to the list? you should know it is bad form to speak of the dead.....
For goodness sake HPE, stop buying the second or third greatest vendor in the space and just pull the trigger on ONE GREAT acquisition. EMC was smart enough to see the future and stole Data Domain from NetApp at the 11th hour. Even Dell gets it and pays a premium for EMC (and VMware) makes themselves much more relevant against HPE, Cisco, NetApp, etc.
My two cents, grab Rubrik or Cohesity. Spend the premium and challenge the big boys vs. Frankenstein mashups and copying marketing cliches from EMC/Pure Storage from 5 years ago (XtremIO Million Dollar Flash Guarantee) https://corporate.delltechnologies.com/en-us/newsroom/announcements/2014/05/20140505-05.htm
Nimble no longer leverages the SuperMicro Chassis.
The current chassis is a ground up design by Nimble Engineering, and HPE maintained that chassis after the acquisition.
Coincidentally, much of the "guts" of even the SuperMicro chassis versions were Nimble IP, SuperMicro basically manufactured the "shell" give or take.
HPE has thousands of vSAN customers, is still a VMware OEM partner, and offers vSAN on Greenlake in addition to simplivity.
There is the (Dead) LeftHand based HCI. They still have some customers under active support. I"m sure both of them are annoyed..
I don't see the need to rebrand a CI bundle with Nimble as HCI other than IDC now including Datrium and others in this market so the presumably bored analysts can cover more than just VMware and the slow death of Nutanix.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
