Common Wrong Uses of Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)
You might have heard of the old saying that you should use the right tool to complete the right job. It means that if a device is used for its intended purpose then it will lead better performance, increased efficiency, and reduction of expenses, etc. This phrase stands true for the majority of the fields. Unfortunately, with the boom of new technologies in the IT world such as virtualization, converged infrastructure and hyperconverged infrastructure, etc. companies tend to forget this phrase.
Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)
In the past few years, hyperconverged infrastructure has become extremely popular thanks to its countless advantages, flexible nature and scalable architecture. HCI combines the power of software, hardware, and the network infrastructure into a primary storage powerhouse whose increase in size can be managed easily. It has been estimated by Gartner that 20% of the applications deployed on three-tier infrastructure that have business-critical nature, will move on to the hyperconverged infrastructure by 2020. The major benefits associated with this technology such as its ability of environment’s simplification and greater resource efficiency, have not gone unnoticed by organizations. They will continue its primary storage implementation and try to apply it in other scenarios.
Wrong Usage of Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)
Whenever something new is introduced into the market, people go crazy over it. Same is the case for hyperconverged infrastructure. Companies are captivated by the advantages of HCI to the point that they have started using it for other purposes such as data protection, recovery, and backup. Listed below are three main reasons why hyperconverged infrastructure should not be used for recovery and backup.
- Costly Usage of Primary Storage: HCI is not a low-priced storage and using it for the storage of backups is neither feasible nor cost-effective. Rule of thumb for data storage dictates that the data’s value should be equivalent to the price of the storage being used.
- Risky Move for the Organization: The biggest blunder that an organization can do is save their backups and primary data on a single system. By keeping all your backup snapshots and copies on one system you will be putting your organization at risk as even a single failure in the system or attack on it can obliterate all the data and its possible recovery paths.
- Longer Recovery Time: You cannot utilize primary storage for data protection as it does not have the complete set of tools for this function. In organizations, data protection demands proper enterprise-class solutions for both recovery and backup. HCI only comes with one or two tools such as snapshots that do not provide speedy recovery in case of any mishap.
If, even after reading this list, you think that nothing bad can happen to you then remember that even with a chance of 0.01%, your whole infrastructure can be destroyed if an unforeseen event takes place which is why a proper recovery and backup solution should be deployed in order to protect HCI.
Characteristics of an Enterprise Recovery and Backup Solution
A modern solution for both recovery and backup should have the following features:
- Reduced Expenses: It should be able to cut down CapEx and OpEx related expense with advanced features such as automation, source-side deduplication, and policies for reduction of management time.
- Risk Minimization: A resilient recovery and backup solution that provides high availability, is perfect for organizations of all sizes. Such solutions protect the data from loss by keeping the backup data in different storage locations and tiers.
- Efficiency: The modern recovery and backup solutions are equipped with all the tools necessary for taking backups, storing them and using them for data recovery as required which leads to enhancement of the overall process efficiency.