Managing a converged architecture system isn’t the same as managing your typical virtualization host or SharePoint server. With a converged architecture system, you need to have a solid understanding of what’s going on with the whole systems administration stack--something that isn’t always required when you’re managing a single server deployment.
Converged architecture systems do include a number of helpful administration tools, you wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) put a junior administrator in charge of the substantial hardware comprising these platforms. Rather, the job requires someone with a solid theoretical and practical understanding of how all the underlying components interact with each other.
For example, a converged architecture virtualization host can scale out to host 9,000 or more virtual machines. Running this many VMs on a single host requires understanding more than just virtualization technologies; it requires a deep understanding of virtual networking, storage, high availability, and processor and memory utilization.
Even in 2016, 9,000 VMs is more than some midsize data centers host. Indeed, much of the knowledge you need to run a data center is also required for effectively administering a converged architecture system. Yes, converged architecture systems come specced out with all the components necessary to ensure that everything functions properly, but it’s still necessary for an administrator to have the foundational knowledge required to make sure those components are configured optimally. And, converged architecture systems include excellent management software, but if an admin doesn’t know what tasks the excellent management software is performing, he or she can’t be sure that it’s doing everything properly or make optimizations when and where necessary.
The same applies to converged architecture systems hosting workloads such as Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange. A typical single-server SharePoint deployment is an order of magnitude smaller than the type of SharePoint deployment that is possible with a converged architecture system. While converged architecture gives systems administrators the ability to scale workloads beyond what has been previously possible with typical off-the-shelf typical hardware, they will still need all the skills and knowledge to run a workload at scale.
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.
