Hyperconvergent Systems - Driver for Digitization Strategies

Mr. Cowden, hyperconvergent systems - what is behind this technically cumbersome term?

Patrick Cowden: Hyperconverged systems are a software platform for controlling all components of a data center infrastructure. The emphasis here is on software.

In the past, when people thought of infrastructure, they immediately thought of hardware such as storage arrays, hard drives or physical Server. Hardware is still present in hyperconverged systems, of course, but the main role is played by software.

This lowers the Costs and the administration effort considerably.

What infrastructure components does Nutanix offer in its software?

Cowden: Our software is designed as a platform and combines in particular the previously separate areas of storage, Server and Hypervisor.

storage space or RAID configuration, for example, or even the question on which Hypervisor a virtual machine is to run, are only functions within the software and no longer require any special knowledge on the part of the Administrators.

The infrastructure becomes invisible, so to speak, to the User in the IT.

In addition: Innovations such as performance improvements, metro availability or the connection of legacy systems that cannot be virtualized are simply imported as software updates.

The value of investments is therefore not decreasing, but increasing.

You promote your solution more as an enterprise Cloud than as a hyperconvergent system. What is meant by this?

Cowden: The new paradigm in IT is CloudThe public sector's offerings, which can be used conveniently and easily by private users and corporate customers alike, are understood to be Cloud.

This sets the internal IT-Organizations of the Company under enormous pressure. The User today expect the same level of simplicity, speed, linear scalability, automation and continuous Innovation at work as at home.

IT-Departments can best meet these expectations if they can manage their internal infrastructure as easily as if it were a public service offering. Cloud would use.

With our software take care of Administrators practically only about services and applications, no longer about the infrastructure itself.

The Company must therefore choose between Nutanix and the public Cloud decide?

Cowden: No, absolutely not. We offer users a Cloud-analog experience, but do not put them in front of an either-or.

While we estimate the share of workloads in the CompanyThe average share of public-sector resources that can be planned and whose use is predictable is around 75 percent. The remaining quarter, however, is subject to such sharp fluctuations in use that it makes sense to rely on the resources of the public sector for this purpose. Cloud to fall back on.

We offer standard connections to the public Cloud, in particular to AWS and Microsoft Azure.

However, the resulting hybrid environment can be fully managed from our Prism management console.

If you are a member of the public Cloud are so similar, do you offer any advantages over her at all?

Cowden: The advantages are mainly twofold: first, they save the Company cash with us. This is not only true in comparison to traditional infrastructures, as a comprehensive IDC study has shown.

Rather, the cost advantages of public Cloud very quickly when complex, highly customized core systems integrated with third-party solutions - the typical situation of SAP-existing customers - are to be migrated.

In such situations, you as the administrator "may" choose between hundreds of proprietary Interfaces and services in the public Cloud select what the Costs very quickly.

In addition, you will then be informed by these proprietary Technologies dependent, so you can no longer easily and quickly use the public Cloud-Change provider.

If you live in a city for several years, you are more likely to buy a property than rent it. On the other hand, if you spend only a few weeks in one place, you probably use a vacation home.

We are, so to speak, the home for the schedulable workloads, the core systems of the Company.

And the second advantage?

Cowden: The Company must protect their intellectual property and ensure strict data protection in the DACH market.

The best way for them to do that is to keep the important systems and data in their own data center.

Alternatively, local hosting or managed services partners are still a possibility, but they should also use Nutanix in their own infrastructure to ensure the Costs- and complexity problem in check.

This is absolutely necessary, because only if the Company manage to achieve savings within their IT–Budgets they will once again have the freedom to make investments. And these are urgently needed to master the digital transformation.

What does all this mean for the SAPcommunity in the German-speaking world?

Cowden: SAP's existing customers in our region face three major challenges: They need to improve their IT after the Cloud-modernize the paradigm.

Secondly, they must - at least in the medium and long term - be Technology- and Cloud-Strategy of the SAP follow

Third, taking the first two requirements into account, they must formulate the digitization strategy that is best suited to them and provide the necessary financial resources for it.

Our solution can make a valuable contribution to mastering all these challenges, as I have already explained.

What role does your partnership with Lenovo?

Cowden: The short answer is: an essential one.

Lenovo enjoys an excellent reputation as a provider of infrastructure solutions for Company. This applies to all important software areas such as ERP, CRM or Big Data.

Our software is based on the Lenovo HX series appliances implemented. In addition, the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform for SAP NetWeaver certified.

The Company can therefore use their SAP-systems reliably on our combined offering.

We also have a support agreement with SAPso that our solution can also be used by Walldorf is fully supported.

You talked about NetWeaver. But what about Hana and S/4 Hana?

Cowden: Nutanix and the Lenovo-HX series are technically and operationally ideal for operating S/4 application servers, both for development and for test and production operation.

SAP-Existing customers who are already using Hana as their database platform can upgrade it to the Lenovo-x3850 and x3950 servers with Enterprise X Architecture, which offer many TB of space for the main memory.

Thus, our joint solution is absolutely consistent with the goals that SAP pursued with their new solutions: Simplicity and lower total cost of ownership.

This is the best prerequisite for investing in Innovations and the digital transformation of the Company.

Mr. Cowden, thank you for talking with us.