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VMware Alternative Data Protection Checklist

Ensuring robust data protection and application resiliency is critical as organizations evaluate VMware alternatives. The right platform should provide comprehensive resiliency across data availability, disaster recovery, and system efficiency without adding complexity or cost. Here’s a checklist of critical capabilities to look for when transitioning from VMware: 1. Integrated Data Protection…

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Understanding the Differences Between VMware Alternatives

As organizations consider moving away from VMware, a growing number of alternatives have emerged, each promising to deliver comparable or superior virtualization capabilities at a lower cost. However, beneath the surface, these alternatives can vary significantly in their approaches, architectures, and overall effectiveness. Understanding these differences is crucial for IT professionals looking…

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Can HCI Replace a SAN?

I speak with two to three IT leaders daily looking for a VMware Alternative, and while most are open to using a hyperconverged infrastructure solution (HCI), they rightly wonder, can HCI replace a SAN? There are several very legitimate questions about the storage capabilities of HCI compared to a dedicated storage area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS) system: Can HCI Scale? Is…

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Ransomware is an Infrastructure Problem

While most vendors focus on backups, ransomware is an infrastructure problem, not just a data problem. The problem is that the infrastructure is a complex mess, and infrastructure software companies, like VMware, have done little to help out beleaguered IT professionals; instead, the company continues to push organizations toward backup vendors. Backup is not the Ransomware Answer Every…

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Can HCI Deliver?

📢 Exciting news! My latest blog post, "Can HCI Deliver?," explores mid-sized data centers' challenges and compares HCI to UCI. Discover how VergeOS revolutionizes data center architecture.

Can HCI deliver an architecture that enables IT professionals to overcome the four most significant challenges facing mid-sized data centers? IT professionals need to evaluate if their current infrastructure or a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) can overcome these challenges: Reducing Costs Simplifying Operations Improving Ransomware Recoverability Finding a VMware Alternative That is a…

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VMware Storage Challenges

VMware Storage Challenges continue to keep IT from realizing the full potential of virtualization. Read how to solve them in my latest blog.

Since it burst into the data center, VMware storage challenges have been the critical limiting factor in how thoroughly organizations adopt it. VMware storage challenges cause organizations to buy more expensive storage systems than they should, requiring them to use multiple storage systems and layer in complex data protection hardware and software. At the heart of VMware, or any virtual…

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The Problems Using Array-Based Replication for VMware DR

Array-based replication may seem ideal for IT professionals looking to improve their disaster recovery (DR) strategy. It sends an off-host copy of data to a remote site without installing special software in the hypervisor. However, array-based replication is expensive and needs additional components at the DR site for the organization to recover from the disaster fully. Array-based Replication…

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Minimize VMware TCO Triggers

In my latest blog, I discuss the triggers that increase TCO and how to eliminate them.

When looking for a VMware alternative, you need to move beyond low prices and look for a solution to minimize VMware TCO triggers. VMware Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) triggers are challenges or needs that come up during the use of VMware that force you to do something that increases the cost of ownership. IT planners rarely refactor these costs into the ROI calculation, but they should. In a…

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How to Extend the Life of IT Infrastructure

With budgets tightening, now is the time to extend the life of IT Infrastructure. Read my latest blog for more details.

How to Extend the Life of IT Infrastructure As budgets continue to tighten, IT leaders are trying to figure out how to extend the life of IT infrastructure so they can reduce spending. At the same time, you must keep up with demands for improving performance and meeting capacity expectations. You need to get more from the current hardware. There is a process to extending the life of IT…

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What is Global Inline Deduplication?

Your dedupe should be inline and global. Read our latest article, "What is Global Inline Deduplication?"

If you are deploying a private cloud that spans multiple data centers or hundreds of Edge locations, understanding the various forms of deduplication is critical to selecting the infrastructure for these initiatives. Understanding what you will get from each vendor’s deduplication technology is challenging, as they use similar names but offer different capabilities or unique marketing names that…

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The Three Requirements for Edge Computing

Before selecting a platform, IT planners need to understand the three requirements for Edge Computing. While some requirements are similar to any other computing center, Edge Computing has attributes that make some nice-to-have capabilities a “must-have” feature. Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solutions are often part of the Edge Computing discussion, but many of them don’t meet these…

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What is a Storage Controller?

Storage arrays all have some form of a processor embedded into a controller. As a result, a storage array’s controller is essentially a server that’s responsible for performing a range of functions for the storage system. Think of it as a storage computer. This “computer” can be configured to run by itself (single controller), in a redundant pair (dual controller) or even as a node within a…

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The HCI Resource Efficiency Problem

As IT attempts to scale Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI), they realize the impact of the HCI resource efficiency problem. The selling point of HCI solutions is that they scale by “just adding a node.” Each node brings a fixed amount of processing power, networking capabilities, storage performance, and capacity. That is the problem. While every data center eventually needs to scale these…

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Scale-Out HCI is not Enough

Scale-out is the primary focus of most hyperconverged infrastructures (HCI), but scale-out HCI is not enough to deliver a more cost-effective and easier-to-operate data center. HCI vendors claim to offer scale-out by adding nodes to increase computing power, networking bandwidth, and storage performance/capacity. As VergeIO points out in its latest blog, “Scaling Infrastructure in Three…

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Driving Down the Cost of NAS

Driving Down the Cost of NAS

Driving down the cost of NAS is a top priority because these systems continue to require increasing amounts of capacity and need to meet new performance challenges. The increase in demand stems from the organization’s need to support more and more workloads. NAS systems are no longer the digital dumping ground. Instead, they store mission-critical data and even host business-critical…

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Will DRaaS Solve the Cloud Backup Storage Problem?

Will DRaaS Solve the Cloud Backup Storage Problem?

When looking at the cloud as a backup alternative, IT professionals need to consider if DRaaS solves the cloud backup problem of recovering from a disaster or ransomware attack. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) enables you to instantiate your applications as virtual machines in your cloud backup provider’s infrastructure. Without it, cloud backup storage would force you to move all your…

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Three Reasons You Need Standby Storage

Three Reasons You Need Standby Storage

There are three reasons you need standby storage. First, it provides the best way to recover from a ransomware attack. Second, it enables you to recover from a hard failure of your production storage systems. Third, it provides you with a suitable quality assurance (QA) / test area as you bring new applications online.  What is Standby Storage? Standby storage is a second storage system able to…