HPE SimpliVity Omnistack

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HPE SimpliVity is a software-defined solution for creating a hyperconvergent infrastructure with the ability to cluster and create federation between different clusters, which gives high mobility of virtual machines, efficient scaling of performance and capacity.

2021: HPE Cloud Volumes Backup Support

On March 16, 2021, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the expansion of the HPE SimpliVity hyperconvergent platform for operation on the periphery of the network. Upgrades include improved data protection through the ability to back up to the HPE Cloud and enhanced support for centralized backup to a remote site for compliance purposes. HPE also announced support for integration with containers to launch cloud applications on the periphery.

HPE SimpliVity

According to the company, among the updated features:

• HPE SimpliVity now supports HPE Cloud Volumes Backup, which provides backup directly to the HPE Cloud, from different user sites;
• Enhanced integration of HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce protects distributed user sites with automated backup policies that allow replication of applications and data directly to the HPE StoreOnce backup system, both for compliance and long-term storage purposes;
• The Kubernetes CSI plug-in for HPE SimpliVity optimizes the operation and management of containers on an all-in-one hyperconvergent platform, allowing you to run both containers and virtual machines on a single hardware platform.

As of March 2021, organizations and enterprises are facing unprecedented growth in the number of applications and data volumes on the periphery of the network (outside the data center), which creates opportunities to extract value from data by starting applications for their local processing, at the place where they are created, without the need to forward data to the data center and/or the cloud. In addition, users migrate cloud/container applications to the edge of the network, which are required to operate while maintaining existing/traditional virtualized applications on remote sites.

Peripheral computing is a critical segment in retail, trade health care financial services industrial , and manufacturing. Such enterprises and organizations need an extremely easy-to-manage computing infrastructure with built-in fault tolerance and efficient data protection to ensure continuous application operation, and fast data recovery to any of the sites. HPE SimpliVity is an intelligent all-in-one hyperconvergent system optimized for operation on the periphery of the network with the right level of availability, in a compact form factor. This platform provides built-in data protection with virtually zero administration through centralized management and automation, as well as storage efficiency to optimize IT efficiency. The updated capabilities of HPE SimpliVity enhance data protection capabilities and provide greater flexibility by supporting the operation of containers inside virtual machines, providing them with data stored in the HPE SimpliVity file system through a CSI plugin.

The HPE SimpliVity architecture provides sufficient fault tolerance and data protection to ensure availability and recoverability for workloads at the periphery of the network, including databases and general-purpose virtualization. Built-in remote backup within the HPE SimpliVity cluster federation allows you to restore applications to remote sites. Within the HPE cluster, SimpliVity virtual machine data is quickly and automatically copied to another node, so if one of the cluster nodes fails, the user will always have a backup. In fact, a 1 TB virtual machine can be backed up or restored in less than 60 seconds. This is critical for ensuring business continuity in the event of natural disasters and/or protecting data from cyber threats, such as ransomware.

With the ability to backup to and from the HPE Cloud and the ability to store backups centrally, the HPE SimpliVity platform is the most complete solution for running and protecting data at the edge of the network.

HPE SimpliVity, combined with HPE Cloud Volume Backup, provides easy and efficient backup directly to the HPE Cloud. This allows you to back up to the HPE Cloud in three clicks or with policy automation directly from the vCenter and without additional software or hardware infrastructure. Unlike other cloud platforms, backups from the HPE Cloud can be restored to external sites without any additional charges for outbound traffic. HPE Cloud Volumes Backup optimizes costs by only paying for cloud footprint, minimizing data transfers, and efficiently storing data in the cloud.

Expanding HPE SimpliVity integration with HPE StoreOnce optimizes complexity, cost, and risk by protecting distributed sites on the network periphery with automated policies to replicate applications and data directly to a centralized HPE StoreOnce backup device. HPE SimpliVity and HPE StoreOnce are suitable for users with strict regulatory requirements and/or long retention periods. Users can create or update backup policies in less than one minute for thousands of virtual machines on dozens of sites, simply back up and restore data in three clicks, and achieve a 20:1 deduplication rate on a continuous basis.

Enterprises and organizations from a wide range of backgrounds are transforming how they develop and deploy their applications in hybrid clouds. IT therefore requires a more flexible, automated, and policy-compliant infrastructure to support both evolving virtualization and container-based architectures. Working with cloud applications and user containers requires permanent storage, as well as software-defined infrastructure with the ability to automate and self-service for developers. Container environments, such as Kubernetes, can be deployed not only in the data center, but also on the periphery of the network.

The HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged system now supports the Container Storage Interface (CSI) driver for Kubernetes, which allows you to run container applications on the network periphery. HPE offers a simple and unified interface for working with HPE SimpliVity and Kubernetes to accelerate the transition of users to a container architecture. Support for CSI and persistent volumes allows you to work with virtual machines and containers on a single hardware platform on remote sites, which eliminates the need for a separate, specialized container infrastructure. Users get easy management and extensive backup and data protection capabilities for their peripheral sites, with a disaster recovery in less than one minute to extend the scope of cloud applications deployed on containers. With HPE SimpliVity, users can now upgrade applications at the edge of the network using a unified hyperconvergent platform that provides continuity and application protection.

HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 is available to HPE SimpliVity users with current support contracts worldwide at no additional cost. All features and capabilities are supported VMware vSphere with 7.0. HPE Cloud Volume Backup is available Northern in both and South America. To Europe Asia

2020: How HPE Simplvity Works: Secure VDI Solutions for Small and Medium Businesses

HPE offers a full range of VDI solutions that will help you meet your immediate needs for remote work. Designed for VMware and Citrix environments, HPE VDI solutions are designed to provide secure and efficient access to applications and data, and to support a wide range of user requirements in the areas of healthcare, government, financial services, education, manufacturing, and retail (more).

2019: AI support, HPE InfoSight implementation, integration with the HPE system StoreOnce

On October 28, 2019, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced the update of HPE SimpliVity, the company's flagship hyperconvergent system. The solution is the next generation of hyperconvergent infrastructure (HCI) with support for artificial intelligence (AI), designed to simplify the management of virtual machines and free the time of IT specialists to work on new projects and innovations. Building on a software-defined architecture, HPE SimpliVity extends the capabilities of its customers by implementing HPE InfoSight, updating all components of the cluster "in one click," and integrating with the backup and data protection system HPE StoreOnce.

As noted in HPE, modern companies are under constant pressure from competitors, forcing them to innovate and optimize operations faster. To achieve this, they need an intelligent architecture for virtualized environments that eliminates complexity while reducing time to market for new products and services. Hyperconvergent infrastructure initially speeds up service and increases resource efficiency, but traditional HCI solutions still require IT to intervene in unexpected crashes, application delays, and force trade-offs as companies scale their IT infrastructure. HPE SimpliVity goes beyond software-defined environments and now uses AI to automate service by predicting and preventing problems.

"HPE SimpliVity achieves with HPE InfoSight high efficiency. InfoSight makes forecasts and reports on important parameters for the company: where exactly the capacity is used at the cluster level, hosts, virtual machines and when there may not be enough space. It saves a lot of time, " noted Warwick Brown, lead architecture and infrastructure security specialist at Carlisle Homes

According to the developer, HPE SimpliVity is designed to open up wide opportunities for virtual machine administrators through automation and increased efficiency. HPE SimpliVity simplifies deployment, management, scaling, and infrastructure upgrades for any virtual machine administrator. HPE SimpliVity self-manages efficiency, performance, and fault tolerance without the need for manual configuration or configuration compromises.

HPE SimpliVity updates announced by the developer include:

• Implementation of HPE InfoSight in HPE SimpliVity, allowing customers to carry out predictive resource planning, which eliminates the need to act at random when managing capacity. HPE InfoSight provides to users of HPE SimpliVity the global review and detailed analytics of a system, performance and use of capacity, along with automation of the support including notifications about problems.
• Updating the cluster "in one click" with HPE SimpliVity provides a smooth upgrade of the entire software cluster stack, which simplifies maintenance operations and eliminates risks. Customers can update the built-in and ON hypervisor HPE software SimpliVity on all nodes in the cluster with a single click, enabling easy and uninterrupted upgrades at all sites.

According to the developer, HPE SimpliVity combines computing resources, storage, and networks with built-in backup and recovery capabilities, enabling consolidation and cost savings. HPE SimpliVity delivers data efficiency with 90 percent storage savings across all major virtual machines and backups. This indicator is guaranteed by HPE SimpliVity HyperGuarantee. HPE SimpliVity deduplicates, compresses, and optimizes data at the system-wide level, enabling customers to save on storage and ensure virtual machine mobility.

Improved data protection through integration with HPE StoreOnce. As HPE SimpliVity is deployed in an increasing number of enterprises, customers are striving to continually improve their data protection strategy. Integration of HPE SimpliVity with HPE StoreOnce provides enhanced data protection and mobility. HPE StoreOnce and HPE SimpliVity integrate into an application-enabled data protection solution with rapid policy-based recovery and automation capabilities to simplify management and improve profitability. This solution complements the built-in backup and recovery function of HPE SimpliVity for long-term storage and compliance, HPE emphasized.

HPE users SimpliVity get space-optimized intelligent HCI for multi-site deployment, allowing virtual machines to enjoy performance, efficiency, and fault tolerance at minimal cost. The need to administer systems located on remote sites is eliminated through centralized unified management, which allows customers to easily manage workloads in remote branches where personnel resources may be insufficient, HPE claims.

According to the developer, in order to ensure business continuity, customers can quickly switch between almost any site in the event of a disaster, thanks to the restoration of virtual machines by one click. Management and configuration is fast and efficient, allowing you to quickly restore all workloads at remote sites, thereby minimizing business downtime.

Customers get the ability to connect to the cloud with HPE GreenLake with the option to use SimpliVity on the "as a service" model. Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers a wide range of options for using solutions such as private and public cloud, backup upgrades.

Prices and availability as of October 2019:

• HPE InfoSight for HPE SimpliVity is available worldwide to all HPE users SimpliVity and will be offered free of charge to HPE SimpliVity customers who have a valid HPE service agreement.
• HPE StoreOnce for HPE SimpliVity will be available in the first half of 2020 for customers who have the latest versions of HPE SimpliVity and HPE StoreOnce v3.x or v4.x.

2017: HPE SimpliVity 380

HPE announced in March 2017 the hyperconverted HPE SimpliVity 380 prefix from the Omnistack series of Simplicity, which it recently absorbed.

The product uses the HPE Proliant DL380 dual-socket rack server as a hardware platform, equipped with a specialized FPGA card developed by Simplicity engineers OmniCube Accelerator Card to accelerate deduplication, reducing the capacity required to store primary data and its backups by up to 10 times.

HPE SimpliVity 380 provides all IT infrastructure needs with one simple product instead of a set of servers, SAN, storage, backup software, tape, or disk library. We do this based on the most popular servers in the history of HPE ProLiant.

The main advantage you get by using HPE SimpliVity 380 when building a data center or a private cloud is simplicity and efficiency in everything. You minimize the time and resources to maintain the infrastructure below the hypervisor, including servers, storage, backup, fault and disaster tolerance. This means that it takes a whole layer of tasks to manage your IT infrastructure and you can direct your staff to what really matters. One administrator can manage it, because the entire infrastructure is built on the same product and one familiar VMware-based interface is used for management vCenter instead of a set of different consoles. You get one point of integration: you do not need to "twist" the virtualization environment, storage, backup separately. More than 1,500 companies in the world (including several in Russia) have already chosen HPE SimpliVity 380 for these advantages.

The HPE SimpliVity 380 prefix is similar to the HC380 prefix already available in the HPE line. They have one hardware platform - the Proliant DL380 server, but the HC380 uses software-defined HPE StoreVirtual VSA storage and HPE OneView software package.

The HC380 is easier to deploy than the Simplicity 380, but it is inferior to the latest in support of advanced storage features. In the longer term, HPE plans to eliminate the use of the FPGA board in hyperconverted consoles and implement its functionality on standard server equipment.

The HPE SimpliVity 380 with OmniStack will be available in three small, medium and large enterprise configurations and will be equipped with processorsIntel the Xeon E5-2600 v4 (Broadwell) with 16-44 cores, five, nine, or 12 1.9 TB SSDs and two 10GbE and 1GbE NICs. In the lower configuration, the disks are combined into RAID 5 and in the other two into RAID 6.

Deliveries of HPE SimpliVity 380 will begin in May at a price for the United States from 26 thousand to 100 thousand dollars^[1].

Read also

• Virtualization. Classification and applications
• Virtualization System and Project Catalog
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Basic Article
• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) (Russian market)
• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) Global Market
• How to deploy a hyperconvergent system in a small company
• Converged Infrastructure (Global Market)
• NFV Network Functions Virtualization
• DaaS Desktop as a service
• Hardware Virtualization
• Five Steps Towards Successful Consolidation and Virtualization
• Top 10 Virtualization Market Events in 2011
• Virtualization: 10 Critical Events in 2012

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