Didcot/Monnickendam, December 7th 2012 – ITCandor and The METISfiles announce a joint multi-client study on the future of converged infrastructure and integrated systems.
ITCandor and The METISfiles believe vendors are shifting towards supplying new types of integrated systems incorporating server, networking, storage and infrastructure software. Users are considering integrating their fragmented data centre equipment in order to simplify their operations, cut internal staffing costs and increase business agility. Converged infrastructure solutions that package servers, storage, networks, and orchestration software in a single system or rack are becoming increasingly popular. Software defined networks (SDN) open up today’s vertically integrated distributed control networking gear and allow standard switch hardware to be controlled centrally via OpenFlow through an SDN controller. Cloud management platforms (CMPs) start to automatically provision server, storage, and network resources. These are just 2 examples of how innovative technology is being applied to our subject.
We believe there is an urgent need to assess the connections between supplier push and user pull and calculate the chances and timescales for success. With our strong heritage in systems, software and networking research we are uniquely positioned to help meet the needs for business planning information and are keen to help.
We will define, size and look at the success factors for Converged Infrastructure vendors, differentiating these from earlier styles of systems (see Figure above). We will report on the evolution of Matrix Integration strategies (see Figure above). Our findings will be based on a detailed analysis of the main system contenders, including, but not limited to:
- Cisco – Unified Computing System
- Dell – Active System
- Fujitsu – Converged Infrastructure
- VCE – EMC/VMware/Cisco Vblock
- HP – Converged Infrastructure and Mission-Critical Converged Infrastructure
- IBM PureSystems
- Oracle/Sun Exadata
We propose a combination of expert interviews with both vendors and users, augmented with desk research and expert analysis. This will deliver three reports, containing vendor competitive analysis, user wants and needs, and market share, size and forecast respectively.
To download our prospectus, click here – The Future Of Converged Infrastructure And Integrated Systems.
Please contact us if you’re a supplier who’d like to sponsor the study or user who’d like to contribute to our survey:
- Martin Hingley, ITCandor (mhingley@itcandor.com), +441235202125
- Pim Bilderbeek, METISfiles (pim@themetisfiles.nl), +31653902852
I think the article is right and this will be the strategy of most of the companies you mention. To me, it is marketing led. The hardware and Open Source Cloud is leading in the opposite direction.
As an Open Source person, I hope the strategy will fail.
As a Cloud person, I know it will fail. There are indicators in recent history: when Google brought out Android it destroyed and damaged many successful companies like RIM, Motorola, now Apple now is sliding.
Similarly low-cost Cloud where the user can skip at any time to a better buy which is described by economists (as per the earlier LinkedIn discussion on Amazon-Rackspace and Google noted below) as Cloud Services as a commodity, where the buyer is king.
Those with deep-pockets can buy any service (coverged or otherwise) they want at the specialist/luxury end for those areas of their business that may require it, but the vast majority of capacity will be in Cloud as a commodity, as current developments stand.
So my assessment that converged infrastructure as I understand your concept is an interim strategy to try to defer that day when Cloud Services are a commodity and no one is locked in and the customer is king.
Those in such corporations may have a deep intake of breath and cross themselves, but they know life is hard and business is harder if you make the wrong choices-you are history!
So I just hope I have the right skills for such a marketplace as it is looking quite catastrophic for many. I would list the skills, but I am getting cagey about competition! Life is going to hard enough for thousands of I.T. guys who choose wrong!
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=190954242&gid=3239106&commentID=108050813&trk=view_disc&ut=3hbzd58QD1EBw1