VMware debuted in the Leaders quadrant in the just-published Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI). VMware is excited to be one of the software-only vendors in the Magic Quadrant and believes that VMware vSAN continues to disrupt the market.
Top industry analysts are increasingly recognizing the critical role software plays in powering HCI solutions. Software has become key to delivering a more agile, efficient datacenter that can easily evolve to the growing hybrid cloud landscape. The focus on software comes thanks to massive acceleration in software innovation across the full stack—including storage, compute, networking, management, and public clouds.
As part of Gartner placing greater emphasis on software, the new report recognizes the growing number of deployment options for HCI software. These range from integrated systems and appliances to software sold along as part of a reference architecture model to HCI-as-a-service in the public cloud.
All of these options are available today with vSAN offering the broadest choice of deployment options to match different customer needs.
VMware is thrilled to see that Dell EMC is positioned in the Leaders quadrant as well. VMware and Dell EMC work closely together on our jointly engineered VxRail HCI appliances and VxRack systems that are powered by vSAN.
Three Key Data Center Trends Revealed
As a result of Gartner’s broadened definition of HCI, we see three important trends emerge in the 2017 Magic Quadrant. These trends are critical to consider when comparing and selecting an HCI solution to help accelerate business and IT responsiveness now and in the future:
(I) Software Key to Modern Infrastructure
Gartner now recognizes the critical role that software plays in modern HCI solutions. Customers of all sizes and shapes are turning to software-defined technologies to introduce greater agility into their data center and to reduce costs thanks to simplified management and cost-efficient, industry-standard hardware.
The VMware HCI stack started with just vSphere and vSAN, but, with the growth of VMware Cloud Foundation, is increasingly including NSX and vRealize Suite as customers want a complete offering that can run on any hardware. In addition, customers are looking for a platform that provides a natural and predictable path to the public cloud, such as through the expansion to VMware Cloud on AWS.
(II) Strategic, Long-Term HCI Vendors Emerge
VMware believes the hyper-converged market is continuing to evolve, and we see a hint at where it may be going with the introduction of new, strategic vendors to the Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure. Most notably industry-leading software vendors VMware and Microsoft debut as they help accelerate that shift towards infrastructure software. These companies offer a breadth of solutions spanning from the data center to the cloud and across compute, storage, networking and management.
With these familiar vendors, customers enjoy the ability to evolve their existing skills, hardware preferences, and IT strategies already in place. In addition, customers lower their risk by architecting their future IT services with a company experienced in enabling an open, hardware-agnostic model backed by a successful software-driven business model that will be around for decades to come. VMware offers the added benefits of delivering on customers demand for broad choice in public clouds.
(III) Broad Ecosystem Critical to Openness and Flexibility
Finally, the new report specifically recognizes the growing number of deployment options for HCI, which can range from integrated systems and appliances to software sold along as part of a reference architecture model to HCI-as-a-service in the public cloud. Thanks to a large ecosystem, VMware is able to offer the broadest set of hyperconverged solutions according to the Gartner report.
Along with the strong Dell EMC partnership, VMware remains committed to our other key partners. Through vSAN ReadyNodes™, customers achieve fast time-to-market of the latest, proven technology from not only all leading server vendors but also from critical component vendors, like Intel. Today, we see strong demand from customers for vSAN ReadyNodes so that they can deploy their hardware platform of choice, with the ability to choose from hundreds of server platforms from the 15 leading server vendors.
ReadyNodes are fully tested and validated thanks to investments in the vSAN ReadyLabs, which is a dedicated team focused on working with next-generation technologies as well as rapidly validating existing solutions that are well designed for vSAN.
VMware is also the clear leader when it comes to offering choice in public cloud platforms that offer HCI-as-a-service. For example, VMware Cloud on AWS enables customers to anticipate the cloud by extending out to the public clouds with a common, familiar management environment from their on-premises data center.
Closing Thoughts
As customers architect their data centers to more quickly and efficiently respond to new business demands, the Gartner report validates the important roll software plays in the shift to a flexible, open and cloud-ready environment. Powered in large part by vSAN, VMware is helping customers not only lower their IT costs and accelerate applications, but to embrace a strategic, open platform with the flexibility of a full software-stack that spans from on-premises to the choice of public clouds.
To learn why VMware has debuted in the Leaders quadrant, download the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hyperconverged Infrastructure.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
