The 'Big Boys' Came To Play: HPE, Cisco Shake Up Hyper-Converged Landscape

Cloud infrastructure rivals Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cisco Systems launched new hyper-converged systems this month. HPE debuted Hyper Converged 380, while Cisco unveiled a new hyper-converged system and acquired CliQr technologies. Solution providers weighed in on how the landscape of the dynamic space will change as the large vendors enter the market.

’Arguably, more competition’s better,’ said Teklinks’ Dave Powell. ’So you kind of had your Nutanix, SimpliVity, kind of playing in that [space]. Now the big boys are coming to that party because they realized that it was a space that they weren’t addressing.

’Lots of times innovation is occurring when smaller guys are in that space,’ Powell added. ’So it will be interesting to see how people duke it out.’

Rx Technology’s Mark Rizzo agreed that big vendors have no choice but to get involved in hyper-converged.

’They’re losing share in other areas – they’ve got to start something,’ he said.

Randy Whipple of Randall Technology Services called hyper-converged a great solution for businesses like his.

’It will help us do a better job providing products and services to our clients,’ he said.

TUC’s Marco Levecchia agreed that there is plenty of opportunity in hyper-converged to share. His focus is on trying to get more customers as excited about hyper-converged technologies as these big vendors have become.

’I think it’s imperative for our customers to really start adopting all these new solutions and technologies. It’s imperative to their business but it’s also important to us. You know, we have a lot of stickiness with those products,’ he said.