Issue 34 January 2017 Dear Readers, Greetings from Swan Solutions! A CIO’s job is no mean feat. Increasing Data center complexity, shrinking IT budgets and the need for greater flexibility make it almost impossible for a CIO to keep pace with the changing business demands. Despite multiple technology transitions, it’s quite an endeavour for the IT pros to turn the data center from a complicated cost center to a value center. Hyper-convergence, touted as a data center game changer, may have the answers for many such daunting problems. It promises to bring in budget predictability, ease of management, flexibility and scalability to the data center, making it far more efficient than its legacy counterparts. Several matured markets have already deployed hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), especially in their VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) scenarios. Indian enterprises are equally enthusiastic, and we see great amount of traction in many industry verticals. The ‘plug and play’ is another factor that makes HCI exciting for large and mid-market enterprises alike. Market studies distinctly predict HCI to be one of the fastest growing segments in the coming days. Now is the time to future-proof your data center! Sincerely, C.E.O Tech Trend How Hyper-Convergence Re-defines the Data center With enterprise modernization, organizations of all sizes are being pushed to rethink their traditional approach to IT, to increase efficiencies and save money. Nevertheless, as the need for capacity increased, scalability, complexity and flexibility continue to be some of the persistent concerns for organizations. IT pros have to deal with other challenges like hardware and policy sprawl, and the need to cut down technical overhead. Converged infrastructures and the increased thrust on software helped organizations in tackling many of these issues. Hyper-convergence is predicted to the next big thing in the data center space. HCI (hyper-converged infrastructure), the architecture that combines compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources on a commodity hardware, is set to transform the data center in more than one ways. It promises to offer greater efficiency, reliability and simplicity to the data centers. HCI’s easy-to-use management tools also ensure that the IT staff do not end up tackling the core architectural complexities and can be freed to focus on business-facing needs. Gartner predicts that the Hyper-converged integrated systems market will reach mainstream adoption very quickly, growing from the current $2 billion to $5 billion in next three years. Small and mid-sized businesses with tighter budgets and smaller IT teams have been early adopters of HCI. A wide range of virtualized mission-critical applications are now being moved to hyper-converged infrastructures. Excelarators Expert Tip Networking, the foundation of HCI Networking is often the most overlooked elements in the hyper-converged infrastructure. While storage and compute are given a lot of importance, most organizations tend to use low-cost networking hardware and spend less time on planning various network infrastructure components. Nevertheless, networking plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of hyper-converged architecture. Use reliable and enterprise-class networking components for high performance. A good network provides a strong foundation to HCI. Spend adequate time in planning and deciding the right networking choices so that your HCI meets your expectations. Recognition Sophos honors Swan with Best VAD Partner Award for Year 2016-17 Swan has been awarded as "Best Value Added Business Partner 2016-17" by Sophos India. This award recognises the achievements and commitment of top business partners towards creating and delivering innovative customer solutions & services based on various Sophos line of products Click here to view our Award Free Downloads Duolingo : Your Language Assistant Do you struggle to converse when you’re in non-English speaking countries? Duolingo will help you learn the basics of many languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian. Viber : Stay Connected anywhere in the World Tired of changing your phone and data plans while on international roaming? Viber lets you send free messages and make free calls to other Viber users through your internet connection. Quiz Would you like to win a Free Movie Ticket ? Answer a few simple questions and send us the reply. In case of more than one correct entry, winner will be chosen by a draw. Swan is a 25+ year old, IT infrastructure and facilities management company providing state-of-the-art IT solutions to large and medium enterprises Swan Solutions & Services (P) Ltd - 404 T-Square, 4th Floor, Saki Vihar Road, Andheri East, Above Kavish Ford Showroom, Mumbai 400 072; Tel. 022-28034088 ; Email : enquiry@swansol.com Website : www.swansol.com