This is a continuation of a series of articles on hosting solutions and services on Azure public cloud with the most recent discussion on Multitenancy here. The previous articles introduced multitenancy via hyperconvergence.  This article explores it some more.

Hyperconverged infrastructure helps multitenancy by providing high consolidation density. When there are more pluggable tenants on a single platform, there are some benefits but there also some barriers. There are ways to overcome the barriers and operating problems. One of the way to do that is by leveraging software-defined resources so that the setup and tear-down are configurable, easy and fast. Even patching and upgrade can be rapid by virtue of the consistency across tenants. Finally, multiple instances can be managed as one.  The multitenant architecture thereby provides a single pane of glass for management across resources and their containers.

Till now we have seen several examples of Microsoft technologies-based multitenancy considerations but for hyperconvergence, let us take a look at technologies that specifically cover Infrastructure-as-a-service. The VMWare storage architecture, for example, delivers HCI via one of two options: First, bolting storage software onto a hypervisor, and building storage into the hypervisor. The bolt-on approach runs third-party storage software in virtual machines that sit on top of a hypervisor. This is an easier approach, but it comes with the following limitations: 1. Excessive resource usage, 2. Lower performance and longer latencies and 3. Hybrid and multiple environments with limited integration. The other approach is the built-in were the storage software is in kernel or built directly into the hypervisor. The convergence does not happen on a hypervisor using a virtual appliance but instead happens inside the hypervisor.

The advantages of this approach include 1. reduced resource usage, 2. Better performance and lower latencies and 3. Tight integration enabling end-to-end management from a single tool and a simplified operational model. The advantages of a built-in hyperconverged storage are 1)  there is no need to dedicate certain virtual central processing units or a virtual storage appliance on a per-host basis, 2. CPU resources  which are used only when they are needed and CPUs  don’t need to be reserved for the worst case scenario and 3. CPU cycles go through one stack comprising of just the hypervisor instead of both they hypervisor and the guest operating system.

VMWare does this by providing compute, storage, networking and management on a single integrated layer of software that runs on industry-standard Intel based hardware. This helps to radically simplify the data center. Fully configured x86 servers have VMWare virtual SAN, vSphere and vCenter installed which then provide a single layer on which VMs can be hosted.

Some of the considerations towards the appropriateness of a HCI for business needs include: licensing and support, use of embedded storage or virtual storage appliance, combination and scalability with hybrid resources, native backup and disaster recovery capabilities and integration with cloud computing.