“When you look at what flash is doing to storage and how virtualization changes the data center, how can it not be converged?” asked HP VP of Storage Marketing Craig Nunes in the Cube at VMworld 2012. “Otherwise you are still trapped in the traditional IT silos, which means everything is less efficient and you are over-provisioning.”

Virtualization, flash, and cloud architectures, both public and private, are driving the convergence of server, storage, networking and management. Part of that is the idea flash moves storage for the more active data back to the server to meet the high IOPs demands of virtualized environments and cloud services, which are all about high response rates to user requests. On the storage side, he says, converged utility storage and converged utility storage handles the uncertainties of minute-to-minute changes in demand in complex, large virtualized environments. “That is converged infrastructure, that provides great agility and the efficiency people are looking for,” he says.

VMworld really “is a storage show,” Nunes said. HP, which, he said, is the number one server supplier for VMware development in user shops, is working closely with VMware around a program built on 3PAR called “Get Virtual” to help customers control the costs of large virtualized environments. “The cost of scaling a virtual environment can crush you,” he said. “We tell folks that 3PAR can double the number of VMs you can run on a server We’ve got the server side handled. Now Get Virtual lets you make the best storage buy with 3PAR while tamping down the VMware licensing issue.”

IT-as-a-Service vendors are a major market for HP and in particular 3PAR, he says, and public cloud in general is a major growth area for HP. Then data-centric computing infrastructure and in particular the independent public cloud is a very strong market for HP. It also has a strong message around data backup and recovery for customers, many of whom have not given this vital issue the thought it deserves.

“The monolithic, Symmetrics-type architecture is gone,” Nunes says. “Given what is coming with virtualization, cloud, and multi-tenancy, you have to think differently. We have a strong approach to the needs of this new kind of computing that we are building on. You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Wikibon and SiliconAngle will be webcasting live from WMworld 2012 through Wednesday, August 29, with interviews with the thought leaders of the virtualization revolution. Catch the action at siliconangle.tv.