The advent of hypervisor technology has been a huge boon for many computing usages, as it provides virtualized capabilities that would never be possible within a physical infrastructure. As the software-defined elements are implemented within the context of the hypervisor, all resource management can be federated across all instances of a hyperconverged infrastructure. This allows for cost savings, as well as increased application flexibility, as the State of Maine recently found out after upgrading its information technology infrastructure.

After an intense vetting process, the State ultimately choose hyperconvergence. “Doing the research … and looking at all options, hyperconverged [made more] sense from the return on investment,” said Dawnna Pease, director of computing infrastructure and services at the State of Maine. “And it’s simple and not so complex.”

Pease spoke with Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the VTUG Winter Warmer event in Foxborough, Massachusetts. They discussed how her team came to choose a hyperconverged solution, as well as some considerations for other organizations that are thinking about making a move to a similar solution.

Decreasing complexity, increasing flexibility

The State’s data infrastructure transformation began about 18 months ago. One of the first considerations was that it had a great deal of aging servers that needed to be replaced — 600 servers, 400 virtual and 200 physical, as well as a 44 node VMware environment.

“It was a huge investment. So not only the license and hardware storage, but the compute part as well,” Pease stated.

The State also needed to replace many on-premises solutions, application hosting, and upgrading its existing VMware cluster. Its “ideal” was a cloud solution within its own private cloud, with a goal to have under 60 physical servers left within state government.

While the State had been a Hewlett Packard Enterprise shop for some time, it started out by researching 15 vendors for its future needs. Later, it narrowed the field down to eight, and then to the final two, choosing ones that were strong in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for hypervisor. The State’s final selection was HPE SimpliVity, which offered an ideal hypervisor solution.

For any organization that is thinking about a similar solution, Pease has some advice: “Do the research … be very thorough in what you’re looking at for your requirements. And not only the research, but look at what you’ve already invested in and take that into consideration … [as well as] your return on investment,” she concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the VTUG Winter Warmer event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE