How to Elevate Your Value with Converged Solutions

Now is the time when leading IT organizations are aggressively investing in infrastructure innovation to bring in new customers and tap new markets. Yet this strategy is being challenged by the increased sprawl of technology silos that is causing IT infrastructures to be inflexible, unmanageable, inefficient and more costly.

Where the convergence of new and existing technologies is creating new opportunities for organizations of all sizes, virtualized environments can be difficult to plan, deploy and operate due to the proliferation of management tools, uncertain performance characteristics, complexity with storage and networking and unaddressed security concerns. As a result, reducing system complexity remains the top priority for a vast majority of IT decision-makers, and infrastructure convergence is driving the broad adoption of virtualization to consolidate servers, increase service levels, enhance data center flexibility and reduce footprint.

Just how hot is the converged infrastructure space?

Research firm IDC estimates that total worldwide spending on converged infrastructure will hit $17.8 billion in 2016, up from $4.6 billion in 2012. Converged infrastructure will account for 12.8 percent of total storage, server, networking and software spending by 2016, up from only 3.9 percent in 2012, IDC estimates.

Now that we've identified the size of the channel opportunity, let's take a step back and define exactly what converged infrastructure is.

In its simplest sense, convergence is a means of integrating multiple IT components for better efficiency. When you combine these components--like servers, storage and networking, and sometimes other resources--into an integrated solution, you can pool and share their collective resources more effectively. You can also simplify and centralize the management of those resources as a whole, rather than through separate management systems, and achieve significant cost savings. In addition, converged systems accelerate customer buying cycles and implementation times, and speed time to value and ROI.

So, how can solution providers make the most of the opportunity? Avnet is making it easier for you to capitalize on this large and growing market opportunity, attract new customers and profitably increase sales with current customers. Avnet has unveiled six Avnet-configured HP Converged Infrastructure solutions, based on HP VirtualSystem. These new solutions are available exclusively for Avnet's HP channel partners and VARs and are designed to accelerate converged infrastructure initiatives, simplify system management and improve IT performance for end customers.

These new Avnet-configured HP Converged Infrastructure solutions combine best-in-class HP technologies--ProLiant BladeSystem and rack-mount servers, 3PAR storage, HP networking and HP Implementation Services--with VMware in a common architecture, management and security model to support up to three times more VMs per server, three times the I/O bandwidth and two times the memory as vBlock or FlexPod. Building on HP's converged infrastructure efforts, Avnet is delivering these offerings to you in scalable, ready-to-implement configurations optimized for small, midsize and large virtualization deployments--from as small as 96 VMs to as large as 320 VMs and more.

These solutions also include HP installation and implementation services. In addition, Avnet provides partners with optional migration and support services related to the new solutions. Partners also can leverage the Avnet Technical Army to further hone their expertise. The Avnet Technical Army can augment partners' pre-sales technical staff, help partners gain a deeper understanding of HP products, facilitate technology demonstrations, and develop configurations and systems designs. A team that holds more than 500 HP certifications and includes 100-plus HP technical consultants, solution architects and infrastructure services professionals provides the services and resources.

These preconfigured solutions are one more way Avnet is making it easier for HP partners to bring converged solutions to their customers and win with HP in the marketplace. Click here to learn more about the new Avnet-configured, HP Converged Infrastructure solutions. Make sure you register to watch Next-Gen Converged Infrastructure Strategies in the Channel, a live and interactive CRN ChannelCast that takes a look at how a new converged infrastructure strategy can help increase reliability and profitability in the channel.

Sponsored by Avnet