VMworld: HP Joins EVO RAIL Programme with Hyper-Converged Infrastructure

VMware has revealed more details about its new family of hyper-converged infrastructure appliances, with HP becoming the latest partner to join the EVO RAIL programme.

EVO RAIL appliances aim to make it easier for mid-size businesses to deploy virtual machines on their network by combining hardware, software, support and services into a single package.

Each appliance combines integrated compute, network and storage hardware with vSphere, Virtual SAN, vCenter Log Insight and the new EVO RAIL engine software that allows new virtual machines to be created within minutes of switching on the machine. Other advantages include simple patching, automatic scaling and easy scale out.

EVO RAIL programme

A single machine which has four nodes will support up to 100 general virtual machines or 250 virtual desktops. The initial release allows customers to scale out to four appliances, or 16 nodes, with additional appliances automatically discovered when added to an existing EVO RAIL cluster.

“EVO RAIL is essentially a software-defined data centre pre-packaged with hardware to enable the future,” VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger told the audience at VMworld in Barcelona.

Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Inspur, net One and Supermicro are already signed up to the programme, but HP is also getting in on the act. The HP ConvergedSystem 200-HC comes with all software pre-installed and only need users to enter IP addresses, credentials and vSphere licence information to get up and running when the system is made available in December.

HP and VMware say the new appliance is a natural extension of the two firms’ existing relationship, with more VMware customers running its software on HP ProLiant servers than any other platform.

“We’re delighted with the range of ecosystem support for EVO: RAIL,” added Gelsinger.

VMware is also showing off a reference design for another hyper-converged product at VMworld, EVO RACK, which is intended for enterprises wanting to deploy applications and services on a data centre scale.

EVO RACK will be built to run on a range of pre-integrated hardware configurations ranging from Open Compute-based designs to partners’ servers and converged infrastructure. Gelsinger claimed such systems could scale out to data centre level within two hours.

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