Hardware Fusion

  In my previous post , I wrote about the different types of servers that are available for use in the IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI product.  There are storage/compute servers and compute-only servers that make up the bulk of the system, with optional servers available to add GPU capability and to add storage networking capability.  In this post, I will take a look at the network switches that connect all these servers together and also provide the uplink ports for connecting the Spectrum Fusion HCI system to the data center network and beyond. You might be wondering why network switches are even included in Spectrum Fusion HCI. Wouldn't it just be easier to connect all the servers to network switches that are already available in the data center?  Easier, yes, but that shortcut would certainly weaken the value of the offering.  Having integrated, redundant network switches makes the product easier to deploy, makes the s

In my previous post, I gave an introduction to the hardware of the IBM Spectrum Fusion HCI product and described how  Spectrum Fusion HCI was designed to be  simple to deploy and operate,   resilient to failure,  and  provide a high level of performance .  You can find that introductory post here .   In this post, I take a closer look at the server components of Spectrum Fusion HCI. There are four different server types that can be included in Spectrum Fusion HCI, and I'll discuss each of them in turn: Storage/compute servers, the basic building block Compute-only servers, for boosting compute power GPU servers, for AI applications AFM servers, for connecting to a larger storage network The Basic Building Block The "HCI" in the product name stands for Hyper-Converged Infrastructure and describes a style of system design in which pieces of the design that were typ