The software-defined networking in converged and hyperconverged infrastructures

The converged (CI) and hyperconverged (HCI) infrastructures are widely discussed now; nevertheless, the terms CI and HCI themselves have not obtained a generally accepted definition. In conditions of uncertainty with the interpretation of the terms, this article attempts to clarify the role of the network in such infrastructures as well as to evaluate the perspective of implementing their internal networks on the software-defined networking (SDN) principles. The centralized control of all infrastructural components from a single console as a distinctive feature of the CI meets the basic SDN principles. However, this condition is necessary but insufficient and a typical CI network can only be considered as a step towards the SDN. A full-fledged implementation of SDN becomes feasible in the HCI, where the HCI supplier is actually forced, due to hyperconvergence peculiarities, to implement in his product a software-defined storage (SDS) and is able to supplement the product with an SDN network. For ordinary data center owners, the purchase of a hyperconverged infrastructure may be not only the easiest way to acquire an effective SDS but almost the only feasible one to get a ready SDN.