Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software-defined IT infrastructure that virtualizes all of the elements of conventional "hardware-defined" systems. It combines compute, storage, networking, and management in a single cluster. HCI is deployed on commodity hardware with all of the intelligence in software and is architected from the ground up to automate the tedious tasks that traditionally plague IT while providing extensive insight and control over the environment. Key features of HCI include:

• Virtualization: HCI includes virtualized computing, software-defined storage, and virtualized networking.

• Software-defined: In HCI, both the storage area network and the underlying storage abstractions are implemented virtually in software (at or via the hypervisor) rather than physically in hardware.

• Centralized management: By centralizing resources and management, HCI lowers costs, reduces complexity, and alleviates staff burdens while raising performance.

• Scalability: HCI scales easily. Additional resources can be added by simply connecting a new node to the cluster.

The primary difference between converged infrastructure and hyper-converged infrastructure is that in HCI, all the components are integrated and software-defined, while converged infrastructure has the same components, but they’re discrete, separable, and cumbersome to manage compared with HCI. Companies use HCI to run most business-critical, tier-one applications, and other common workloads that run on HCI systems include database software, virtual desktop infrastructure, and more.