Many traditional information technology organizations that operate on older technology have largely created separate, siloed data centers. But with the cloud and virtualization revolution currently sweeping the IT industry, many of those companies are seeking to undergo digital transformation and invest in hybrid cloud, and that would facilitate the need for new network infrastructure.

There are two choices: converged infrastructure and hyper-converged infrastructure, but what is the difference?

“CI is about productizing the integrations of components that are built by different engineering teams,” said Trey Layton, senior vice president, chief technology officer, Converged Platforms and Solutions Division, at Dell EMC. “HCI, is really a lot of software development standardized on a Dell compute platform, where engineering teams are engineering and codifying the integration on the outset. Instead of building individual components and stitching them together, we’re building a product that’s designed to function and operate in one way.”

Layton spoke with host John Walls (@JohnWalls21), and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live-streaming studio, during Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, Nevada. (* Disclosure below.)

Layton talked about the differences between CI and HCI, as well as how Dell EMC is helping customers decide between the two, or if they need both.

Infrastructure selection is not necessarily either-or

CI brings all necessary network components: compute, storage, networking and virtualization, together into one unit. Those components may not necessarily be designed to work specifically with each other, but they are pre-optimized by the vendor to meet the customer’s specific workload, according to Layton. HCI, on the other hand, uses software to more tightly integrate the components through an interface provided by the vendor.

In modern data centers, different software applications have different infrastructure needs. These apps, whether they are created for server virtualization or are designed to run within it and whether they require data services or need access to a storage array, may run best on either CI or HCI, Layton stated. Being able to assess what infrastructure a particular application needs is critical, and Dell EMC is helping its customers understand that much of the time both CI and HCI are both necessary to get the most efficient use of their networks.

“It’s not one versus the other. They operate in partnership to operate on the workloads that are necessary for your environment,” Layton said. “So utilizing those two infrastructure strategies to support all applications in your data center is vital to any infrastructure strategy.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s independent editorial coverage of Dell EMC World 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell EMC World. Neither Dell nor other sponsors have editorial influence on content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE