Hardware has limits: A box is a box … but software can do much more. The solution lies in hyperconverged infrastructure, or HCI — running software to take over when hardware isn’t enough. Companies are turning to HCI offerings to manage growing infrastructure needs, including the accounting and advisory firm BKD LLP.

“Having a platform where we settled on [cloud computing software company] Nutanix has helped to make integrations a little bit easier,” said Brett Ruth (pictured), server, storage and virtualization supervisor at BKD.

Ruth spoke to host Stu Miniman (@stu) and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the VMworld conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. They dicussed BKD’s move to HCI and the benefits of the technology. (* Disclosure below.)

A new architecture to support future growth

BKD is a leading accounting firm that looks for opportunities to grow through acquisitions. Each acquisition is different from a technology perspective, according to Ruth. Some run on servers, some are cloud-based and others are mixed. The firm turned to Nutanix Inc. for help in stitching together this patchwork of systems.

Several years ago, BKD ran on a traditional three-tier architecture. The firm, however, was growing so quickly that hardware limitations were a problem. Through research, they landed on HCI, and Nutanix, as a solution. Now, the information technology department can simply build and add on when they need to instead of buying more hardware, Ruth explained.

One of the benefits of this setup comes from the company’s internal, private cloud. This allows BKD to shuffle resources to DevOps as needed. Likewise, Nutanix gives the company the power to work with other cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Inc. or Microsoft Azure. “Are there things that make sense to go out there versus keeping them in-house? Those come up on an as-needed basis,” Ruth said.

While DevOps is important, the firm’s development team also tries to remain flexible, especially in the financial environment where many projects need to stay on-premises. Others can go to the cloud. Nutanix shows its strength in offering that flexibility for development, Ruth stated.

“The next project I find out a month from now might be perfect for the cloud. … They take that on a case-by-case basis,” Ruth said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor Nutanix Inc. have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE