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42 Next-Generation Hyperconverged Infrastructure For Dummies, Nutanix Special Edition Choosing Your Model: Software versus Hardware "You can have it in any color you want, as long as it's black." So goes the saying, and variations of it as people joke about how rigid certain buying processes can be. Early on, a lot of HCI solutions were like this — but Henry Ford didn't invent HCI solutions. Sure, there were some software-based opportunities, but even those had some hardware-centric guidelines that weren't very forgiving. Over the years, HCI has become a force unto itself with myriad options at your fingertips. Today, you can deploy next-generation HCI solutions that are hardware- or software-centric. The real magic of next-generation HCI happens in the soft- ware, which can run on a broad ecosystem of supported hardware options. Nutanix next-generation HCI software runs on the best hard- ware available from the most trusted manufacturers. Custom- ers can choose branded Nutanix appliances, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) appliances from Dell, Lenovo, and IBM, or software-only options with validated bills of materials (BOMs) from Cisco, Dell, HPE, and more. Nutanix has also announced global partnerships with Fujitsu, Inspur, and HPE. HPE is offering two new appliances, based on HPE ProLiant and HPE Apollo serv- ers, that ship with Nutanix software preinstalled. HPE also offers Nutanix Enterprise Cloud software as an on-premises managed service through HPE's GreenLake program, with a flexible pay- as-you-go licensing model. The freedom to choose your hardware in a software-centric next- generation HCI also extends to your cluster configuration and server procurement options. Nutanix software allows adminis- trators to create heterogeneous clusters, including mixing CPU generations, hybrid and all-flash storage, as well as storage- heavy and compute-heavy nodes. This allows customers to create clusters made up of nodes tailored to their specific challenges and workload requirements. If processor, memory, or storage con- sumption grows faster than anticipated, customers can easily add nodes to the cluster to meet those needs. The same applies for performance characteristics, such as adding all-flash storage or higher speed processor nodes, which are more compute dense. These materials are © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.