The HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 release also provides new container integration with the Kubernetes CSI Plugin for HPE SimpliVity.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise [HPE] has continued its remaking of their HPE SimpliVity hyperconverged [HCI] solution for the enterprise edge with their HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 release. This release enhances SimpliVity’s existing integration with the HPE StoreOnce data protection appliance, and added new integrations with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup and the Kubernetes CSI Plugin for SimpliVity.

SimpliVity’s repositioning as an explicit product for the edge has been clear since last summer when HPE consolidated its Nimble and SimpliVity development teams, with the SimpliVity team being particularly hard hit, and announced a realignment of their HCI strategy. With that realignment, the Nimble dHCI solution would be targeted at enterprise and mid-market customers while SimpliVity would be aimed more at SMB and the enterprise edge.

“The roots of this had been set in motion for a while,” said Sanjeep Singh, VP of Storage Marketing at HPE. “Since Nimble dHCI was introduced in June 2019, it has been a game changer for us, and has seen fantastic adoption. The consolidation makes this now a combined organization, which lets us bring a common experience for customers, because above the infrastructure is the notion of the HCI experience through the HCI control plane. We enable customers to have two workload-optimized HCI systems – SimpliVity for the enterprise edge, and Nimble dHCI for core sites and mission critical workloads.”

What’s the difference between the enterprise edge and the edge? Not much it seems.

“Our SimpliVity HCI appliance is designed for smaller edge sites, in verticals like retail, health care clinics, and manufacturing,” Singh said. “The most common deployments at the enterprise edge are 2-node deployments, multiplied by hundreds of sites. These are sites which need to run with high availability. And we respond to customers’ desire for an HCI that lets them address every virtual workload from the edge to the cloud.”

HPE SimpliVity has already had internal backup options, but the big news in this announcement is that the backup options have been expanded. HPE was already supported by the HPE StoreOnce backup appliance, but that support has been expanded significantly with this release.

“What is new with the StoreOnce integration is the support over the WAN, which gives the ability to do automated and app-aware backups to a centralized StoreOnce appliance over multiple edge sites,” Singh indicated.  “The 20-1 data reduction from StoreOnce’s deduplication gives them flexibility for cost effective retention for thousands of VMs across dozens of sites.”

The other backup addition is an integration with HPE Cloud Volumes Backup, which lets users simply and quickly back up directly to the cloud from multiple edge sites with source-side, low-bandwidth deduplication, which only sends unique data from the backup or client server to the HPE Cloud Volumes Backup service.

“This direct backup to the cloud with HPE Cloud Volumes is a complete net-new,” Singh said. “With three clicks, they can backup to the cloud – and with no egress fees for recovery.

“SimpliVity’s built-in backup options are a game-changer for customers,” Singh emphasized.

Finally, HPE unveiled the Kubernetes CSI Plugin for HPE SimpliVity, which adds support for the Container Storage Interface [CSI] Driver for Kubernetes. It provides streamlined management by allowing containers and VMs to run on the same infrastructure at the edge.

The HPE SimpliVity 4.1.0 is now available worldwide at no additional charge for HPE SimpliVity customers with valid support contracts.