Introduction
StorMagic, focused on edge data solutions, has announced the launch of SvHCI, a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution. This offering integrates a hypervisor and virtual networking with StorMagic’s renowned virtual storage technology, utilized by thousands of customers worldwide. Designed specifically for edge and small to medium-sized business (SMB) environments, SvHCI promises to enhance operational efficiency and reliability while reducing costs and provides an alternative to VMware offerings.
Key Features and Benefits
- Full-Stack HCI Solution: SvHCI combines all essential HCI components—hypervisor, virtual networking, and storage—into a single, integrated solution. This streamlines deployment and management, making it ideal for resource-constrained edge and SMB environments.
- StorMagic SvSAN Foundation: At the heart of SvHCI is StorMagic’s proven SvSAN technology, which ensures 100% uptime and high availability. SvSAN has a solid track record with over 50,000 installations worldwide, providing a dependable storage foundation for the new solution.
- Cost Efficiency: SvHCI can lower software costs by up to 62% compared to VMware, making it an attractive option for businesses looking to optimize their IT budgets without compromising performance or reliability.
- Ease of Deployment: The software installs directly on new or existing servers, including a KVM-based hypervisor and advanced virtual networking. This flexibility allows businesses to leverage their current infrastructure investments while modernizing their IT capabilities.
- High Availability with Minimal Hardware: Just like SvSAN, SvHCI delivers high availability with only two servers, a critical feature for edge and SMB environments where space and budget constraints are common.
- Comprehensive Support: StorMagic provides 24x7x365 in-house customer support, ensuring that users have access to expert assistance whenever needed.
Why is this important?
In order to address the changing VMware landscape, StorMagic is providing an alternative to the current offerings in the market. VMware, holding a dominant ~90% market share for hypervisors, experienced significant market churn following Broadcom’s acquisition. The top 2,000 accounts were taken direct, emphasizing an enterprise focus. All VMware partners were terminated and required to re-apply, suggesting SMBs are not a priority. Pricing increased significantly, and many products were bundled, no longer available standalone. As a result, a high percentage of StorMagic customers and partners sought alternatives. StorMagic conducted detailed research and developed a product plan for a new offering. This transition is timely for StorMagic to expand from hyperconverged storage to a full-stack HCI with a built-in hypervisor, leveraging its established enterprise-grade storage technology.
StorMagic’s response: SvHCI will be generally available later this summer, with pricing starting at $2,049 for a one-year subscription for a single server and up to 2 TB of storage. StorMagic has also launched the SvHCI Global Beta Program, offering customers and partners early access to the software for testing on their own servers.
Market Impact
StorMagic’s introduction of SvHCI is poised to disrupt the edge and SMB markets by offering a robust, cost-effective alternative to traditional HCI solutions. By addressing common challenges such as complexity, overengineering, and high costs, SvHCI empowers organizations to achieve reliable and efficient operations at the edge.
Dan Beer, CEO of StorMagic, highlighted the strategic importance of SvHCI, stating, “StorMagic SvHCI delivers exactly what our customers and partners are telling us they need to run applications reliably at their edge and SMB sites. This solution is founded on the same tried and true SvSAN code we have been delivering to customers for more than a decade with over 50,000 installations around the world. With SvHCI, we’re helping end users transition from costly, overengineered, overprovisioned software running on VMware to our purpose-built and dependable solution, saving them up to 62% on software costs alone.”
Conclusion
StorMagic’s SvHCI represents an advancement in the HCI space, particularly for edge and SMB environments. By leveraging its established SvSAN technology, StorMagic is delivering a solution that meets the specific needs of these markets, combining reliability, simplicity, and cost efficiency. As SvHCI becomes available, it is set to offer a compelling value proposition for businesses seeking to enhance their edge computing capabilities. This research note reflects the latest developments from StorMagic and provides insights into how SvHCI can address the pressing needs of edge and SMB environments and the information was provide in a vendor briefing announcing the latest offerings to market.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
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Author Information
At The Futurum Group, Paul Nashawaty, Practice Leader and Lead Principal Analyst, specializes in application modernization across build, release and operations. With a wealth of expertise in digital transformation initiatives spanning front-end and back-end systems, he also possesses comprehensive knowledge of the underlying infrastructure ecosystem crucial for supporting modernization endeavors. With over 25 years of experience, Paul has a proven track record in implementing effective go-to-market strategies, including the identification of new market channels, the growth and cultivation of partner ecosystems, and the successful execution of strategic plans resulting in positive business outcomes for his clients.
