The reason for this lock-in is simple: these vendors want to protect and expand their existing footprint in customer environments. Deviation from these intended scenarios can be costly and require additional investment from adopting customers. Vendors are trying to lock customers in with proprietary hardware and software elements, which, ultimately, may not even be complete solutions or are only designed to work for specific use cases. The first reason for this is the proprietary nature of existing converged infrastructures. We are currently seeing gaps in the market around a complete solution from any one vendor. But, I'm quickly finding that the hardware can only enable a customer to gain these agility and efficiency benefits of convergence if the software layer managing the hardware stack enables a certain level of Cross-IT simplification. Convergence helps organizations achieve levels of agility and efficiency that simply haven't been seen in a data center since the mainframe days. The greatest realization as I've settled into my role here is how intertwined the hardware and software management is to the entire concept of Converged Infrastructure.

There are several critical observations I've found while talking with customers and other members of my team regarding infrastructure convergence - how it is currently being implemented and used, and, ultimately, where it needs to head moving forward. I must admit, it's been one heck of a ride so far. I'm closing in on my two-month mark here at Dell. This is the third blog in a series on Converged Infrastructure.

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