IDC's Converged Infrastructure Decision Economics report series examines converged devices — IT products integrating some combination of servers, storage, networking, and system management software into one SKU — which represent an emerging category for IT organizations and service providers seeking the benefits of an OEM-integrated technology solution. For IT buyers these new devices present challenges for existing acquisition practices and evaluation methodologies. IDC presents emerging best practices employed by leading IT organizations as they evaluate and acquire the new technology, IT buyer "converged infrastructure" case studies, and developments within the converged infrastructure technology domain.

• IT buyer maturity and deployment model — How and why they are specifying converged infrastructure devices, and their expectations
• Economic trade-offs — Workloads that create the most business value when hosted on converged IT devices
• IT buyer-installed base — Impact on converged infrastructure decisions
• Investment metrics — Most attractive return on investment (ROI)
• Staffing implications — Efficiencies and cost advantages of converged infrastructure

• Converged IT Economics — Industry Developments and Models
• Decision Models — Emerging Practices for Evaluating and Optimizing Converged Infrastructure Versus Discrete Technology Platform Choices and Trade-Offs
• Converged Infrastructure Economics Survey
• Demand-Side Primary Research — In-Depth End-User Interviews to Understand User Expectations and Intentions for Converged Infrastructure Choices

In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct research on specific topics or emerging market segments via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

1. Should workloads be shifted to converged platforms? When, why, and what economic considerations will shape those decisions?
2. How should IT enterprise architects evolve their long-term strategies to exploit fully the opportunities created by emerging converged infrastructure technology platforms?
3. How should these time-proven analytic methods, such as return on investment, be applied to inform business technology architecture choices?
4. How should IT organizations structure their converged infrastructure initiatives to fully monetize staffing cost benefits? How does this compare to investing in alternatives, such as automation software tools, to improve in-house efficiencies?
5. Given that converged infrastructure options integrate multiple and previously disparate technology domains, how will business and IT leaders most effectively bridge these siloes to achieve the potential opportunity?

This service reviews strategies, market positioning, and future direction of several providers in the converged infrastructure market; these vendors' offerings integrate server, storage, and network technologies into a single set of infrastructure from both a hardware and a systems management standpoint, including virtualization technologies. Vendor examples include but are not limited to Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS), HP VirtualSystem, IBM CloudBurst, and VCE VBLOCK.

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