Top data center stories: The new mainframes

#10: Quick, hide your wallet, here come the Big Five!

Converged infrastructure platforms, aka the new mainframes, combine servers, storage, networking, operating systems, hypervisor, management tools and middleware all pre-integrated, and optimized with the vendor’s secret sauce. But analysts and users are skeptical of vendor lock-in and premium prices. According to Gartner, when IT shops reduce their number of suppliers, they inherently increase their risk and make it harder to switch providers, reducing negotiation strength. For converged infrastructure platforms, “it’s too early; there are too many unknowns, and it will not serve you well over the long haul,” Gartner said.