HP teams up with VMware to to announce the Converged System 200-HC, a hyper-converged appliance combining server, networking, storage, and virtualisation and management software.

Designed for mid-size businesses, remote offices and branch office locations, the system uses VMware's EVO:RAIL hyper-converged infrastructure to consolidate IT resources into a single appliance. According to HP it features a pre-integrated pre-tested VMware software stack with vSphere, Virtual SAN and vRealize Log Insight, as well as the EVO:RAIL engine.

The hardware allows for rapid software-defined service deployment, and is scaleable from 1 appliance of 4 nodes to 4 appliances of 4 nodes.

In addition HP and VMware are extending HP's OneView convergence management platform to EVO:RAIL, as future OneView releases will allow customers to directly manage the EVO:RAIL appliance.

“This collaboration between HP and VMware to deliver EVO: RAIL will provide organizations with an innovative approach to driving better business outcomes through a software-defined data center architecture,” VMware says. “Together, HP and VMware are helping customers dramatically simplify and accelerate the delivery of software-defined infrastructure services while lowering operating expenses.”

The ConvergedSystem 200-HC will also be available in a StoreVirtual version, and should start shipping from Q1 2015.

Go HP and VMware Simplify Delivery of Software-Defined Infrastructure Services with EVO:RAIL