Tackling Rising Hardware Costs: How Arcfra AECP Helps Enterprises Repurpose Existing Servers

With the rising demand for AI, prices for IT hardware — led by memory chips — have surged significantly, driving up the cost of servers. Some analysts even predict that hardware prices may remain at these elevated levels until 2027 or beyond*.

Consequently, for enterprises planning to build or renovate data centers, a critical challenge has emerged: how to minimize the impact of “hardware inflation” on IT infrastructure development and ensure high performance and stable operations for production services with lower hardware expenditures.

Arcfra Enterprise Cloud Platform (AECP) empowers enterprises to maximize the value of their existing infrastructure through broad compatibility, modular architecture, and heterogeneous hardware support. AECP transforms legacy servers across mixed brands and models into a unified hyperconverged resource pool, eliminating the need for costly memory and chip upgrades. With one solution, businesses can hit three major milestones: modernizing their infrastructure, migrating from VMware, and driving massive cost savings.

How Does Arcfra AECP Facilitate Server Repurposing?

• Broad hardware compatibility: Not bound to specific hardware, AECP supports x86 servers from multiple brands, and adapts to AI chips from Intel, AMD, Nvidia, etc., flexibly meeting server repurposing needs. >>Use the Arcfra Hardware Compatibility Tool
• Modular & flexible architecture: As a software-only product, AECP allows for modular combinations of infrastructure capabilities (including compute, storage, networking, security, disaster recovery, Kubernetes services, management, and AI platforms) to meet user needs on demand.
• Unified management of heterogeneous clusters: Supports the deployment and unified management of servers with varying CPU frequencies, memory specifications, and disk capacities within the same cluster. This helps enterprises effectively integrate new and legacy devices, reducing O&M burdens and costs.

If existing servers were originally used to support traditional VMware virtualization architectures, users only need to add a small amount of hardware (SSDs and 10GbE NICs) to complete the upgrade and transform to a hyperconverged architecture. For servers originally used as VMware vSAN Ready Nodes, Arcfra AECP is fully compatible, allowing for repurposing with almost no additional hardware investment.

*Note: When repurposing devices, users should still pay attention to the requirements for servers and accessories in the vendor’s compatibility list. It is recommended to maintain uniform hardware configurations within the same cluster to avoid impacting overall cluster performance. Additionally, although Arcfra AECP’s distributed storage ensures reliability through a multi-replica mechanism, devices older than 3 years are generally not recommended, considering the risk of simultaneous multi-device failures and the difficulty of future procurement.

Customer Story

A Leading Auto Harness Manufacturer: Repurposing 10+ vSAN Servers for All Virtualized and Containerized Workloads

During its VMware replacement, a leading auto harness manufacturer fully repurposed over 10 existing vSAN servers by replacing only the end-of-life hard drives to build an Arcfra AECP cluster.

Leveraging the Arcfra migration tools, the user migrated 200+ virtual machines from the VMware virtualization to Arcfra Virtualization Engine (AVE), completing the cutover within a standard maintenance window. The new platform now provides stable support for all production systems, including MES, SAP, SRM, and big data platforms.

Meanwhile, by integrating Arcfra Kubernetes Engine (AKE), Arcfra Network Service (ANS), and Arcfra File Storage (AFS), the manufacturer successfully containerized its application systems and bolstered “east-west” network security.

This strategy effectively achieved the dual objectives of infrastructure modernization and significant hardware procurement savings.

For more information:

Optimizing Hardware Utilization: A Guide to Arcfra CPU Control

References:

1. How and When the Memory Chip Shortage Will End: Despite new fabs and new technology, prices will stay high. IEEE Spectrum.

2. Memory Shortages Reportedly Spark CSP Buying Spree; 2027 Supply Contracts Eyed as Early as Q1. TrendForce.