From edge computing to virtualization, HCI delivers cloud-like experiences from your own data center. iStock To understand Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI), we need to take a quick history lesson. It’s important to understand the evolution of legacy data centers and how we got the modern data centers we use today. Legacy data centers are typically composed of a multi-tier architecture made up of a storage tier, a networking tier, and a compute tier. Each of these components would typically be managed by a different administrator using purpose-built hardware creating a natural barrier, or silo, because of the functionality and expertise required to manage them.