Converged

Converged is the past participle of converge. It is used to describe entities that have united or come together toward a common point, goal, or integrated system. The term appears across disciplines, from mathematics and science to information technology and biology, often signaling a transition from disparate parts to a single, interoperable whole.

In mathematics, converged commonly describes convergence: a sequence (a_n) is convergent if its terms approach a finite limit L as n increases. A function or series can be convergent if it tends to a limit or sum. Convergence can be pointwise or uniform, and limits are unique in standard metric spaces.

In information technology and telecommunications, converged describes integrated systems or networks. Converged infrastructure consolidates compute, storage, networking, and management into a single architecture to simplify deployment and operations. A converged network carries multiple services—such as voice, data, and video—over a common, shared transport and management layer, reducing fragmentation and enabling unified policy and security.

In biology, converged (or convergent) evolution refers to the independent development of similar traits in different lineages, typically in response to comparable environmental pressures. Examples include wings in bats and birds, or streamlined body shapes in dolphins and ichthyosaurs; these similarities arise by analogy rather than shared ancestry.

Other uses include market or technology contexts where separate domains converge into a unified standard or platform, such as converged media or converged devices, emphasizing interoperability.