VIDEO: Evolving to the Software Defined Data Center

Mark G.:

15 years ago we were asking, "Why virtualize my servers? Well, what benefit does it give me?" Well, we've all come to expect every data center runs virtualization at some level in the data center. It's cost effective, it's efficient and it takes out a lot of risks that we've seen in our environments. As we transition and we've been seeing this question pop up for this, why go to the Software Defined Data Center, taking advantage of software defined storage, software defined networking, bringing the virtualization, that foundational layer that you've built and have experience and expertise in in your environment, bringing those components together and adding workflow and consistency around that, that's where we can see that. It makes IT a more cost effective machine to deliver applications to your business units and end users.

The question you always hear is, "Is Software Defined Data Center where all companies should be?" Essentially the answer is yes, it's just how far are you on that journey and how fast do you need to actually hit software defined throughout your environment? The larger the company, the more they want to get there. They have a lot more staff that they can address and get to that point quicker. The smaller organizations might take a little longer to get to a full Software Defined Data Center model, but the end result is they're all still going to get there. The challenges that everybody can commonly share that they're going to do throughout this entire journey is defining those workflows, defining the operational processes. If people start working on that now, they're going to make it easier to take those next steps into automating into delivering that Software Defined Data Center.