Software redefining the cornerstone of data center cloud computing

The software-defined data center (software-defined data CENTER,SDDC) actually derives from the concept of a software-defined network (SDN). Software-defined data center, simply speaking, is the virtualization, Software Data center of all resources, including servers, storage, network, security and so on.

All resources in the data center should become an IT service to the customer, and only through automated processes and software to provide this IT service. Data center development will go through three stages: from physical environment to virtual environment, to cloud computing environment. As the data center evolves, the ability to abstract hardware and software can increase the agility and automation of the data center. In the 2012, when the entire data center market was moving towards the next stage of development, people were ready to meet the software definition data center.

Accelerate Cloud Landing

VMware's recently released Cloud Maturity Index (for the Asia Pacific and Japan Regions) shows in the past 12 months, the proportion of Chinese companies using cloud computing has maintained a significant increase, and 31% per cent of respondents said they were already using cloud computing technology, compared with 20% in 2011 and 16 in 2010. %。 Chinese companies are in the midst of a transition from virtualization to cloud computing. The Cloud Maturity Index shows that 67% of Chinese companies have adopted virtualization technology, and 90% believe virtualization is a necessary condition for moving to the cloud.

Virtualization mainly solves the problem of how to build a unified resource pool and realize the loose coupling of software and hardware, while cloud computing solves the problem of automatic configuration, dispatch, management and application delivery of resources. There is still a long way to go to achieve cloud delivery, from the virtualization of the infrastructure to the automation of the entire IT system.

Some say that software-defined data centers are the cornerstone of cloud computing. The software-defined data center is a fully automated data center with a high degree of flexibility, flexibility, and reliability that can serve as a platform for cloud computing operations. Now, people have generally accepted the server virtualization, the next step of large-scale virtualization will be storage, network and so on. In software-defined data centers, customers can not only easily get the various physical resources they need, but they can expand or shrink on demand. More importantly, the deployment and provisioning of these virtualized resources becomes very convenient and fast.

Building a software-defined data center consists of two steps: The first step is to virtualize all the resources in the datacenter; The second step is to manage all resources through a unified management platform. Currently, many users have a heterogeneous data center environment that includes both virtualized devices and physical devices that cannot be virtualized for some reason, including private clouds and public clouds. Therefore, software-defined data centers must be able to support heterogeneous cloud environments. VMware's new Vcloud Suite 5.1 is a suite of management software for heterogeneous clouds. Many software vendors like VMware are beginning to exert their force on cloud management products.

Software-defined data centers will be a new direction for data center evolution. It vendors need not only to make adjustments in technology and products, partners and sales models, but also to foster the whole market.

Software to dominate

When it comes to cloud computing, you can't just mention the ecosystem, because cloud computing is not built on the strength of a single manufacturer. Software-defined data centers also need a perfect ecosystem.

The value of it is not just in hardware. Not only do software vendors believe that software will play a key role in cloud computing data centers, but even hardware vendors are increasingly emphasizing the core role of software. In the future in the data center, software may defeat the hardware and become the new leader of the data center. On the one hand, the server and other hardware standardization more and more high, on the other hand, the application of virtualization technology to further eliminate the differences between the hardware of different vendors, which makes hardware devices in the data center into a general-purpose hardware platform. In a software-defined data center, it is no longer important for users to use which vendor's hardware devices. The difference or added value of hardware is embodied more by software.

In this trend, the integration of hardware and software is becoming popular. In the past two years, many manufacturers have introduced one-machine solutions, including large data integration machine, data backup machine, cloud computing machine. These All-in-one solutions well integrate servers, storage, networks, and even application software, and complete pre-configured and predictive testing before leaving the factory, which is fast to install and simplifies applications. The trend of software hardware, not only makes the whole machine such products stand out, but also let people gradually realize the importance of software.

In foreign countries, enterprises used for hardware procurement is about 50% or less of the total it budget, while the rest is used to buy software and services. In China, however, the investment in hardware is 70%~80%, and the cost of purchasing the software is very low. With the concept of software-defined data center becoming more and more recognized, software will become the key to enterprise procurement in the future.

Software-defined data centers do not declare the hardware of the death penalty, but if there is no innovative technology, many years of technology accumulation, at the same time does not have the scale and cost-effectiveness of the manufacturers, in the future if you want to in the hardware field, the probability will be very small. Some traditional OEM business-oriented hardware manufacturers, may be in the software definition of the data center in the era of resurgence. They have an advantage in providing solutions for hardware and software integration.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)