By David Angradi, Director, Software Defined Data Center Solutions, Logicalis US
When it comes to enterprise IT, line-of-business users have begun to realize that it isn’t the technology itself that they care about – it’s what they can do with that technology that counts. Therefore, while IT must remain vigilant and focused on all the details that keep a data center running smoothly, IT’s success is being measured more in terms of its ability to deliver a better experience to the internal users of those technology services.
This IT experience embodies what analysts are calling the “third platform” – the convergence of mobile and cloud computing together with social media and big data – and whether or not CxOs put the same label on it, it’s what they want IT to provide. A software-defined data center may provide the fastest route to this service-defined technology experience because it allows you to leverage your existing technology investments while adding a software and services layer to aid you as you move toward and embrace technology’s third platform.
When asked about the advantages of a software-defined data center, many experts spout the utopian ideals of agility, time-to-market, efficiency and total cost of ownership. These ideals, however, can become realities for the enterprise willing to take the time to honestly assess where it is along the IT transformation journey as well as where it wants to go.
- Greater Business Agility: A software-defined data center can take manual processes that previously required days or even weeks to accomplish and make them push-button exercises that can be delivered in a matter of hours or even minutes. This gives organizations the ability to pivot quickly to fulfill changing business demands, adjusting their IT services to meet market conditions.
- Faster Time-to-Market: Nowhere is the importance of time-to-market more clear than among software providers. The days of large applications being updated every 12 to 16 months are gone now; people want new, updated apps every few weeks instead. Having the technology they need at the ready to create new versions of their software and get those versions to market faster is the difference between success and failure in a world where timing really is everything; a software-defined data center gives them the technological tools they need to enhance their business capabilities when they need them, on demand.
- Increased Corporate Efficiencies: Every CIO is more than familiar with the “do more with less” mantra that is so pervasive in corporate America today. But as computing needs increase, so too do the resources IT requires to deliver those services. It takes people to manage these growing compute resources, as well. With SDDC, however, increased headcount can be kept to a minimum, preserving costs while delivering an expanding and very efficient IT infrastructure ready to meet the right-now demands of today’s corporate IT user.
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership: Being able to take advantage of public cloud resources and consume those IT services as they’re needed gives enterprise IT departments the flexibility to deliver the technology tools their business users want, when they want them, yet without having to build and manage the infrastructure required to deliver those capabilities in house.
Want to learn more? Watch a brief video that explains how enabling a software-defined data center allows you to deliver an efficient environment and focus on the applications that drive business value, thereby becoming a broker of IT services. Then, explore the relationship between a software-defined data center and a service-defined enterprise, and discover how virtualization, converged infrastructure and software-defined technologies can be the keys to the on-demand, service-defined enterprise CEOs, CFOs and line-of-business leaders want most from IT.