Investing in a new data centre setup

The software-defined data center (SDDC) is inevitable, and the next step on the path to the SDDC is to virtualize the network. The vast majority of VMware’s 500,000 customers are exploring, planning or already virtualizing their networks as the next step in their transformation from the client/server era to the mobile/cloud era. Quite simply, the SDDC is more agile, secure and scalable than the new HDDC architecture put forth by the largest network provider today, at one-third the cost.

In a software-defined data center, infrastructure (including the network) is virtualized, delivered as a service and controlled by software. It is a model for running highly agile, flexible, scalable and secure data centers that has been proven out by mega-scale cloud operators such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Many global mainstream enterprises and service providers are also virtualizing their networks, including China Mobile, China Telecom, Colt, eBay, McKesson, NEXON America, NTTcom, Schuberg Philis, Synergent, USDA and WestJet, to name a few.

For the software-defined data center, network virtualization provides the fastest, most agile network infrastructure. At the heart of network virtualization is abstraction – the decoupling of software from hardware – while faithfully replicating everything the application expects to see. It is this decoupling that allows organizations to transform business agility, data center economics and IT architecture in areas such as security. 

This transformation would be difficult to achieve in a closed, tightly-coupled, hardware-bound environment. Development happens much faster in software than it does in hardware. When you decouple software from hardware, the two layers can evolve independently, giving you better feature velocity in the network.

Perhaps most importantly, network virtualization enables extreme flexibility in geography and sourcing, as well as increased independence. Because software and hardware are decoupled, creative sourcing, and the ability to build to mean capacity and burst for additional capacity without concerns about which hardware is in place are all easily accomplished. Additionally, heterogeneous physical infrastructure from disparate companies brought together through mergers and acquisitions can quickly be utilized in a seamless IT environment.