Cloud Computing: The Software-Defined Data Center – Dissecting the Latest Buzzword

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Joe Onisick.

In order to navigate the current landscape of IT, you need an economy-size can of Buzzword-Be-Gone. You can’t discuss any current technology without its marketeers describing it as a cloud-based, big-data solution that provides synergy and business value through blah, blah, blah. One term gaining tons of traction recently is software-defined data center. This one is being tossed around by execs at VMware, EMC and throughout the industry. Let’s dig into it some.

The concept of a software-defined data center is based on abstracting the hardware itself from the delivery of services to the business. This should sound quite familiar, as it’s a concept that’s been with us from the early days of virtualization through to the current cloud discussions. A software-defined data center is one in which the configuration of hardware is done through upper-level software systems. This allows new services to be turned on or off rapidly and existing services to grow and shrink as needed…

What separates this from cloud is its ability to support legacy enterprise applications as well as new services written with cloud in mind. Traditional IT applications aren’t designed for Amazon-style cloud services, and IT shops aren’t prepared to rewrite legacy code to move it into cloud environments. Legacy applications will fail if pushed as-is into cloud environments. They aren’t designed for application-level fault tolerance, Web-based latency, or to reap the benefits of a distributed architecture…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkcomputing.com/data-center/the-software-defined-data-center-dissect/240006848