IT leaders are investing more time and research into understanding which hyperconverged solution is right for their businesses. We can certainly understand why hyperconvergence is getting the spotlight. The promise of tightly integrated data center components that simplify day-to-day operations, improve IT agility, and speed up infrastructure deployments sounds like the right solution for this time in the IT world.
Business can no longer afford for IT to be a cost center. In the ever-transforming economy of today, ideas are the new currency of business and IT is the ATM that will deliver them. It is not just about ideas though, it is about how fast you can bring those ideas into the market where they can bring value to customers and profits to business. Resources and customers gravitate to new ideas that bring value. In order for IT to take the lead in this new world, it must become faster and more agile. In order to do this, it must break the chains of the traditional data center that weighs it down and instead implement a new means of delivering and managing technology. That new system is Composable Infrastructure. It will allow IT to break free from the ordinary and accelerate the extraordinary, ensuring its new role as a value creation partner for the enterprise.
In today’s hyper competitive global economy, companies are constantly racing to convert ideas into value faster than their competition. As a result, IT is being asked to transform the data center infrastructure into a more fluid, flexible fabric that can perpetually evolve and adapt to new demands and opportunities. IT is expected to create and deliver new applications and services for mobile, social, and cloud technologies—and do so with shorter development cycles. On top of that, IT must still manage the traditional applications, data silos, and hardware while lowering the costs to do so. To say that today’s IT department has a full plate of responsibility is an understatement. The bar has indeed been set high today.
For IT managers, the days of “just” keeping the data center up and running are about over. In IT today, it’s no longer just about managing and maintaining assets, and providing support for the back office. In this blazing-fast digital age where collaboration is king, IT is in a better position now more than ever to help drive key business initiatives and help businesses meet strategic goals.
Automation is a hot topic today. We read about autonomous cars and trucks that drive themselves over long distances, eliminating the consequences of human error and maximizing productivity as drivers can now focus on tasks that add far more value to their lives. We read about automated cooking robots that prepare the perfect burger or cappuccino every time for a steady stream of customers. Many of today’s network managers would appreciate more automation when it comes to managing their network. In fact:
Today’s IT Manager has to walk a tightrope. Management is saddled with the inherited role of supporting the traditional data center that remains built around an inflexible hardware-based infrastructure. At the same time, management and market pressures are compelling them to try to and transform this rigid environment into a modern data center—designed around flexibility, operational velocity and borderless adaptation. It is a quandary of duality that IT teams frustratingly have to deal with.
Software defined storage (SDS) has the potential to revolutionize your business processes and drive extraordinary value. However, storage isn’t just measured by capacity. In our previous blog post, we laid out the example of thinking of your organization’s storage infrastructure like a virtual city: there are specific places designated for each type of data, from highly-utilized information to archives. Because of this, there is a true need for segmenting your resources; today, SDS is finally allocating true Automated Storage Tiering (AST) for enterprises. AST has created a natural and timely partnership with flash storage to offer the speed and performance that personal computing devices have enjoyed for years and many organizations are now considering all-flash based arrays to meet the demands of server virtualization.
Several analysts have predicted a rise in the adoption of SDN and software-defined technologies in the years ahead. We stand by the prediction as our networking solution engineers often get asked about our experience implementing the market leading SDN solutions available today. Read through this example of how WEI assisted its customer with a data center relocation and consolidation project that was enhanced by the implementation of Cisco ACI -- which presents a new networking model that leverages policy-based networking.
Software defined storage (SDS) is a cost-effective way for companies to store their data in a safe cloud environment while freeing up space traditionally taken up by physical hardware. It can also provide a stronger level of data protection since cloud service providers (although their security policies vary) have a responsibility to care for customer data, per your service agreement. How can you determine if this fits into your organization’s budget? First, let’s dive into the circumstances that created a need for SDS
