If your data center is on an evolutionary track from siloed and hardware-centric to agile and software-defined, you’re aware of converged and hyperconverged infrastructures. If you haven’t yet been introduced to composable, welcome to the next gen step in your data center modernization journey.
The need to scale infrastructure while reducing capital expenditures is a driving force in the shift from data center sprawl tied to hardware-focused architectures, toward an agile software-defined model. However, remaining competitive, customer-focused, and streamlined within a quickly evolving data center modernization landscape can be tricky.
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.
Douglas McArthur once said, “There is no security in this world, only opportunity.” That statement is more profound for the business climate of today than perhaps any time in history. There is no longer any security for a company regardless of its size, history or market share. There is also limitless opportunity for new ideas and innovation that can bring recognized value to customers. Ideas are the new substantive matter that has the potential to create or destroy entire industries. A new idea can yield unbridled success to its originator, and irrelevancy to its competitors. Welcome to the Idea Economy, a new age that Meg Whitman, CEO of HPE, says is defined by the ability to turn ideas into value faster than the competition.
At WEI, we pride ourselves on fostering strong client partnerships and truly believe that their success is our success. Our company was recently featured in an article by CVS Health, a longtime partner of WEI, for our assistance with the CVS Health and Target integration. We began working with CVS Health more than five years ago, when we were hired to replace keyboards and memory DIMMS in all of their 7,000 pharmacies.
