A traditional data center has three separate environments: servers, a storage system and network devices. Each has its own console, its own patch calendar and its own specialist. Making room for a new workload means working through all three, and the job stretches over weeks.
In a software-defined data center these three layers run as one software system: storage is built from the servers’ own disks, the network is defined in the virtualization layer, and management is in one place. In practice:
Capacity grows by adding servers
When a server is added, the CPU, memory and storage pools grow together, with no separate storage expansion project.
Layers are updated together
Virtualization, storage and network releases are updated as compatible packages.
Troubleshooting is shorter
Problems are traced by looking at the whole platform from one place.
The cloud services run on this architecture, and the same architecture can be installed in your own data center.
Related service:
Private Cloud Platform Deployment