Logicalis US Tells CIOs: You are Closer to a Software-Defined Data Center than You Think

NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the risks involved with shadow IT, many CIOs may reluctantly admit their line-of-business (LOB) colleagues once had good reason to procure technology services outside the watchful eye of the IT department. In the absence of a more centralized, easy-to-control pool of IT resources, CIOs' hands have been tied by the limitations of traditional hardware-based data center management techniques. As the velocity of business in corporate America has steadily increased, so too have LOB technology demands. This creates a perfect storm which has left many IT departments struggling to keep up.  "Innovation" has become the mantra among organizations working to give themselves competitive advantage, and as CIOs are quickly learning, everyone from the C-suite down is counting on the IT department to provide a pathway for that innovation to take place. However, according to Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (www.us.logicalis.com), before innovation can define the business, software must define the data center.

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"CIOs who don't take this seriously won't exist in the next 10 years," says Troy Vetter, Senior Director of Software Defined Data Center Solutions, Logicalis US.  "Anyone who doesn't implement a software-defined data center will be too slow to keep up.  It isn't impossible to do – but it is complicated and takes some experience."

A software-defined data center (SDDC) is a data center in which all of the components – network, compute, storage – are virtualized and controllable from a single unified interface.  By creating a management layer that spans all data center resources, IT departments can more quickly and easily define, develop and deploy services in response to an organization's rapidly changing business needs.   IT tasks that once took months to complete can literally become minute-long, single-click exercises, giving the IT department a new way to keep pace with LOB service requests.  Not only does SDDC provide CIOs a way to combat shadow IT, but it is also the first step in moving toward a truly service-defined enterprise and acts as the catalyst that redefines the CIO's role from technologist to business enabler and innovator.

One of the chief reasons organizations resist a move to SDDC is the concern that they will have to rebuild their data centers from scratch. "You don't have to rip and replace," says David Angradi, Director of Software Defined Data Center Solutions, Logicalis US.  "One of the industry's best-kept secrets is that you can re-use most – if not all – of your existing IT investments.  In short, you're closer to SDDC than you think."

Six Steps to SDDC
A software-defined data center may be the goal, but many skeptical CIOs worry about what it will take to implement one.  To help, the experts in Logicalis' SDDC practice have outlined a six-step how-to guide.

1. Start with a plan: Begin by assessing where the company is now as well as where it wants to go.  One of the biggest reasons SDDC projects fail is because the company is hyper-focused on the technological end goal to the exclusion of other factors.  True, SDDC is a technological change, but it's not just about the physical assets in the data center.  There are people and process components involved in making a move to SDDC successful; to succeed, the organization has to be ready for these changes, and everyone concerned must be on board.
   
   
2. Virtualize where possible: Create virtualized containers on top of all computing devices; by creating a software layer that's separate from the physical hardware, IT can take action by building, configuring, changing and decommissioning hardware all from one unified management interface.  Dynamic swaps of space and configurations can be done on the fly; IT is no longer bound by how much capacity is available at a given point in time.  Imagine it this way: If you buried all your money in the back yard in various containers holding different denominations, you would have to dig each container up each time you needed a specific sum rather than simply going to the bank and withdrawing exactly what you need when you need it most. That's the difference between managing a physical data center and a virtualized one.
   
   
3. Buy the right fuel: Think of compute capacity as the fuel that runs the data center.  Like gasoline for cars, compute capacity comes in different varieties – public cloud, on-premise private cloud, or a hybrid combination of the two.  The goal is to buy the compute capacity that will most cost effectively fuel the engine of the organization's new software-defined data center.
   
   
4. Orchestrate and automate: CIOs must ask themselves how much of what they do on a daily basis is held strictly in their heads or resides inside the minds of key employees?  If some of those tasks are truly repetitive, they can be orchestrated and automated, freeing IT staff from mundane processes by moving that intellectual property into software and, thereby, allowing internal talent to focus on innovation and market differentiators that create true competitive advantage.
   
   
5. Create a service catalog: Typical IT departments have key services they provide over and over again.  They are prompted to provide these services when they receive a service ticket, an email, a panicked phone call, or have someone yelling at them – but there is a better way.  Just like retailers offering everything from sporting goods to men's wear, IT departments can create a catalog of technology services that allows people to simply place an order for the service they need and be charged for it internally.  The idea of providing technology as a service to internal users via a catalog or portal also gives IT the ability to illustrate time, value and return on investment in a clearer and more meaningful way.  Logicalis experts do offer a word of caution: A common pitfall is the temptation to focus more time and attention on creating a beautiful service catalog than on bolstering the services and IT functions behind it.  If the CEO uses the portal only to discover that the system doesn't work properly, the CIO and IT department may lose more than an opportunity to impress.
   
   
6. Consider disaster recovery: Have a mobile phone with a broken screen?  No problem. As quickly as you can get to the carrier's store, you can buy a new phone and simply move your contacts, photos and apps over to the new one; that's because those valuable data sets and applications are software-based.  The same holds true in a software-defined data center. When everything is virtual, disaster recovery (DR) becomes markedly easier.  No more hours and weeks of building a complicated DR plan; since the data center is all operating from software, if the hardware goes down, just replace the hardware and copy the software onto it again.

Want to Learn More?

• Did you know that most CIOs and IT leaders (95 percent) believe software-defined solutions will soon impact their IT services and delivery strategies? To learn more, download the 2014 and 2015 studies, then explore Logicalis' software-defined data center Web site: http://ow.ly/Xw2z9.
• Examine the benefits of SDDC and the relationship between SDDC and the service-defined enterprise.
• Read about the reasons SDDC makes sense, then find out how SDDC can help redefine your data center by registering to attend a Logicalis SDDC workshop: http://ow.ly/Xw2CO.

About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration; data center and cloud services; and managed services.

Logicalis employs over 4,000 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, deploy and manage complex IT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 6,500 corporate and public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, EMC, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow on an international basis. It has specialized solutions for enterprise and medium-sized companies in vertical markets covering financial services, TMT (telecommunications, media and technology), education, healthcare, retail, government, manufacturing and professional services, helping customers benefit from cutting-edge technologies in a cost-effective way.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1.5 billion from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific and is one of the leading IT and communications solution integrators specializing in the areas of advanced technologies and services.

The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of over $6 billion.

For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.

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Media contacts:
Lisa Dreher, VP, Marketing & Business Development,
Logicalis US
[email protected]
425-201-8111
www.us.logicalis.com

Karen Franse, Communication Strategy Group for Logicalis US
[email protected]
866-997-2424
www.gocsg.com

SOURCE Logicalis US

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