Overview of Software Defined Data Center (SSDC)

SSDC :  Software Defined Data Center in short SSDC which was coined by VMware’s CTO, Dr. Steve Herrod. refers to a virtualized data center in which all infrastructure elements networking, storage, CPU(Compute) and security are virtualized and delivered as a ITaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). While Server virtualization was only providing compute service, SSDC extends virtualization from the basic compute to storage services and networking resources. In Software Defined Data Center, deployment, operation, provisioning and configuration are abstracted from hardware by enabling policy-driven automation or implementing software intelligence of everything which not only speeds the resource delivery but also enhances efficiency. SSDC (Software Defined Data Center) is also called as SSD (Software Defined Datacenter) or VDC (Virtual Data Center).

Some of the vendors who provide SDDC hardware and services are Amazon, Dell/VMware, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, IBM and Citrix etc.

Components of SSDC :

1. Virtualized Compute –
   Compute virtualization or server virtualization masks server resources as a result administrators use Virtual Machines for running and using multiple different applications and operating system on a single server. So the users and organizations stay out of managing complicated server-resource details.
2. Virtualized Storage –
   Storage virtualization pools physical storage resources from multiple network storage devices which eliminates disconnected storage systems and gives an appearance of single storage device managed by a central hub. It gives a facility of flexibility and extensibility and scalability to make it more dynamic.
3. Virtualized Network –
   Network virtualization combines network resources and allows provisioning and managing networks independently of the physical hardware/channels so that assigning and reassigning to a particular server becomes more flexible.

The below figure illustrates the components of Software Defined Data Center :

Before moving into SSDC keep the below points in mind for getting a smooth and better advantage of SSDC implementation. Because sometimes it happens that organizations jumps into  Software Defined Data Center without any preparation and faces a big failure and financial loss. So it is recommended that better to jump into SSDC when an organization is ready make the transition and move with SSDC. 

1. Access company collaboration towards adoption of newer technology.
2. DevOps teams have a great role in SSDC so access the capabilities & limitations of organization’s DevOps team.
3. Monitor the basic software infrastructure of the organization.
4. Monitor the organization’s need of compute and storage services.

Benefits of implementing SSDC :

• Increases business productivity
• Reduce costs
• Faster IT Service Delivery
• Improves infrastructure performance
• Increase scalability
• Provides more storage capacity
• Improve business agility
• Reduce IT resource usage
• Automated deployment and management
• Allows infrastructure and application modernization.

Challenges in implementing SSDC :

• Standardization across teams is a problem
• Needs increased DevOps skills
• Switching over to the new environment of SSDC
• Needs change in existing processes and workflows of organization

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Article Tags :

• Software Engineering