Building the Green Engine Inside a Modern Green Enterprise Data Center

You have built that spanking new Data Center awesome! 

A common theme resounds in the Data Center world... we have built the most modern, efficient, green ecology to place your enterprise HYPER/CONVERGED computing equipment. We all know an ecology requires a delicate balance of everything contained within an ecosystem that interoperates...

What if we had an ecosystem that TRULY operated as one - the green hardware, green Operating System with modernized DevOps software, database and resides in a green data center environment. Many Green Data Centers are starting to crop up Globally - Green House Data, Switch, etc... just check out the videos on the internet. The modern data center has certainly become a focal point in today's world.

Today there is a shift in the paradigm from the on-premise data center to the cloud. The shift is in progress, mainly, driven by CX (Customer Experience) due to many factors constrain the system density, scaling and independence. But can the cloud deliver? Or is it... are we merely shifting the problem. Does everything need to be driven from the cloud...

The customers in the IT Industry need a clear trajectory on what is a modern enterprise data center - both inside and out. The industry has somewhat of a clouded view on what it should contain... let's try to clear it up, provide some perspective and introduce some new thinking to consider.

First you must determine your strategic direction. Does the solution being considered align with the strategic direction of the organization - on-premise, in-the-cloud or a hybrid. The hybrid model provides the best of both worlds when it comes to scalability on-demand for planned seasonality or unusual out of the normal spikes in activity.

Examining the Inside of the Data Center

Let's first go on a journey inside of a Data Center since this very well can determine what we need to build or acquire to support our infrastructure today and in the future.

What are your computing, storage, virtualization and network requirements? This will determine the overall size of the floor space you will consume, the scalability, the future growth projections and the auxiliary supporting equipment. A few questions come to mind... you should look at all your options determine what each vendor requirement might be. The cost of the data center engine that drives your business projections and its impact on your the Data Center environment you select is critical.

On-Premise Data Centers, puts you in control of the planning aspects around the nature of our business, the critical applications that you wish to house internally that allows greater control within the sphere of the business operation. But is limited on real-time dynamic scalability. If your business is relatively static, does not reach high-watermarks that require exceed the current deployment and allows for graceful planned scalability then look Hyperconverged comparison of industry players below.

To a Colocation Center it is extremely critical since floor space is equal to revenue and a Modular Data Center ECOSYSTEM allows containers to interconnect to the Data Center ecology. This levels the Vendor Choice playfield to what each vendor can deliver in a single standard unit. Additionally, the latest generation Modular Data Center should consider building a Data Center that can stack three (3) or more computing containers like Lego blocks. This will achieve 3x our current footprint and mitigation of building new Data Centers. It is imperative that we start doing something in the Data Center far more than 25-35% improvement. It is paramount since Mission Critical Data Center says the USA will need ~4,000 new Data Centers by 2020 or ~800,000,000 sqft this will require ~1,000 new Power Plants - an impossible feat given we have 13 months to get there - Data Center Crisis!

The Hybrid-Cloud model a blend of on-premise Enterprise Computing and Cloud Computing seems like the logical path for scalability to address this coming crisis.

Choice of Vendors

If your choice is determined by selecting one vendor of another. Think about is the vendor partnering with me versus the one that has been chaining me to there solution. You need to ask yourself, will it allowed you increased revenue, greater flexibility, lower OPEX, lower point of entry, greater performance and more customer options? As a CxO you would definitely would take a look at the option best served. It provides the ability to scale to the next best technology given a leap frog or quantum leap occurs. If each deployment operates in local synchronicity and geographic synchronicity with fluidity of the business dynamics - this is definitely a critical advantage over the other vendors.

So many times, we as customers look to the analysts to provide us all the short-list and ignore the other players. New players in the market are not even considered or given this option to participate - in the industry that LEGACY vendors are considered the safe choice. A Technology Refresh is a 3-5 year commitment so a new comer in the market today could be the industry leader in that span of time. So given that consideration, we fall back to the original question, "Does the solution being considered align with the strategic direction of the organization?".

Hyperconverged Comparison of Industry Players

Business elements that potentially have the greater impact:

Software-defined data center (SDDC) is the phrase used to refer to a data center where all infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service. Control of the data center is fully automated by software, meaning hardware configuration is maintained through intelligent software systems.

Definition of HCI (Hyperconverged Infrastructure)

Even the definition is flawed so the IT industry can get away with a Converged solution. The marketing hype says Hyperconverged but a few clicks under the covers if becomes Converged. It is flawed so, " Hyperconverged infrastructure is a software-defined IT infrastructure that virtualizes all of the elements of conventional "hardware-defined" systems. HCI includes, at a minimum, virtualized computing, a virtualized SAN and virtualized networking. HCI typically runs on commercial off-the-shelf servers." This will not cut it in the Enterprise. Reason being, conventional servers are not scalable, create cable sprawl, operate in half-full racks and hot|cold aisles are required.

Onset of the SDDC (Software Defined Data Center)

This is a key element in attracting HCI solutions that incorporate the hardware, software and the environment into a True Ecosystem. HCI is one in which all the components are tightly integrated such that they cannot be broken down into separate components, and must operate on their own such as a single appliance. 

• What is SDDC? A data center that utilizes software defined systems (computing, networking, and storage) with additional software for system orchestration and management.
• Why does SDDC matter? Software defined systems are easier to manage than systems that require manual provisioning and configuration.
• Who does SDDC affect? Organizations with a workload large enough to warrant traditional data center deployments can benefit from a "full" SDDC, though smaller organizations can benefit from adopting some software defined systems.
• When is SDDC happening? This concept has existed in various forms since 2002, though only recently are organizations considering adoption of SDDC.
• How do I get a SDDC? While it is possible to build a custom solution for your organization, various server hardware vendors offer pre-qualified, easy to deploy solutions.

Z-IMPACT has embedded SDDC within the iPulse Operating System and it interoperates connecting all deployed appliances in Geographic Synchronicity whether local or on the edge.

Why Hyperconverged Infrastructure is so Hot

Hyperconvergence promises flexibility and simplicity, but it’s not the ultimate answer to all of IT’s problems - you must create synergy with the hardware, software and the operating environment.

It seems everyone out there is claiming Hyperconverged. The industry has clamored over Nutanix (NTNX) since before they IPO'ed, had it extremely overvalued and they hit the accelerator over the market hype! Nutanix is a cloud computing software company that sells what it calls hyperconverged infrastructure for commodity appliances and SDS (software-defined storage) to make sure applications do not run out of storage (a small piece of HCI). It is best limited to the SMB or isolated enterprise business segments, but not the full enterprise. Is not scalable, has cable sprawl, etc. and their alliance with Dell-EMC, IBM Pure on others is an an attempt to enter the enterprise space with limited results.

Facts on Nutanix...

Z-IMPACT cloud computing software operating in with true hyperconverged ecosystem has much richer abilities, density and does the impossible seamlessly scales to the enterprise! https://z-impact.com/about-2/

Constructing the Outside of the Data Center

Now you should have a good idea what you need. You can stick with your Legacy technology or take advantage of Z-IMPACT's TRUE HCI solution that creates density, reduce Data Center requirements, mitigates future Data Center builds, lower CAPEX|OPEX >50%, DOWNSIZES THE DATA CENTER 50-90%, REDUCES RTO | RPO TO NEAR ZERO, INCREASES PERFORMANCE >12X, BOOSTS RELIABILITY | UPTIME TO 100% AVAILABILITY, AND REMEDY TO 2020 DATA CENTER CRISIS!

It's about the ecosystem ecology – hardware, software and the environment operating in geographic synchronicity with fluidity of the business dynamics. Current Hyperconverged Vendors limit your business – Z-IMPACT does the impossible.

Conclusion

What is the Engine that drives your Data Center that could increase the capacity 12-36x (Standard Data Center | Modular Data Center)? You have a choice to mitigate the purchase and construction costs, provide a new paradigm for Colocations as a Hybrid-Cloud or redefine the on-premise Data Center as we know it today!