SDDC as a service- What, Why and How?

Software Defined Data Center as a Service- What, Why and How?

IT leaders across most progressive enterprises have started leveraging the power of Software Defined Data Center (#SDDC) with a singular goal of aligning IT with business outcomes. The footprint of SDDC though limited to isolated use case(s), is gaining prominence due to the value it delivers through it’s key attributes- automation, control and cost. According to a study from Gartner, by 2020, the programmatic capabilities of an SDDC will be considered a requirement for 75% of Global 2000 enterprises in order to successfully implement a complete hybrid cloud deployment and/or DevOps development model, up from 10% today. 

 The newly introduced “as a service” options are set to unleash capabilities that will allow enterprises to extend SDDC as a Service to public clouds. This blended offering has the potential to transform Private Data Centers by letting them embrace flexibility of Public Cloud without giving up control and governance. To understand the power of SDDC as a Service, we need to first understand what SDDC is and the value it delivers to IT. 

What is SDDC? As defined by Gartner, It’s an optional architectural approach for IT Infrastructure and facilities management and engineering services. the goal of SDDC is to deliver greater business value than traditional, more manual processes and scripts by increasing the agility and speed of Infrastructure through policy-based automation processes. To simply put, It’s an architecture through which you can balance Control with Freedom of your IT infrastructure. 

The SDDC as a Service architecture extends this functionality with ease of management through common tools and resources while allowing IT to balance control with Freedom. Together these services bring to life the “Best of the both World” of Private and Public Cloud environments. The newly announced partnership between VMware, a leader in Private Cloud and Amazon Web Services, the torch bearer of Public Cloud is an example of what SDDC as a Service has to offer in transforming enterprise IT.      

Why SDDC as Service? Until now, in response to growing business demands, enterprise IT had to make to choice of managing their own infrastructure through a Private Cloud environment or embracing the Public Cloud. This often led to managing multiple environments, increasing complexities and cost through non standard tools, additional resources requirements and learning curves etc. With SDDC as a service, they have the ability to run any application through an abstraction of a physical Infrastructure, the API led automation delivers greater business value through automation. This combined with the flexibility powered by Public Cloud functionalities is one of the key benefits of SDDC as a service. Having a common platform architecture makes it easy for enterprises to seamlessly build and manage their Cloud environments. The VMware Cloud foundation is one such unified platform that’s helping enterprise to do the same.

How to approach SDDC as a service?

 In order to embrace the power of SDDC as a service and extract maximum value, it’s imperative for enterprise to take a pragmatic view of their existing applications and supporting Infrastructure. A close look at technologies that will be replaced and existing ones being modified, processes that will be automated and the effort required to do so is also a critical factor to be considered. Having a unified architecture that leads to an effortless migration of your Private Cloud to a Public Cloud, while unleashing new services options to modernize your data center will be key to the transformation.

For more information on how enterprises will leverage the combined power of VMware Cloud on AWS, read here.

Download VMware Cloud Foundation White paper.

Best,

Nitin Saxena

Head Global Cloud Partner Marketing, VMware Inc.