What if today’s highly complex IT infrastructures could be assembled from tested and validated components that integrate best-in-class virtualization, networking, computing, storage, security and management technologies? That’s the vision of the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) coalition introduced recently by Cisco, EMC and VMware. The three IT industry leaders have worked closely to develop a shared vision of the future of the enterprise IT infrastructure — one that delivers greater flexibility and lower costs through pervasive virtualization and a transition to a private cloud infrastructure.
The VCE coalition offers organizations of all sizes an accelerated approach to data center transformation that promises significant reductions in both capital and operating expenses. Organizations will no longer have to choose between best-of-breed technologies and end-to-end vendor accountability, enabling efficiencies in design, deployment, integration and scalability.
“We believe that the VCE coalition is addressing some of the greatest challenges and opportunities customers face in the data center today,” said Vince Conroy, CTO, FusionStorm. “This coalition represents much more than an IT industry partnership. It has resulted in a fundamental architectural approach designed to optimize virtual resources. Organizations can improve utilization and security while reducing power consumption and total cost of ownership.”
Tearing Down Costs
Worldwide spending on data center technology infrastructure and services exceeds $350 billion annually, according to McKinsey and Company estimates, with half of that spent on capital expenses (products) and half on operating expenses (services and labor). Further, an estimated 70 percent or more of those costs are expended to maintain existing infrastructures, leaving 30 percent or less for new technology initiatives and applications. It is also estimated that approximately $85 billion of this total market, can be addressed with private cloud technology by 2015.
“Enterprise IT solutions remain difficult to analyze, design, procure, customize, integrate, scale and maintain. As a result, the current IT infrastructure tends to be overly complex, with an ever-increasing fixed cost structure,” said Conroy. “The private cloud or service-based consumption model can help relieve this burden, but many organizations are finding it difficult to take advantage of the private cloud concept. The realities of outdated technologies, rampant incremental approaches and the absence of a compelling end-state architecture are impeding customer adoption.
“The VCE coalition is well positioned to accelerate IT transformation by minimizing risk, complexity and time to benefit. This new architectural approach takes the data center beyond consolidation and server virtualization to a purpose-built, end-to-end virtualized environment.”
The VCE coalition solution is founded upon Vblock Infrastructure Packages, validated platforms of integrated IT infrastructure from Cisco, EMC and VMware that deliver breakthrough total cost of ownership and pervasive virtualization at a scale to meet today's most demanding requirements. Vblock Infrastructure Packages provide customers with a fundamentally better approach to streamlining and optimizing IT infrastructures around private clouds.
Firm Foundation
Vblock Infrastructure Packages are fully integrated, tested, validated, and ready-to-deploy infrastructure solutions that combine best-in-class virtualization, networking, computing, storage, security and management technologies with end-to-end vendor accountability. Vblock Infrastructure Packages enable rapid implementation of a virtualized infrastructure, and support service-level-driven environments through predictable performance and operational characteristics. They also provide improved security and compliance and reduced risk, and can be easily scaled with additional compute and storage capability after purchase.
“Vblock Infrastructure Packages represent a radical departure from today’s monolithic IT systems,” said Conroy. “They deliver deterministic performance, capacity and security with consistent power and cooling requirements. Early customer trials of Vblock Infrastructure Packages have delivered up to 40 percent reductions in the cost of operating and managing virtualized data center infrastructures.”
The Vblock architecture is built upon the concept of repeatable units of construction that are themselves based upon matched performance and operational characteristics designed to be scaled for the highest efficiencies in virtualization and workload distribution. Featuring an extensive management model based upon industry-standard tools and methods, Vblock Infrastructure Packages are also built to contain, manage and mitigate failure in hardware and software environments.
“Vblocks are units of assembly optimized for the classes of services they are designed to provide. Each unit is self-contained but may also use external services. Vblocks can be clustered for availability or aggregated for scalability, but each Vblock is still viable on its own,” Conroy said. “This principle enables fault and service isolation. The failure of a Vblock will not impact the operation of other Vblocks, although service-level degradation may occur unless availability or continuity services are present.”
Further Vblock Infrastructure Packages will be developed to serve business needs across three categories: shared services, applications and vertical industry solutions. For example, the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on Vblock solutions will enhance the provisioning, scale-out and backend management of enterprise applications and users. Vblocks will be ISO 27001 compliant to reduce risk and help ensure solutions are highly secure.
Policy-Driven Infrastructure
The private cloud is ideal for mission-critical applications, and Vblock Infrastructure Packages enable organizations to meet specific application requirements using a management and integration framework based upon open standards. By giving precise control over service levels, security, business continuity and other factors, the Vblock architecture provides a smooth migration path for existing applications.
“The Vblock architecture features abstracted, self-service templates that give organizations the ability to consume IT as a service while maintaining control,” Conroy said. “The templates ensure repeatable, compliant IT processes that reduce configuration errors and security risks. They also create a policy-driven IT infrastructure — IT defines server, fabric, application and OS configuration policies to meet business SLAs, and resources are rapidly assigned according to these requirements. This reduces time to application availability and enables the rapid migration of applications from the physical to the virtual infrastructure.”
The Unified Vblock Management Interface creates a consolidated view into all Vblock infrastructure. Policy-based management enables fine-grained tracking, traceability and reproducibility, and system-wide compliance and remediation. The IT self-service portal provides a mini service catalog and dashboard for self-provisioning supported by automated discovery and deployment.
The Vblock Security Framework integrates with existing security tools and frameworks and ensures consistent security between physical and virtual infrastructures. The Vblock Security Framework itself is a comprehensive enterprise security platform encompassing role-based access control, infrastructure and information security, policy management and security and information event management.
Seamless Support Experience
A key element of the VCE coalition approach is end-to-end vendor accountability and a seamless support experience. The coalition has developed a unified inter-company collaboration tool, joint problem re-creation labs and shared problem resolution and escalation processes, all built upon common metrics and best practices.
“Customers enjoy a single point of contact with cross-product support experts using collaborative processes and sophisticated tools,” said Conroy. “These cross-trained technical teams reduce time to resolution through deep virtualization, networking, compute and storage expertise. In addition, labs with equipment and software from all three companies help replicate and resolve problems.”
The VCE coalition has also established an ecosystem of partners committed to the coalition. As a leading systems integrator and longtime partner of Cisco, EMC and VMware, FusionStorm is uniquely positioned to help customers take advantage of Vblock solutions.
“We are very excited about the VCE initiative, especially since these three technology leaders have combined to create a joint marketing effort for their integrated and tested solution,” said Tony Balistrieri, Vice President Vendor Strategy, FusionStorm. “This combines three of our largest partners and industry leaders at the core and strength of our company’s offerings — building data centers.”
FusionStorm is VCE certified at Vblock Levels 1 and 2.
“Customers need the ability to reduce fixed costs so that they can shift more of their IT budgets to new solutions that improve business agility and competitiveness,” said Conroy. “That’s the promise of the private cloud, and the VCE coalition is helping to deliver on that promise. The Vblock architecture paves the way for customers looking to utilize cloud computing in their core environments with unprecedented levels of operational efficiency.”