A Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), or virtual data center, is a term used to describe a data center where all infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service, which is also known as IT as a Service (ITaaS). Control and management of a software-defined data center are fully automated, allowing hardware configuration to be maintained through software systems. In addition, a software-defined data center can house private, public and hybrid clouds.
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Core Components
A software-defined data center utilizes many concepts and data center infrastructure components. Through an application programming interface (API), users can provision, employ and manage the components per their needs. The following core architectural components make up a software-defined data center:
- Computer Virtualization: Software implementation of a computer.
- Network Virtualization (Software-Defined Networking): The process of merging hardware and software resources and networking functionality into a software-based virtual network.
- Storage Virtualization: A service interface to provision storage capacity and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
A software-defined data center will also include an automation and management software to allow the administrator to provision, manage and control all core components.
Software-Defined Data Center Benefits
There are many benefits of a software-defined data center. For enterprises, running a software-defined data center could be cheaper than a traditional data center as they will no longer need to purchased specific hardware or subject matter experts for the installation of specific programs. Instead, IT professionals can define needed applications and group their required resources to fulfill the needs of the enterprise. This includes compute, storage, networking, and security resources.
Additional benefits include improved efficiency from extending virtualization throughout the data center. Increased agility through the quick provisioning of applications. Policy-based governance, which allows for improved control over security and application availability. As well as the ability to deploy new and existing applications in multiple platforms and clouds.