Preparing for a software-defined world
How might business customers take their first steps into the new world? Mike Hemes outlines a route
The software-defined world may disrupt everything we already know about networking, storage and service delivery.
This can mean overwhelming pressure on businesses to comprehend how software-defined technologies will work for them and how it will affect their processes. New models for deployment and service delivery can prove beneficial, as long as you're prepared.
In a software-defined offering, networking, computing and storage resources may be centrally controlled and entirely automated used software. Software-defined networking (SDN) involves replacing networking equipment control panels with software that can be applied as the technology is changed, allowing hardware to be used longer.
There's no doubt that using software-defined datacentres running virtual network services will be seen as a radical approach. After all, the entire infrastructure is virtualised and delivered as a service - a daunting prospect for any organisation.
Support will be needed both before and after any deployment.
Yet the power of the IT is placed in the hands of the people who really need it. Organisations may commoditise expert offerings allowing virtualisation administrators and application owners can solve problems themselves, instead of getting the networking team involved.
This will bring unprecedented control and flexibility, and may be the only way the enterprise will make the transition to the emerging world of anywhere, any time, anybody access that users now want.
Then we will start to see the next-generation IT organisation take shape, where a diversified skill set will combine networking, storage and virtualisation expertise. We are beginning to see the early stages of this IT organisational shift today.
Functions that were once the domain of the network administrator are becoming part of the virtual administrator's role, while network administrators looking to deploy services and features in a virtual environment need to learn the skill set of the person who manages virtual machines (VMs).
Advice on the best offerings should be coupled with guidance on new roles and responsibilities.
The first step is to educate the IT department on all things software-defined, to ensure it is right for the customer organisation. Understanding the benefits, weaknesses and challenges is a prerequisite for any deployment.
Mike Hemes is EMEA vice president of sales at Silver Peak