| | February 2015 9CIOReviewThe notion of separate compute and storage islands for workloads and data needs to be consolidated into an SDDC architecture where CIOs and IT departments can enable services, capabilities, and quality of service (QoS) through software that is deployed on generic hardware. Over time, we will see the workload capability and coverage from these new systems expand dramatically. Defining the architectureThe new software-defined storage architecture allows us to de-couple the data and compute resources from the underlying hard-ware. It enables us to layer the necessary services on an as-need-ed basis where key capabilities are a function of unified software across heterogeneous hardware versus the current significant limitation and cost burden of homogenous hardware. It enables much faster innovation, deployment and updates of functionality but also addresses a key challenge for IT teams ­ when and where to run workloads for best performance and cost. By moving the enablement process into a distributed software stack, customers can utilize their infrastructure as a service to span across their datacenters, eliminating the dilemma of deploying in the cloud or on premise.Implementing the architectureOne size does not fit all. Customers need the ability to utilize existing on-premise hardware along with resources deployed in private clouds, with infrastructure as a service, and many physi-cal and virtual platforms. While single vendors may continue to work on providing the complete stack, it's important to take into account the diversity of infrastructures and needs within many enterprises. There is tremendous demand for an "any-ness" like architecture that can integrate multiple types of storage, network-ing, and compute to be provisioned and orchestrated in a more open way through a host-based OS-independent stack.Key requirements for the architectureWhile the software-defined datacenter and workspace are be-coming established in the market, customers need to look ahead to further enable this flex-ibility and elasticity in their environments. CIOs continue to face tight budgets and organizations that demand more services with ever-shrinking deployment time frames. Balancing provisioning and economics is tricky, so the ability to have a single control plane across workloads and infrastructure is fundamental. The right mixture of physical, virtual and cloud resources coupled with the right network infrastructure and cen-tralized unified deployment, as well as services and management platforms that can span geographic locations can overcome both budget and time challenges. Streamlining Workspace Delivery with a Software-de-fined Storage ArchitectureWe have arrived at a point where hardware can be used to enable software as opposed to the other way around. The elimination of proprietary hardware helps dramatically reduce deployment capi-tal expenditures, and the migration of management and provi-sioning in standard OS platforms and tools significantly improves operational expenses and efficiency. Through software, we can deploy and repurpose the same infrastructure for multiple applications and workloads while significantly reducing time to value and increasing productiv-ity. Instead of deploying a proprietary stack to enable its own availability, we can deploy stacks that enable the infrastructure availability. More importantly, this provides a holistic workload approach where VDI, applications and ultimately businesses data are highly available, scalable, and elastic, which dramatically im-proves productivity. 'We need to focus on and deliver a consistent and responsive workload user experience across many end-user devices, including workstations, laptops, smartphones, and tablets
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