Adopting Converged Infrastructure as a Go Forward Datacenter Strategy
James Charter, Solution Architect
Slide 3
• About Long View Systems
• Traditional Infrastructure
• Converged Infrastructure
• What are the technologies?
• What is required?
• What are the benefits?
• When is the best time?
• Next steps
Agenda
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• One of North America’s largest IT Services/Solutions organizations
• Focused on end-to-end, operational IT Infrastructure
• Industry leading expertise in key technology innovations and best practices
• Extensive project experience (complete lifecycle) with SMB to enterprise corporations
• A people-focused corporate culture dedicated to “Being the Best”
About Long View Systems
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What We Do
Long View
IT Consulting & Solution Architecture
IT Project Delivery Managed Services &
Outsourcing IT Procurement
Services
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Some of Our Partners & Awards
Advanced Technology Partner of the Year
Elite Partner, ASL & PSL
Star & Authorized Professional Service Partner
Premier Solution Provider Partner
Large Account Re-Seller (LAR)
Premier Partner Fast-Growth Partner
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• Most environments use a traditional approach now
• Technologies (Server, Storage, Network) and management are in silos
• Scaling environment often involves addition of all resources even if a single resource is the constraint (i.e. compute)
• Each component is managed separately through many tools and skill sets, often distributed across different teams
Traditional Infrastructure
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Traditional Infrastructure - Cables
Too many cables, means more management… 11 cables
11 cables connecting to a minimum of 4 managed devices
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Traditional Infrastructure - Scale
• Most uplinks are for redundancy not bandwidth
• Low utilization of FC and Gigabit Ethernet • Many components to manage
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Traditional Infrastructure - Scale
• Wire once, Wire once again! • Higher utilization in some components, not
all • Capacity management is accomplished by
monitoring everything often with dissimilar tools
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Traditional Infrastructure - Scale
• Lack of ports drives scaling, not utilization! • Manual balancing of workloads and
connections are used to distribute utilization
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Traditional Infrastructure - Scale
• The more we scale the more we have to manage!
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• Also referred to as “Fabric-Based Infrastructures”
• Similar to Server Virtualization only Broader – Every Resource is Shareable
• Involves the Virtualization of Servers, Storage, and Network in a Management Framework
• Wire resources once, use many times (until target utilization is reached)
• Another logical layer of abstraction above physical resources
• Shared pools of resources enable higher utilization of the whole
• Orchestration and Automation of all resources enables agility and mobility across the physical assets
Converged Infrastructure
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• Converged Infrastructure offers a pool resource approach to management
Pooled Resources
Storage Network Servers
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Converged Fabric - Mixed
• Wire once, grow within the pod of capacity
• Higher utilization of network and storage
• Converged Fabric is managed as one entity
• Compute could be rack mount or blade form factor
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Converged Fabric - Ethernet
• Wire once, grow within the pod of capacity
• Full converged fabric with 10GbE, Cisco DCB, or FCoE
• Converged Fabric is managed as one entity
• Compute could be rack mount or blade form factor
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• Virtual Connections provide required bandwidth and redundancy based on profile
Virtual Connections = Flexible Bandwidth
Less physical ports to
manage!
Higher flexibility!
Higher utilization!
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• Converged Network Adapters + Virtual Infrastructure offers a pool resource approach to management
• If MACs and WWPNs are virtual they are portable across compute resources and can be moved!
Virtual Interfaces = Mobility
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What are the Analysts Saying?
• IDC
“…the next technology cycle will have a converged architecture as a central design feature…”
• Gartner
“By YE 2012, 30% of Global 2000 data centers will be equipped with some fabric-based blade architectures.”
“Critical Time Frame for Cloud Computing is 2010 – 2013”
Analysts
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An Evolutionary Path to IT as a Service
The VMware Customer Journey
Sponsorship
Business
Focus
Cloud
Readiness
Technology
Focus
Stage
IT
Server & infrastructure
consolidation
CAPEX
OPEX
Cost Efficiency
IT / LOB
IT Operations
Application
Lifecycle Efficiency
Service levels
Desktop
CAPEX
OPEX
Availability
Responsiveness
Quality of Service
CIO
Service catalog & self-
service IT
Policy-driven automation
Increased IT innovation
CAPEX
OPEX
Availability
Responsiveness
Compliance
Time-to-market
Business Agility
Private Cloud
IT Production Business Production IT as a Service
You are here
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• Emergence of different manufacturer architecture offerings
• Data center design shifting to ‘Pod ‘ or ‘Cell’ based architecture
• I/O Layer changing: 10GbE, Cisco DCB, FCoE
• What is available?
• Several Hardware Manufacturers have solutions today:
• Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)
• HP BladeSystem Matrix
• IBM CloudBurst
• Build-Your-Own Solution
Technologies
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• Broader technology knowledge required
• Consider hybrid teams to increase collaboration and visibility across traditional disciplines
• Change how you design your data center
• Approach Capacity in Pods
• Design from the inside out, based on pods of capacity each with their own lifecycle
• Design for denser compute
• Design for denser network and storage I/O
• May require adopting new networking topology
• Adopt virtualization across Storage, Network, Compute to maximize benefit of Convergence
Requirements
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• Enable faster response to Business
• Platform that enables ITaaS
• Flexible resource models using Pods or Cells
• Lower infrastructure management costs
• Streamline management with less tools
• Flexible capacity
• High utilization of resources – maximize ROI
• Orchestration & Automation
• Flexible bandwidth
• Mobility of compute resources
Benefits
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Consider Converged Infrastructure for:
• Faster response to changing business needs
• New capacity requirements
• Net new facilities
• Hardware Life Cycle Renewal
• When a major component is being replaced reconsider topology (storage, network, compute)
• Change in management strategy – outsourcing, RBAC for delegation of responsibility across groups
• Data center mobility to support facility moves or BC/DR
When is the best time?
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The next 12 months… 2011
• Review hardware life cycle
• Facility savings for new generation hardware may reduce the acquisition cost
• Investigate network topology options to increase I/O density
• IT-as-a-Service readiness assessment
• When do you need to get there?
• Review consolidation efforts, plan the next steps
• Identify ISV’s or architectures that aren’t yet supported virtual
• How about bare metal on a Converged solution?
Time Frame – Next Steps
James Charter Solution Architect Main: 403.515.6900 Direct: 403.515.3331 Email: [email protected]
Thank You