Software-defined everything: So, WHEN is the 'future'?

Claims of invisibility and IT ‘as a service’ need to be tested

Changing technology is the 'easy part'

Then there are the cultural issues that will surface as the data centre evolves and as the IT department evolves to act like a broker of services to the business - providing policy-driven delivery of resources rather than building or administering new apps or systems.

Architecting software-defined environments requires changes to IT processes including orchestration, automation, metering and billing. It also involves a change in the role of the IT department as it becomes a service broker to business units, providing policy-driven delivery of resources to meet the needs of applications.

"It is not just a technology change - that is almost the easy part," said Nicolas Fischbach, director of strategy, architecture and innovation, at Colt.

He believes that staff need to learn new skills to gain the broader technical knowledge required as data centre technologies converge. This might mean that someone who fully understands the compute side needs to be aware of how it impacts networking systems such as Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).

There should also be awareness of security management, as physical security is moved to the logical layer with controls placed in the hypervisor.

Fischbach said: "Some of the barriers that enterprises have to break are strong internally. They have very large IT departments with skill demarcation between all of the functions. When you move into an SDDC-type model everything gets blended.

“You cannot just pass the ticket and throw it over the wall and say: 'This thing doesn't perform'. The issue will not be resolved because they actually need to tag-team to fix it."

Automation and “software-ification” of the data centre is taking place, and the role of IT is evolving. It’s a question of how far they go and at what point you can call that SDDC. ®