How VMware helps you modernise your data centre

More and more companies are adopting a data-driven strategic approach to better serve their customers and consumers. But with this, the ability to swiftly and cost effectively respond to change has become imperative. VMware and Pendulum IT can meet these challenges by allowing businesses to easily modernise the data centre. A modernised data centre can enable systems to be much more versatile and include rapid deploy, test, and iterate applications. Infrastructure that powers applications needs to deliver the efficiency of cloud operating models and applications, running on everything from private/public clouds to edge computing. The user experience must be exceptional, regardless of their location. Traditional hardware-centric data centre models just don’t meet the requirements of today’s business data realities. For businesses faced with these challenges, VMware’s Data Centre Modernisation approach may well be the solution.

Is cloud the answer?

A growing number of businesses now see cloud as key to successful digital initiatives. But making the transition from a traditional infrastructure can create almost as many challenges as it solves. Organisations typically have a complex mix of compute, storage, and network resources that have evolved over time. A workable path toward a virtualised and software-defined infrastructure isn’t always clear.
To meet these challenges businesses can modernise the data centre with Pendulum IT and VMware. Bringing together previously isolated infrastructure silos, so they can manage them as a single entity, and bringing cloud-like capabilities back to an on-premises environment. By combining these once disparate elements into a holistic, software-defined, and integrated platform, a wide range of benefits are realised, including:

• Reducing complexity
By creating a hyperconverged infrastructure where compute, storage, and network components work seamlessly together within the core data centre, as well as in the public cloud and at the edge.
• Controlling costs
Through unified management tools and operational model across the entire infrastructure, and eliminating the need to rip-and-replace infrastructure elements as the business needs evolve.
• Increasing agility
Faster business service delivery by meeting the accelerating demand for new containerised apps and cloud capabilities.
• Being cloud-ready
By gaining the flexibility to match cloud service delivery and consumption demands, as business needs change, new innovations emerge, and organisations consider adopting public cloud and edge environments in the future.

Benefits of VMware Data Centre Modernisation

By employing VMware’s platform, fundamental benefits can be achieved, namely:

• Eliminate silos
Leverage existing investments for use in new cloud environments, while eliminating extra infrastructure silos.
• Modernise for cloud
Support future evolution with a consistent software stack on-premise, that can expand into the public cloud and edge.
• Run apps consistently
Traditional and cloud- native applications on infrastructure that delivers a consistent operating model.
• Leverage existing investments
Eliminate the risk of rip-and-replace, by leveraging the same management tools and consistent operating model throughout modernisation.
• Operate efficiently
Reduce TCO with automated performance management, optimised capacity utilisation, proactive planning and reduced mean time to resolution (MTTR).
• Market-leading solution
Use best-in-class software defined infrastructure stack with integrated management from a market leader in every component of the stack.

Consistent Infrastructure to be Cloud-Ready

The job of modernising the data centre requires the tight orchestration of a wide range of services, including compute, storage, networking, security and cloud management. The more consistent the underlying infrastructure, the more seamlessly these services work together to deliver the benefits of cloud deployment. VMware’s software solutions provide an answer, consolidating infrastructure and streamlining operations.

Infrastructure Consolidation

VMware Cloud Foundation delivers a pre-integrated solution to modernise the data centre and build the foundation for cloud services in public clouds and edge environments. In contrast to a heterogeneous environment, that requires extensive modifications and complex integrations, this unified cloud infrastructure combines the resources and services for hybrid cloud as a single, integrated solution from an industry-leading provider. The components include the following:

• vSphere
  The industry standard in server virtualisation software, at the heart of a software-defined data centre, purpose-built to help you run, manage, connect, and secure your applications in a common operating environment across clouds.
• vSAN
  Enterprise-class software-defined storage virtualisation that allows you to manage compute and storage as a single platform and joins all storage devices in a shared data pool that scales to meet your changing needs.
• NSX
  A complete networking and security virtualisation platform, offering the flexibility and automation inherent in a software-only solution.
• vRealize Suite
  A management platform for the modernised data centre that enables developers to quickly release, troubleshoot, and optimise the performance of highly distributed microservice-based cloud applications in real time. At the same time, IT can continuously automate and optimise capacity and performance of infrastructure based on changing business needs. They can become more agile, and achieve greater control and efficiency in the data centre for both traditional and cloud-native applications.

This enhanced holistic approach reduces the cost, complexity, and risk of running applications and business-critical workloads in the data centre. This approach also retains the flexibility to migrate to the public cloud and edge environments in the future.

Streamline Operations

Establishing consistency in the ongoing operations of the data centre can help you centralise management on a global footprint. By doing this performance can be continuously optimised, scale to accommodate changing workload needs, and control costs.

To find out more about how your business can benefit from modernising your data centre and discuss in detail how VMware’s Data Centre Modernisation suite might be the ideal solution for your business, please contact the team at Pendulum IT.