Virtualization and the software-defined data center: A burgeoning marketplace

In recent years, virtualization, or creating a virtual environment in which critical content and applications can be stored and accessed, has become increasingly popular. While many of these deployments involve typical enterprises, data center operators have also been taking advantage of this trend via software-defined data center solutions.

In fact, a recent report from MarketsandMarkets found that there is considerable growth in store for the software-defined data center market, especially as more facilities leverage solutions from industry leaders like Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP and VMware.

“SDDC is expected to experience widespread adoption over the next five years as it helps in unification of server storage and networking, along with simplified management of all resources,” the report stated. “The SDDC data center automates the partitioning of the entire data center infrastructure, making it easier to change server. storage and network configurations.”

These benefits have led to a forecasted compound annual growth rate of 28.8 percent from 2015 to 2020, helping the SDDC market expand from its current $21.78 billion to reach $77.18 billion in 2020.

Why leverage software-defined technology in the data center?

Virtualization in the data center comes with its fair share of advantages. VMware noted that these include more optimal use of available equipment, better performance and higher quality services, increased availability as well as considerable cost savings. In addition, the inherent flexibility this approach can provide is hard to ignore.

“Servers deployed the conventional way operate at less than 15 percent of capacity. Virtualization rewrites the entire equation,” VMware pointed out. “CPU and memory are decoupled from physical hardware, creating pools of resources for use wherever needed.”

With these available advantages, it’s easy to see why virtualization and software-defined networking are taking the enterprise and data center sectors by storm.

To find out more about how virtualization can benefit your company, please be sure to contact iT1 today.