Growing Into the Virtual Data Center

The VDC Maturity Model

The ultimate goal of any virtualization effort is to deliver applications to users reliably, securely, and cost-effectively. So when deploying single-point virtualization components to address today's issues, it's important to think about how these decisions will impact the Virtual Data Center (VDC) of tomorrow--the data center where virtualization technologies work together to deliver applications.

What exactly does tomorrow's VDC look like, and how do we get from here to there? To answer these questions, F5 has built a VDC Maturity Model that clusters virtualization technologies into five distinct phases. It's a planning tool to help you assess where your data center is today, how your specific virtualization technologies map to this level, and how to move to the next level.

Keep in mind that not every organization will need to reach Level 5 to achieve its application delivery goals. One of the benefits of the VDC Maturity Model is that it can help you quickly assess the goals of your data center.

Level 1: Data center 101

Level 1 is where all data centers begin. Level 1 has all of the basic physical requirements (room, HVAC, at least one server, one switch, one router, and cabling) but if there is any virtualization, it is very basic. Every function is a firefight and every decision is reactive. There is no application availability, optimization, or security. This is a "hands-on" data center, requiring constant attention.

Level 2: Data center availability

The next level introduces the idea of basic application availability. VLANs on the network layer and basic proxying at the application layer introduce some security. More sophisticated Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) provide web and application server virtualization, but they are typically only used to provide basic load balancing without tapping into the ADC's more advanced features. A bit of defensive firefighting starts to take shape, but there is still no future planning or intelligent management of the data center components.

Level 3: Managing the data center

Rather than focusing on the individual components, Level 3 looks at the data center in a new way: from the point of view of the applications. More advanced application management, availability, optimization, and security are introduced. Basic user management is also introduced, factoring in how and where users access applications and applying Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) of user transactions. Application service offloading, such as SSL and caching, begins to address the user experience through application optimization. Planning becomes more typical than day-to-day fire drills.

Level 4: Scaling the data center

Level 4 focuses on scaling the data center to support business needs. It includes larger concepts like disaster recovery and application security. Advanced ADC features and branch-to-branch transport systems are introduced as optimization becomes a business and ROI priority. Data storage virtualization, optimization, and management become critical for applications. Automated systems and alert/monitoring tools manage minor, day-to-day issues. A Level 4 data center is a sophisticated, well-managed application delivery data center.

Level 5: Data center orchestration

At Level 5, the data center has moved from individual components to a fully orchestrated "service" that seamlessly provides application delivery in and out of the data center. Data center tasks become workloads; as workload demands increase, a fully configured management sub-system allocates the necessary resources to support the business needs. Resource and workload management includes all forms of virtualization, from operating system to network to storage, culminating in service virtualization. All components of the data center are managed together to provide application availability, optimization, security, and ultimately, delivery outside the data center.

Level 5 introduces new concepts that are "macro virtualization" technologies such as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), application policies for provisioning entire data centers on the fly, and desktop virtualization. Future planning is always happening in parallel with current data center management. A Level 5 data center is a completely dynamic, self-provisioning, orchestrated data center. It is the Virtual Data Center.

F5's Virtual Data Center Maturity Model provides a means to achieve business goals, while also creating a firm map of which virtual technologies help move the enterprise through the level progression. While most enterprise data centers won't need to reach Level 5, moving up the model to the point where virtualization is implemented to achieve the business goal of application delivery is paramount to any enterprise.

Keeping your head above the cloud: Seven data center challenges to consider before going virtual

In spite of all of the tremendous benefits they bring to the data center, virtual machines also add complexity, scale, and management challenges. Most of the time, these challenges appear in other parts of the data center, such as on the application delivery and storage networks. OS virtualization can be a powerful tool to improve efficiency, cut costs, and increase agility; however, implementing virtualization without considering its impact on surrounding IT resources can lead to catastrophic failures, much like trying to shim in a new skyscraper floor without reinforcing the floors above. While the virtualization of physical machines (often referred to as P2V, physical to virtual) can put a tremendous strain on application and storage networks, it doesn't have to cause disruptions within your critical infrastructure. By planning for the migration to virtual machine platforms and recognizing the challenges that are inherently part of the virtualization process, you can achieve a seamless virtual migration, managed as part of the process rather than as a clean-up effort after the skyscraper has collapsed and crumbled to the ground.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the seven challenges to data center virtualization, read the white paper
Get more information about F5 solutions for data center virtualization
Listen to a podcast about the virtualization maturity model