Cisco Cloud Data Center Evolution Path Roadmap
- Consolidation
- Abstraction
- Automation
- Utility
- Market
1. Consolidation
The first evolution phase is the consolidation and aggregation of assets in a data center. This phase regains the control of distributed data center assets. The enabling architecture here is data center networking, where Cisco has traditionally been a leader. This phase lays the foundation for data center cost containment and increased utilization through standardization of building blocks.
2. Abstraction
The second phase of the cloud data center evolution is an abstraction. This is a key phase because the data center assets are abstracted from the services that it actually provides. Virtualization technologies enable the abstraction and hence pooling of resources to be shared across the organizations. Data centers are designed around virtual machines, which are the new atomic units of computing. Cisco brings a similar architectural innovation to this phase called unified fabrics. This architectural enabler virtualizes different types of networks (LAN, SAN, and IPC) into one single unified fabric. The basis of this phase optimizes and extends data center technologies through virtualization across the network, storage, and servers.
3. Automation
The third phase of the cloud data center evolution is automation. This phase capitalizes on the consolidated and virtual aspects and provisions services in a rapid and automated fashion. The fundamental architectural building block that Cisco brings to the table is unified computing. This phase moves beyond cost savings and simplified data center management to improve business agility through technology integration. Unified computing virtualizes the entire data center through a pre-integrated architecture that brings together network, server, and computes virtualization.
4. Utility
The fourth phase is the enterprise-class cloud. This phase starts turning the cloud computing concepts to actionable reality. With the foundation of previous phases, IT services are delivered in the form of a utility. With unified fabric and unified computing as the architectural basis, enterprises and service providers can now start building private and public clouds.
5. Market
The final and eventual phase in the roadmap is the inter-cloud. This phase marks Ciscos longterm vision of this market transition, marked by ubiquitous, portable workloads and a rich cloud environment, in which many external and internal clouds will coexist, federate, and share resources dynamically. This dynamic marketplace will extend enterprises to providers and providers to providers, transparently, securely, and seamlessly, based on available capacity, power cost, and proximity, and will drive a new wave of innovation and investment similar to what we last saw with the Internet explosion of the mid-1990s.