My first Magazine Nutanix Flash Forward | Page 30

26

Enterprise Cloud For Dummies, Nutanix Special Edition
The next section looks at each of these ingredients in a bit
more depth.

Full‐stack infrastructure and
platform services
Regardless of where you decide to run your critical applications, you need a full set of infrastructure to do it. However,
before you run out to buy a bunch of storage to connect to
your servers, you should know a number of things.
In Chapter 1, I briefly discuss the concept of the software‐
defined datacenter (SDDC). Although a datacenter based on
SDDC principles requires hardware, the hardware is not the
focus.
Instead, with the SDDC, you transition to hardware components that are easily programmable. Organizations should
consider infrastructure that is delivered as a set of software‐
defined services, including file, block, and object storage, with
integrated data services such as protection and availability
for applications.
Rather than buying a super‐expensive monolithic SAN, buy
infrastructure that you can compose to meet the needs of
your individual workloads.
It goes without saying that virtualization is — and will remain —
at the core of everything IT does. Virtualization should be a
default and key component in any platform you use. Make
sure you choose an environment in which server virtualization
capabilities are built into the infrastructure stack. Virtualization
should be treated as a feature, not a separate product.
Most businesses don’t plan to stay stagnant. Most intend to
grow as they onboard new customers and begin delivering
new products. To maintain customer and product growth, you
need to be able to easily grow the environment.
Your entire infrastructure stack should be built with these
web‐scale engineering characteristics:
✓ Software‐defined
✓ Distributed everything
These materials are © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.