F5 White Paper
The VDC Maturity Model-
Moving Up the Virtual Data
Center Stack
Defining the baseline and process of virtualization maturity for the data center.
by Alan Murphy Technical Marketing Manager, Management and VirtualizationWhite Paper The VDC Maturity Model-Moving Up the Virtual Data Center Stack
Contents
Redefining Virtualization 3
Virtualization Maturity: Defining Growth Steps 4The VDC Maturity Model 4Maturity Model Levels 5
Conclusion 8
2White Paper The VDC Maturity Model-Moving Up the Virtual Data Center Stack
Redefining Virtualization
In 2007, F5 embarked on the challenge of redefining the data center within the scope of virtualization, and specifically designing the Virtual Data Center (VDC) of tomorrow. While there were, and still are, many different virtualization technologies available to solve any number of problems, none of those solutions regarded the data center as a single entity; today, almost all virtualization technologies seek to solve just one problem. OS virtualization, network virtualization, storage virtualization.each of these categories has numerous vendors providing various solutions. But none of these solutions has been designed to combine efforts to achieve the shared data center goal: to deliver applications to users. Data centers only exist to host and deliver applications, yet no existing virtualization solution addresses the cohesive application delivery needs of a business.
The first step in this paradigm shift came when defining each unique virtualization category. While that may seem to be a daunting task, there are ultimately only eight types of virtualization technologies that exist in any data center:
1. Network Virtualization2. Application Server Virtualization3. OS Virtualization4. Management Virtualization5. Storage Virtualization6. Application Virtualization7. Hardware Virtualization8. Service Virtualization
All virtualization solutions fall into one of these eight categories. . Hyper-V and VMware: OS Virtualization. . NAT and VLANs: Network Virtualization. . Application Delivery Controllers and Load Balancers: Application Server Virtualization. . Data Center Orchestration: Service Virtualization.
Defining these categories was paramount to addressing all the problems and solutions that virtualization brings to the data center; however, this was simply the first step. Once these concepts were defined, they needed to be both applied
33White Paper The VDC Maturity Model-Moving Up the Virtual Data Center Stack
to real data centers and then brought together to work as one unit. The concept behind the Virtual Data Center is simple: a data center made up of each of the eight virtualization technologies, with all of the virtualized components working together to deliver applications. However moving from the Define and Design phases to Developing and Deploying a complete VDC does present real, challenges.
Virtualization Maturity:
Defining Growth Steps
The VDC Maturity Model Level 5Level 4Level 3 Data Center Level 2 Scaling the Level 1 Managing the OrchestrationData Center Data CenterData Center Data CenterAvailability101 Data Center Scale Advanced OrchestrationBasic OptimizationBasic Application nApplication NetworknApplication Management Network nServices ServernServices n Network Server nn Network OSnn n Network Server OS nn Server Managementnn OS Management n Storagenn Management Storage n Applicationn Application n Hardwaren Hardware n Service
Maturity Progression
Once each individual virtualization technology was defined, the next step was to apply these established categories to the evolution of the data center.Enter the Virtual Data Center Maturity Model. Like any good maturity model (also often referred to as an "agility model") planning tool, the VDC maturity model seeks to create a baseline self-evaluation tool and progression meter to guide the data center from one level to the next. The VDC maturity model contains a clustering of virtualization technologies that are divided into five individual phases, with each phase providing a "snapshot" of the current state of the data center. 4White Paper The VDC Maturity Model-Moving Up the Virtual Data Center Stack
Starting with level 1 and progressing up through the model to level 5, the goal is to asse... [download for more]
