The new data center adopts data services engines

I am beginning to see more interest in the announcement by EMC of its new consolidated IT solution called the Vblock, which is part of a broader coalition between EMC, Cisco and VMware called the Virtual Computing Environment Coalition (VCE), and its spin-off Acadia, which will now be headed by Mike Capellas, who used to run Compaq.

Interesting that EMC owns two-thirds of the VCE, eh? So, I'm sure it's "open," right? Wink, wink, smile, nod.

The reason I was so interested in this group is I have been talking about data services engines as a way to reduce IT costs for quite a long time now.  This new partnership between large players like Cisco, VMware and EMC vindicates the once-maligned approach and validates my optimized IT model and data services engine paradigm, while reinforcing the fact that virtualization is truly a key driving force in cloud computing and data center optimization and design.

This new marketing strategy of converging innovation and technology into feature-rich but simplified offerings is not unique, though.

Apple pushed the iPod and iPad as innovative designs in the mobile and portable computing markets, and now EMC/VMware and Cisco are pitching everything "V" (which I assume stands for virtual). EMC has "Vblocks" (that name even conjures up an image of some V8 hemi engine, doesn't it? Ergo, the engine paradigm), and VMware has "VSphere."

HDS is fighting back by positioning the Hitachi Unified Compute Platform using virtual storage with integrated data management as a main component. HP, in an effort to bring down IT costs, is pushing the converged infrastructure, which features "A common modular infrastructure of virtualized compute, memory, storage & network resources." And Cisco has been pushing its unified computing architecture for some time now.

What the vendors are actually creating is what I call the data services engine (DSE).

A description of the data services engine is as follows:

A data services engine is a combination of highly available hardware and software components providing modular building blocks of IT infrastructure for the efficient operation, protection, replication and recovery of critical applications and data.

DSE hardware components include:

• Power-efficient grid or blade computing blocks
• Modular storage (including solid state disk)
• Multi-protocol switches for networks and storage 
• Fault tolerant power, cooling, racking and cabling

DSE software components include:

• Server virtualization
• Storage virtualization
• WAN optimization
• Data deduplication
• Continuous data protection and backup
• Optimized data replication
• Data mobility
• Security
• Reporting

Even large industry contractors such as CSC Corp are joining the party by partnering with the VCE which, if you ask me, is just EMC and Cisco joining forces to try and take over the world.

The real point of all this for end users is that the traditional vendors are finally getting their acts together. They have listened and are now seeing the light that most organizations in both public and private sectors want: SIMPLE IT solutions that just work. They want their computers to actually help make life easier, not more complex.

Users want to be able to pick a partner and have that partner provide the compute, storage, network, backup, replication, recovery, security and reporting capabilities they need in simple, easy-to-use, easy-to-implement packages that can be bought in modular, cost-effective units.

The good news is that virtualization is finally making these solutions available, and the vision of holistic IT procurement is becoming a real possibility. The bad news is the vendors are now scrambling to lock you in to THEIR vision of being that partner, and once they lock you in, they will OWN you and your IT dollars.

Your homework assignment for tonight is to do the research to understand where the network, storage and server industry is heading so you can be ready for my next blog on the requirements any data services engine MUST provide in order for it to make an impact on the bottom line, so you can choose you partners wisely.   

Christopher Poelker is the author of Storage Area Networks for Dummies, and he is currently the vice president of Enterprise Solutions at FalconStor Software.