SDDC promises to build on progress of virtualization: EMC

MUMBAI, INDIA: EMC is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver information technology as a service (ITaaS). Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing.

Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset - information - in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way.

Here is an interview with Mike Koehler, senior VP, EMC Global Services at the sidelines of the EMC Forum, held in Mumbai last week. Excerpts:

CIOL: Does the industry need to move toward a more holistic approach to the management of enterprise computing?

Mike Koehler: The rise of the software-defined data center (SDDC) promises to build on the progress of virtualization by completely abstracting every component of the data center from its underlying hardware so that IT can truly deliver IT resources as customizable, on-demand services.

So, yes. It you take the concept of SDDC, underlying that is a requirement for consistent and common management and orchestration layer across compute, data and network. Historical approach has been by tier so far.

In the industry, you are starting to see elements coming together - whether using VMware's management framework, and now the adoption of EMCs ViPR technology that manages the software designed storage. We are seeing progress. We are starting to see all those come together.

So far, we've talked about the tools themselves. We have talked about the process. The roles in IT are changing.

CIOL: Why is the EMC ViPR said to be a new approach to delivering storage?

MK: ViPR - with all of the software defined storage, they have common elements. First, abstraction, then the pooling element and then the management and finally, orchestration. ViPR is software defined storage. It abstracts some of the intellectual capabilities buried in the technology.

The uniqueness of that is: it does not take away the inherent capabilites and technology approaches of VNX and VMAX families. What it allows you to do is to manage across all tiers of storage like one large pool.

No IT organization has one type of tiered storage. You can get aggregration of the entire storage environment. We have since gone to general availablty a few weeks back. ViPR is in release now.

CIOL: What's your take on the adoption of Hadoop in India so far?

MK: Well, for Hadoop, we are definitely seeing a lot of interest in the understanding of the Big Data strategy. People are on the first step. People are asking; what does Big Data look like and what can it do for my company? We are currently doing strategy for some Indian companies.

The main market globally is a little bit mature. Pivotal Labs and the Big Data strategy are both progressing. Pharma companies, oil cmpanies, airlines, etc., can be big customers.

CIOL: Lastly, what are the top oxymorons in IT management today? Where do they stand currently?

MK: There are five things I would like to touch upon.

Systems management - it has got better in its current form.

Storage management - on its own, it has also got better.

Security - If you look at the RSA Portfolio, the general context was - you manage the perimeter. Now, you are managing from the inside out.

Network - The phenomena is now happening in software defined network.

Applications - Virtualization alone has forced us to go after apps management. The further you get along in virtualization into the cloud, it is commensurate wth how much clarity you have.