Software-defined data centres 'the only way' to provide IT as a service

Panel discussion at Computing's Data Centre & Infrastructure Summit concludes that the future of the data centre is virtual

Software-defined data centres are the future of enterprise networking due to the agility advantage they offer over their hardware defined counterparts, which allows engineers to spend time on more innovative tasks than simply keeping the lights on.

That was the consensus of a panel of senior IT figures discussing how virtualisation will shape the future of the data centre at Computing's Data Centre & Infrastructure Summit 2014. The general view was that software-defined data centres represent the way forward, although there is still a place for traditional data centres in some circumstances.

Rory Barr, global head of network tools and core services at Barclays, argued that in a "digital world" every major organisation should style itself as a software company and the best way to do that is to free up developers from the mundane task of data centre management by virtualising the networks.

"There are lots of different business cases for a software-defined environment and one that's come up where I work is with our development teams. Is a bank a software company and the truth is yes, absolutely," Barr told the audience at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel in central London.

He argued that by allowing developers to focus on development, it allows Barclays to concentrate on providing good customer service.

"We've got a lot of software developers in the company writing new applications providing value to our customers and we need to build infrastructure for them," he said.

Barr argued that the nature of a software-defined network means projects can be turned around quickly, because virtualisation means there's no waiting around for a data centre to be upgraded.

"We've got the servers but we need some network and we need some power and the lead times on that are weeks, if not months," he said, adding that now "we can get developers more productive more quickly and we can iterate our applications faster and deliver better service to our customers. It's all about that time to market."

Richard Munro, chief technologist & technical director for vCloud Air at VMware agreed with Barr, arguing that the only way a company can provide IT as a service is through the use of a software-defined network.

"We've been firmly behind this all the way through. If you think about core services like Facebook, cloud environments or any of the others, we're not doing things by having engineers run around and plug things together. It's done by software because that's how we provide things in an agile way. You need to be providing your IT as a service and there's only one way you can do that," he said. "I really don't think there's a debate."

Munro also argued that those in finance who make decisions don't actually care about the infrastructure the company uses, they just want the company to work in the most efficient way possible.

"If you translate that to your data centre, do you think that the person who signs your investment plans really cares that you have to run down and plug cables into a black box somewhere? He doesn't care, he just wants the outcome at the end of that," he said.

"The point is you've got to be standing at this service stack and software defined is the only way to do it," Munro said, adding that because the virtualised server is constantly upgraded, it allows the company to provide a better service to staff and customers in the long term.

"The other benefit is if you do something hardware defined it's fixed. It's got a fixed lifecycle and then you'll need to do a substantial upgrade. Software gets upgraded all the time," he continued.

Munro labelled the software-defined network as the "fast track to innovation".

"You can do a lot of things with software, lots of people can do things with software - but you can't do it with anything that's properly hardware defined," he said.

However, Munro conceded that there's still a place for traditional hardware, although extracting value from it remains a challenge.

"Don't get me wrong, hardware is really key and will still add value, but where do you really extract value? Everything has to work in a software-defined space, I don't think the there's a question of it to be answered, really."