IT Innovators: Do You Need a SDDC Readiness Assessment?

In a blog last week about the SDDC, I mentioned an energy efficiency assessment and how it can be used to help organizations determine the energy efficiency of their SDDC and identify areas of improvement in that efficiency. As you might have already guessed, assessments aren’t just for gauging energy efficiency.

Assessments are performed by reputable third-party consultants and generally speaking, can be very valuable tools in the IT world. They are used for a variety of purposes. For example, they can be used to help determine an organization’s readiness to move to the cloud or its readiness to move to the software defined data center (SDDC).

The SDDC readiness assessment usually involves looking at various aspects of the data center’s current operation, including what technologies it is using, the age of the existing infrastructure, the organization’s current and future business plans, regulatory requirements, and what skills are available in house. It also considers whether the organization is actually ready to fully transform to a SDDC or if adoption of just one aspect of the SDDC—such as software defined networking or storage—might be the better way to go for the time being.

Some of the specific things the third-party consultant will delve into when examining an organization’s infrastructure are facilities, networking, servers, and storage. The data center’s automation, control, management and security capabilities are also carefully examined, as are the tools and processes currently being used in the data center.

Once the assessment is complete, the third-party consultant provides the organization with a roadmap for migrating to the SDDC and guidance on whether or not it feels the organization is ready to move ahead. If so, the consultant outlines what rewards the organization might expect to reap from making that move. If not, the consultant will lay out the incremental steps the organization should follow in its migration to a SDDC. Some consultants also provide the organizations being assessed with information on the different aspects of the SDDC—software-defined storage, networking and compute—and help with ensuring it has the skills needed to get the most out of whatever software-defined solutions it chooses to implement. But those aren’t the only benefits.

An SDDC or software-defined infrastructure readiness assessment can help organizations identify opportunities where the SDDC can positively impact business results. And it provides a baseline of results and recommendations targeted at the organization’s network architecture, stability and overall readiness for SDDC. Moreover, the assessment can help identify challenges for both the organization’s management and administration, and can provide insight into how to reduce the organization’s operating cost through software defined infrastructure.

Without a doubt these are substantial benefits, the value of which can’t be overestimated. Consequently, any organization considering a migration to the SDDC or software defined infrastructure would do well to begin that process with a readiness assessment.

If you have any thoughts on the SDDC readiness assessment, drop me a line at [email protected]. In the meantime, check back here for future blog posts on a range of IT-related issues.

This blog is sponsored by Microsoft.

Cheryl J. Ajluni is a freelance writer and editor based in California. She is the former Editor-in-Chief of Wireless Systems Design and served as the EDA/Advanced Technology editor for Electronic Design for over 10 years. She is also a published book author and patented engineer. Her work regularly appears in print and online publications. Contact her at [email protected] with your comments or story ideas.