Issue link: http://hub-fr.insight.com/i/532074
42 IT Outcome: Data Center Virtualization and Standardization Complexity is a productivity killer. Overly complex data centers bleed time and energy from IT teams, and often result in unnecessary capital expenses, error-prone manual processes, disorganized topologies, siloed infrastructure and general lack of interoperability across the data environ- ment. The end result is unplanned downtime – the ultimate complication for any competitive business. Virtualization 2.0 helps by simplifying the data center. The entire environment – compute, storage, backup, network – is created and managed in software, so the underlying com- plexities are masked. These software-defined data centers improve efficiency through hardware consolidation – a bot- tom-line priority for most companies. With fewer machines to buy, configure, install, maintain, troubleshoot and sup- port, IT can help the business run leaner and more profitably. Data center consolidation and standardization can be addressed in three stages of maturity with Virtualization 2.0 solutions: Stage 1: Compute virtualization Get more mileage from your existing assets and the savings add up. This is the starting point for most businesses that are looking to reduce costs. ✓ Required capabilities (what you need to be able to do): Compute virtualization. Business-critical application virtualization. Big Data app support. ✓ Business outcome (how your business benefits): Dramatic CapEx and OpEx reduction result in a data center with better-than-public-cloud unit costs.