Sherif Mohsen Fadi Elhamy - Dell Technologies
Transcript of Sherif Mohsen Fadi Elhamy - Dell Technologies
ITAAS — USING EHC AND VCE TO
BUILD YOUR DATA CENTER
Sherif MohsenSystems Engineer AnalystTSSO—EMC
Fadi ElhamySE Manager Presales TSSO, EMEATSSO—EMC
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 3
Converged Infrastructure: Is it the future of Private Clouds? ...................................................... 4
Is it a big market? ....................................................................................................................... 5
The VCE Story ........................................................................................................................... 6
Vblock Systems 340 and 720 Architectures ............................................................................... 7
EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud ...................................................................................................10
Business Challenges.................................................................................................................12
Key Components of EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud ...................................................................14
Data center virtualization and cloud management .....................................................................15
Building the Private Cloud Data Center on Vblock ....................................................................18
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................20
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................21
References ...............................................................................................................................22
Disclaimer: The views, processes or methodologies published in this article are those of the
authors. They do not necessarily reflect EMC Corporation’s views, processes or methodologies.
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Executive Summary
The IT world is changing, from inflexible older models where IT had to fulfill every request for
each employee in the organization, to the rise of Public Cloud providers who offer more flexible
alternatives which contribute to agile delivery of IT resources to the business users, to the rise
of the Private Cloud model which replicates the Public Cloud model only with additional security
as the resources are located within the safe zone of the customer infrastructure.
Today, the trend is toward Hybrid Cloud technology, which incorporates the use of the Private
Cloud while offloading some resources to the Public Cloud. Although this technology is very
appealing, it is also very challenging to implement a complete solution which empowers the
business users to request services without needing to revert every time to the IT department.
We want the IT department to focus on more value-added services and automate the trivial self-
recurring tasks.
In this article, we discuss the concept of Converged Infrastructure, VCE Vblock® solutions, and
the EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud. Thousands of hours of engineering work have been invested
in these solutions in order to empower the IT to be a broker of services and act as a service
provider to business users.
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Converged Infrastructure: Is it the future of Private Clouds?
In today’s environments, data centers which serve as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for the
companies’ Private Cloud has become very complex. The wide variety and options for selecting
storage vendors, networking vendors, servers, and virtualization platforms which motivates the
Private Cloud Management and Consumption models, compel companies to look for ways to
simplify implementation and management of their Private Cloud environments.
In the past, implementing such an environment required weeks or months, taking into
consideration that the technical and financial departments must make decisions from a wide
variety of vendors. Moreover, a main issue which has always consumed a big part of the
planning was how to get support, i.e. if we have an issue in our infrastructure, is it due to the
servers, switches, storage etc.? This led to the lack of accountability and sometimes finger
pointing regarding the root cause of a problem.
Converged Infrastructure emerged to solve these complex issues. The concept was to offload
the many hours needed to guarantee integration of the different components of the Private
Cloud to the vendor, and deliver data center components to the customer as an appliance in a
form factor that can be centrally managed. The goal of a converged infrastructure is to minimize
compatibility issues and simplify management of servers, storage systems, and network devices
while reducing costs for cabling, cooling, power, and floor space. Now customers have a single
point of contact they can refer to in cases where technical support is required.
From a vendor perspective, the benefits include the ability to solidify their footprint with a
customer in various areas of their IT and grow with the customer business.
On a high level, the converged infrastructure market can be divided into three distinct
categories:
Integrated Workload Systems: Server, storage, and network integrated with database
and/or application software to provide appliance or appliance-like functionality.
Integrated Infrastructure Systems: Server, storage. and network integrated to provide
shared compute infrastructure.
Integrated Reference Architectures: Products in which predefined, pre-sized
components are designated as options for an integrated system, whereby the user can
make configuration choices between the predefined options.
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Is it a big market?
As shown in Figure 1, IDC estimates that total worldwide spending on converged infrastructure
will reach $17.8 billion in 2016, up from $4.6 billion in 2012. Converged infrastructure will
account for 12.8 percent of total storage, server, networking, and software spending by 2016, up
from only 3.9 percent in 20121.
Figure 2 depicts factors that may influence customers’ selection of Converged Infrastructure
vendors:
Figure 11
Figure 21
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The VCE Story
VCE began in November of 2009 when the leaders of the three companies – EMC, Cisco, and
VMware – announced an unprecedented collaborative effort designed to deliver IT infrastructure
to customers as a single entity through VCE. The first Vblock system was introduced in 2010
and VCE enabled a global community of systems integrators, service providers, channel
partners, and independent software vendors (ISVs) to simplify customer engagement and
provide leading sales, service, and support. Figure 3 illustrates some facts and figures for VCE.
On a high level, Figure 4 illustrates the VCE offerings (please note VCE continues to sell more
Vblock System 720s until such time as EMC makes it economically attractive to transition
customers to the Vblock System 740):
Figure 32
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Vblock Systems 340 and 720 Architectures
Vblock 340
The Vblock 340 system is a converged infrastructure solution with high agility. It meets the
needs of virtualized data centers, cloud environments, and service provider implementations.
Vblock 340 features include:
VCE engineering expertise are utilized to configure VDI, SAP, Exchange, and mixed
workloads based on performance and sizing requirements.
Customers can easily scale their resources as required which contributes to high agility
and flexibility
Supports the EMC VNX® Rockies storage arrays
Utilizes vSphere 5.5 to extend support for business-critical applications and new
workloads
Vblock System Management via the VCE Vision Intelligent Operations
Figure 5 provides a high-level overview of the components in the Vblock 340 architecture.
Figure 43
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Vblock 720
The Vblock 720 is an enterprise and service-provider class system which incorporates many
components, including:
EMC Symmetrix® VMAX 10K, EMC Symmetrix 20K, or EMC Symmetrix 40K
(Optional) EMC VNX VG2 Gateway or EMC VNX VG8 Gateway
(Optional) EMC RecoverPoint
Cisco UCS Manager
EMC Unisphere® for VMAX on Windows
VMware vSphere Server Enterprise, vSphere 5.5, Plus VMware vCenter Server
Figure 6 provides more information:
Figure 54
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Figure 65
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EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud
EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (EHC) empowers IT to be a Service Provider for internal
employees of the company, providing the best of both worlds; Private Cloud and Public Cloud
support. In today’s complex IT environments, providing the IT services requested by employees
is a time-consuming task involving methods and procedures that have to be followed by the
employee to request the service, and service level agreements (SLAs) which govern the relation
between IT and the employee.
EHC solves this complex environment by providing a self-service portal where employees
requiring service can request it without having to revert to IT. Thousands of hours have been
invested by the EMC Engineering Team to facilitate provisioning of IT services and providing a
marketplace of services that can be used by employees/users of this service. Moreover, EHC
can provide end-users and developers access to a marketplace of application resources, from
Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry, as well as the ability to add custom
applications.
This also facilitates control of the IT environment by assigning role-based access and privileges.
Additionally, IT controls who has visibility to which services, who can provision services directly,
and who can provision services only after approval from a manager or supervisor.
Figure 7
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The IT Business Management Model is part of the EHC and can be used to make very granular
cost calculations. Decision makers can gain insight into the exact cost of the IT resources each
department is using including cost per virtual machines, per unit of storage, and even power and
cooling, manpower, and rent. Everything can be included in the calculation and the cost per unit
is entered in the system by IT. It is not something that EMC locked down in the solution. EMC
understands that providing full control and visibility over costs is a vital part of any decision
maker’s requirements and has ensured integration of IT Business Management with EHC.
EHC offers a choice of technology on which the hybrid cloud will be built; VMware, Microsoft, or
OpenStack.
Migration between clouds is a feature enabled by EHC, whether on- or off-premise, providing
full control via the self-service portal.
EMC Hybrid Cloud Solution is available in three pre-configured sizes:
1. 500 VMs
2. 5000 VMs
3. 10000VMs
Figure 8
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Figure 96
Business Challenges
In the past, when businesses referred to the concept of virtualization, they mainly targeted
server virtualization which is simply making use of the existing CPU resources of a server and
enabling the division of a single hardware into multiple virtual machines. This has been true for
some time and IT have been the beneficiaries of this technology.
As the technology matured, the market began looking more towards making use of this
technology to benefit not just IT, but also end users and business units. There was clearly a
great potential and EHC solution arrived to address this great potential. Its main focus is on
increasing agility, mobility, and control of the IT resources and their consumption by the end
users and business units.
Legacy systems have encountered some restrictions, including:
Inefficiency and inflexibility
Slow, reactive responses to customer requests
Inadequate visibility of the requested infrastructure cost and usage
Limited choice of availability and protection services
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Public Clouds address these challenges by providing a model where IT resource consumption
can be assigned very easily and cost models are clearly identified, leading to insight to the IT
organizations’ costs and consumption. However, there is a limiting factor which prohibits some
organizations from fully relying on public clouds; security and traceability of where the
organizations’ data assets are saved, and the level of security of this data.
This led to the need for the same flexible IT model but within the confines of the organization,
namely in the company’s private cloud. Moreover, features such as Data Protection, Disaster
Recovery, and Service Levels had to be addressed in the private cloud. This does not mean
public clouds should go away, but rather organizations can make use of public clouds in
situations where the cost-benefit balance makes sense. This gave rise to Hybrid Clouds, the
integration of Private and Public Clouds. The following factors should be considered in any
hybrid cloud implementation:
Quick deployment of the infrastructure so that business value can be recognized quickly
Reducing costs through higher utilization
Downtime and change control policies should be in place
Support agreements must be established for all elements of the solution
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Key Components of EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud
Key components of the solution are shown in Figure 10.
Figure 10
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Data center virtualization and cloud management
VMware vCloud Automation Center
VMware vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) is the end user interface/portal which allows for self-
service provisioning and lifecycle management of cloud services that comply with established
business policies. Authorized administrators, developers, and business users can request new
IT services and manage existing computer resources from predefined user-specific menus.
VMware vSphere ESXi and VMware vCenter Server
VMware vSphere ESXi is the virtualization platform above which the cloud infrastructure is built.
VMware enables running business-critical applications at lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
VMware vCenter Server provides management capabilities that provide insight to the virtual
environment for improved availability, performance, and capacity utilization.
VMware vCenter Orchestrator
VMware vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is an IT process automation engine that enables
administrators and architects to develop complex automation tasks within the workflow
designer. The vCO library of pre-built activities, workflows, and plug-ins help accelerate the
customization of vCAC standard capabilities.
Figure 118
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VMware vCloud Networking and Security
VMware vCloud Networking and Security (vCNS) is a software-defined networking and security
solution that provides a broad range of services in a single solution, including virtual firewall,
virtual private network (VPN), load balancing, and VXLAN-extended networks.
Premium deployment option: VMware NSX for vSphere
An alternative to vCNS, NSX provides next generation software-defined network virtualization
and offers additional functionality and improved performance over vCNS and traditional network
and security devices. Additional functionality offered by NSX include:
Distributed logical routing
Distributed firewalling
Logical load balancing
Support for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Intermediate System to Intermediate
System (IS-IS), and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF).
NSX also introduces Service Composer, which integrates with third-party security services.
VMware vCenter Operations Manager
VMware vCenter Operations Manager (vC Ops) provides a simplified approach to operations
management of vSphere by displaying information of infrastructure Health, Risk and Efficiency.
This provides insight into current utilization and expected future resource requirements, which
facilitates planning for future growth.
VMware vCenter Log Insight
VMware vCenter Log Insight delivers automated log management through log aggregation,
analytics, and search. It provides operational intelligence and enterprise-wide visibility needed
to proactively enable service levels and operational efficiency.
VMware IT Business Management Suite
VMware IT Business Management (ITBM) Suite provides for cost analysis and reporting as
explained earlier in this article.
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EMC storage services
EMC ViPR
EMC ViPR is a EMC’s answer for the software defined storage segment. It enables aggregation
of storage resources under one management platform which provides more control and visibility
of the storage features offered in the private cloud environment.
EMC VNX and EMC Symmetrix VMAX
EMC VNX and EMC Symmetrix VMAX®are powerful, trusted, and smart storage array platforms
that provide the highest level of performance, availability, and intelligence in the hybrid cloud.
VNX is the midrange storage array while VMAX is the high end. They offer multiple features
including Fully Automated Storage Tiering for Virtual Pools™ (FAST® VP), enabling multiple
storage service levels which can be utilized in the hybrid cloud environment.
EMC ViPR SRM
EMC ViPR SRM enables visualization of applications to storage and monitoring and analysis of
configurations and capacity growth. Furthermore, it enables monitoring, analysis, and reporting
of block, file, and virtualized storage environments.
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Building the Private Cloud Data Center on Vblock
Why EHC with VCE Vblock?
Vblock is the fastest way to deploy EHC. Vblock and EHC are pre-packaged and engineered
solutions which consist of a number of underlying components. EMC, VMware, and Cisco have
taken on the task of creating these pre-packaged solutions to lift the burden of integration off the
customer.
VCE Vblock systems enable EMC customers seeking to deploy EHC to build enterprise-class,
scalable, multi-tenant infrastructure that:
Guarantees interoperability as components are factory integrated
Validates patch interoperability with Vblock components, avoiding problems that typically
arise due to integration of several components in the infrastructure
Enable the end user to perform provisioning, monitoring, and management of the
infrastructure, without having to revert to the IT administrator
Maximizes asset utilization
Provides a single point of contact for the entire Vblock solution; no need to manage
multiple vendors to diagnose and resolve issues
The edge enjoyed by Public Cloud Providers has been that they provide infrastructure which
enables end-user agility and control. Today, EHC addresses this issue effectively and provides
for integration of Public and Private Clouds.
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Figure 12 and 13 provide more insight to the solution.
Figure 129
Figure 1310
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Conclusion
In this article, we discussed the EMC Enterprise Hybrid Cloud and the VCE Vblock solution and
elaborated on the different components included in each offering. Additionally, we focused on
the value proposition that Converged Infrastructure provides today’s IT world, which cannot fully
rely on Public Cloud Offering due to its inherent constraints. The answer is to utilize a Private
Cloud environment and integrate Public Cloud offering, thus providing the benefit of both worlds.
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Appendix
1. http://www.1cloudroad.com/why-converged-infrastructure-technologies-are-important/
2. vce-facts-and-figures.pdf
3. vce-portfolio-update.pptx – Slide 3
4. http://www.vce.com/asset/documents/vblock-340-gen3-1-architecture-overview.pdf
Pages 7-9
5. http://www.vce.com/asset/documents/vblock-720-gen4-2-architecture-overview.pdf
Pages 7-9
6. https://infocus.emc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/EMC-IT-Service-Story-
Map_Links1.pdf
7. https://www.emc.com/collateral/solution-overview/cloud/h13190-emc-hybrid-cloud-
foundation-sg.pdf Page 14
8. https://www.emc.com/collateral/solution-overview/cloud/h13190-emc-hybrid-cloud-
foundation-sg.pdf Page21
9. http://www.emc.com/sp/cloud/h13022-hybrid-cloud-sg-supplement-for-vblock.pdf Page
12
10. http://www.emc.com/sp/cloud/h13022-hybrid-cloud-sg-supplement-for-vblock.pdf Page
14
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References
http://www.vce.com/asset/documents/vblock-720-gen4-2-architecture-overview.pdf
http://www.vce.com/asset/documents/vblock-340-gen3-1-architecture-overview.pdf
http://www.emc.com/collateral/solution-overview/h12476-so-hybrid-cloud.pdf
EMC HYBRID CLOUD 2.5 WITH VMWARE - Foundation Infrastructure Reference
Architecture White Paper
EMC HYBRID CLOUD 2.5 WITH VMWARE - Foundation Infrastructure Solution Guide
White Paper
EMC Enterprise Private Cloud with VMware vCloud Suite and VCE Vblock Systems
White Paper
https://infocus.emc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/EMC-IT-Service-Story-
Map_Links1.pdf
EHC_2.5_OnePager_v3_EB
https://www.emc.com/auth/playbooks/cloud/off-premise-solutions-sp.htm
http://www.vce.com/about/company/history
VCE Partner Support Website
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