Data center transformation is the process of changing an organization’s IT infrastructure to improve its capabilities, performance and efficiency. This process may include data center migration, large-scale changes to hardware, adding virtualization and software-defined components, and automating business processes.
Data center transformation often involves integrating cloud computing and virtualization to an existing data center. Because traditional data centers are not designed to benefit from cloud computing, the data center must be modernized or transformed in order to handle remote access, network virtualization and other cloud computing features. Some physical hardware components may be replaced by logical components such as virtual machines and virtual storage drives. Businesses use cloud computing platforms – public, private or hybrid – to accelerate the delivery of applications and IT services. Modern data centers can improve application and database performance, power big data projects and benefit from the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing.
With data center transformation, businesses can integrate mobile devices, meet consumer expectations for anytime-anywhere access to personalized services, and support agile development processes to be more competitive and customer-centric. Cloud computing and a software-defined infrastructure form the basis of modern data center transformation. Software-defined infrastructures can provide faster access to resources, avoid disruptions, enable DevOps methodologies, support innovation and deliver new applications to market faster. Data center transformation – with Platform-as-a-Service and other cloud services, software-defined infrastructure components, containers, clusters, microservices and other technologies – is becoming a requirement for businesses to compete in today’s digital economy. SUSE offers solutions to transform data centers with a software-defined infrastructure that provides greater agility, reliability and lower IT costs.