50mu – about storage

Just now at the VMware Partner Exchange 2013 (AKA PEX ’13) in Las Vegas, EMC announced the VMAX Cloud Edition for the Enterprise and midmarket. It’s an exciting new product that meets the needs of service providers to meet more of the customers needs. Now that’s a lot of “needs”, right?

But why should we even pay attention to the service provider side of the story?

The latest IDC Research Notes provides insight into this Market Momentum.

It is no surprise that Conventional IT spending is down, Private Cloud adoption is growing the fastest at 23%.

Ok, I know it’s probably a marketing chart, but still here’s a cheesy chart to show what’s going on in those stormy clouds up there:

The Average use of Public cloud by high-end data centers is 13% and growing to 20% by 2016 (not 20% of companies using cloud, but companies using Public cloud for 20% of their total workload). As you would expect, Spending on Private cloud is growing at a 16%. Spending by Public Cloud Providers is growing at a 15%.

Continuing on the latest IDC Research Notes, 3 main reasons were identified as catalysts for IT Moving to The Cloud.

1. The first is, Reduce of the Operational Expense (OPEX). This encompasses Data Center Operations and Headcount, Increased utilization from a predictable consumption model, and reducing complexity and the complexity of purchasing hardware and software.
2. The second is, to Drive Business Revenue by, Deploying and Scaling Applications Faster and increased flexibility and agility to meet business demand.
3. The Third, is to Improve Service Levels by either improving existing service levels or offer a higher level of service to new applications.

Given the current industry trends and market momentum there is a Vision that has emerged around an Enterprise Cloud Model that says… “What if… The Business had self-service access to enterprise-class storage choices for exactly what their applications need?” How does that sound?

Let’s take a step back and look at the current Storage Challenge.  Today organizations have sophisticated applications that put a demand on existing infrastructure whether this is through High Performance requirements and/or large Capacity Requirements.  This sophistication and demand often add a level of complexity.  Because of these requirements and complexities there is a natural engagement with Shared Services to determine the workload characteristics, any hardware, software, any expected service level objectives, and cost to support the business. This whole process can delay time to value or revenue and have a material impact on the business.

This expected agility within IT demands a fundamental change around the idea of taking a building block approach with application data sets, aligning them to a predictable business outcome while driving a predictable cost but do this through a simple, automated, self-service delivery model. Giving the consumer the control and flexibility to react to the business needs.

EMC would like to introduce a “Game Changing” and “Disruptive” technology for Enterprise-Class Cloud Delivery called the VMAX Cloud Edition.

Here are the key advantages of VMAX Cloud Edition.

• Provides Self-Service Control through a portal and/or REST API’s
• Automating Day-to-day tasks which reduces costs (a common example is around common provisioning tasks like volume creation, deletion, expansion, and host presentation)
• Pre-configured and Engineered for “As-A-Service” delivery
• Every Service Level is Enterprise-class whether you select Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond

Now lets see the associated benefit:

• Self-Service Control Speeds Tenant Access to Service
• Automation Reduces Cost
• Pre-configured and purpose built helps Accelerate Service Delivery
• Every Service Band being Enterprise-class Improves Service Levels

We believe that Self-Service Tenant Control should answer 3 basic questions…

1. “How do I get what my application needs?”
2. “What happens when my needs change?”
3. “How do I get feedback on how it’s going?”

All of these questions are answered with the ability to:

Provision and Change Performance through the web-based portal or REST API’s, Choose desired capacity, and make these Changes Anytime while providing visibility into performance, usage, and trending reports

By design, VMAX CE is pre-configured and purpose-built allowing for:

A comprehensive approach to service delivery, Linear and Predictable pricing, Ability to start small and scale out without a price penalty, easily provide chargeback and showback pricing, and faster integration with REST API’s improving a companies Time-to-value

When customers are building their private cloud to offer varying levels of service, VMAX Cloud Edition can be the cornerstone of a customers “As-A-Service” offerings by leveraging the industries most Available, Scalable, Secure and Trusted Tier 1 Storage Platform resulting in improved service levels

Lets review Why VMAX Cloud Edition for Enterprise & Midmarket Accounts.

1. Self-service User Control: Easily provision and change storage capacity and service levels using the web-based, self-service portal or by integrating with the REST APIs
2. Lowers Operational Costs: Automates day-to-day storage tasks and fulfill tenant requests for storage services
3. Accelerates As-a-Service Deployment: Pre-configured and purpose-built for the cloud, reduces time and expertise required to set up As-a-Service delivery
4. Improves Service Levels: All service level choices are enterprise-class, Tier-1 RAS from VMAX
5. Easily Establish Chargeback or Show-back Pricing: Linear pricing model – Each service level has a predictable, flat-rate per GB price
6. Tenant-level Reporting: Usage, performance, and trends keep tenants informed, and provide the information needed for departmental accountability
7. Orchestration Ready: REST APIs integrate with existing operations and orchestration
8. Buy-in and Scale Up: Acquire in smaller increments and scale up without a price penalty
9. Business Agility: Accurately deliver – or change – the performance and service levels for applications
10. The Best of Both for Your Private Cloud: Cloud-like access to the world’s most trusted enterprise-class storage

What should YOU be looking for? Accounts or Opportunities that are dissatisfied with the traditional IT Business Model and Interested in….

• X-as-a-Service flexibility and accountability
• Private cloud with public cloud attributes
• And those interested in Business outcomes, not technology

It’s Your Cloud @ Your Address…. Get there faster with the VMAX Cloud Edition! And now let’s make that phone call and get one to play with!

Other articles worth reading:

• http://vtbrianc.com/wp/2013/vmax-cloud-edition-part-1-user-interface/
• http://pulseblog.emc.com/2013/02/26/self-service-breakthrough-with-emc-vmax-cloud-edition/
• http://searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/news/2240178621/EMC-adds-VMAX-Cloud-Edition-for-private-clouds-providers
• http://geekfluent.com/2013/02/26/emc-announces-vmax-cloud-edition/
• http://it-tna.com/2013/02/26/emc-upgrades-replaces-vmax-sp-with-vmax-cloud-edition/
• http://itechthereforeiam.com/2013/02/756/