Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) Architecture for Beginners

Software-defined data center is a data management approach that abstracts computing, storage and network resources through virtualization and provides them as services. To facilitate this process, SDDC includes intelligent software to centrally manage virtualized resources and automate operations and distribution workflows.

The software-defined data center architecture can be divided into three logical layers: physical layer, virtualization layer and management layer. Together, these layers provide a unified system that provides enterprises with greater management flexibility and more cost-effective operations than traditional technologies can achieve.

[[214685]]

Physical Layer

The physical layer of the software-defined data center architecture includes computing, storage, and network components to support SDDC to store and process enterprise data. These components can be made of commodity hardware from different vendors, which can help enterprises reduce costs and avoid vendor lock-in, but this flexibility may also make the implementation of SDDC more complex.

The computing components usually include multiple server nodes combined in a cluster architecture, which provide processing and storage resources to support data operations. Since the cluster can be composed of commodity hardware, it will be easier and cheaper to switch after a node goes down.

Storage components can consist of a variety of technologies, such as SAN, NAS or DAS, and can also include HDDs and SSDs. In addition, businesses can leverage existing storage systems, which can help them avoid additional expenditures.

The network component of the SDDC architecture includes physical hardware to facilitate communication between compute and storage resources and protect enterprise data. The hardware includes switches, routers, gateways, and any other components necessary to support SDDC communications in a clustered architecture.

Virtualization layer

Virtualization is the key to software-defined data centers. The virtualization layer includes software used to abstract underlying resources and provide them as integrated services. The core of the virtualization layer is the hypervisor, which provides resources as virtualized components.

Compute virtualization is based on proven server virtualization practices, which decouples processing and memory resources from physical servers. It pools these resources into logical computing components and increases resource sharing and utilization. Applications are unaware of the underlying physical servers and rely entirely on virtualized processing and memory resources.

Storage virtualization does not have as long of a history as server virtualization, but is very similar in concept. Storage virtualization abstracts the underlying physical devices and presents the available storage as a logical pool of resources. Applications do not need to be concerned with the type, number, and size of storage devices. Similar to software-defined storage, storage virtualization abstracts the details of the underlying hardware so that each application can be provided with the storage resources it needs without affecting other applications.

Network virtualization is a relatively new virtualization technology, but like server virtualization, it separates available resources from the underlying hardware, classifying physical bandwidth into independent channels that IT administrators can allocate or reallocate to specific workloads in real time. To achieve this, virtualized networks provide a flexible pool of network services for on-demand allocation, enabling more flexible and rapid configuration.

Management

Virtualization of physical resources is only part of the software-defined data center architecture, which also includes a management layer that enables orchestration and automated operations. The management layer links the U-shaped resources into a unified SDDC, allocates these resources to specific workloads, and then reallocates these resources as demand changes.

Intelligent software provides a framework to centrally manage and monitor the SDDC infrastructure and its workloads. It can manage virtual resource layout, automatically optimize resource allocation and perform many other tasks. Administrators have a single interface to access and control the virtual layer and its supporting components.

The management layer includes monitoring, alerting, and scheduling capabilities so that administrators can oversee operations, maintain performance, and perform advanced analytics. In addition, this layer integrates with the security and data protection mechanisms built into the software-defined data center architecture.

The management layer also provides business logic that translates application needs and requests into API instructions that perform orchestration and automation operations. The API enables management and virtualization software to configure and manage resources and address policy enforcement and service-level agreements.