With the growth of virtualization in individual business, we see as a result the core systems of many enterprises themselves becoming virtualized. Inherently, the consequences of this growth are complexity of those critical application environments. It begins to feel as if the closer a data center reaches towards the goal of the private cloud, the more difficult it becomes to attain that goal of a true cloud VPS server environment. What can be done to reach beyond these hurdles and grow the data center virtual servers to true private cloud adaptation? For in that direction lays the promise of fast efficient service. The key to all of this is automation.
Management of changes and configurations, automated provisioning and asset management are legacy issues that virtual data centers need to approach with creative and original solutions. We have seen how many virtual data centers can become victims of virtual sprawl and stall due to the increased demands of virtualization speed and resources. By automating time consuming and routine tasks, automation can aide businesses to meet the challenges of cloud adaptation while improving operations through efficiency. Both of these will improve the self-confidence of the enterprise’s IT team.
But virtual data centers must transform themselves from centers for managing infrastructure to ones that handle and organize the consumption of services if they are to make the transition to private clouds. If IT teams want to quickly and efficiently respond and fulfill on-demand service requests they must add efficiencies to the scaling of administrative competencies. This can be done through the leveraging of easy-to-use authorization and deployment workflows with policy-driven automation. To ensure regular and dependable delivery of IT services through cloud VPS servers and private clouds, processes must be standardized to business and IT policies.
There are many benefits to a successful private cloud implementation. Organizations will soon discover that they have not only reduced operational costs but at the same time have seen improved quality of service, faster delivery modes and a response to business needs that proves far more agile. A reduction in the number of incidents, errors and outages is another benefit of automating the response to an increased demand that will often result in a cloud model. This reduction of administrative support will bring your admin ratios and costs, one of the highest costs in the data center, to a more manageable level.
The Seven Keys to Automation
When considering a move to automation, it is always better to take it one step at a time. If you can define the places within your organization’s cloud VPS server environment where the clearest overall benefit or most defined fit would be, that is the best place to start. A short list of possible areas to consider would be:
Discovery and Reporting: The most basic need of any virtual data center management system is to be able to see what needs to be managed. This may seem self-evident, but it bears special attention.
Capacity Planning: If you can optimize assets that are being over or under provisioned while staying aware of growth trends, it will allow you to proactively plan infrastructure capacity. This is vital for you to meet any Service Level Agreements (SLAs) you may have.
Self-Service: This is a feature that will allow business teams to request virtual machines (VMs) on-demand, engaging them in the process while at the same time lowering your administrative load. Virtual Machine requests can be tracked by business teams, right up to the provisioning of VMs. It allows stakeholders access to real-time information regarding the virtual infrastructure without a technical management account in or additional administrative team support.
Automated Provisioning and Life-Cycle Management: Virtual Machines, unlike physical machines, have lives that can span anything from a few minutes to decades and have the advantage of mobility. This lifecycle creates the need to manage and control VMs in the environment, get confirmation that only compliant and approved VMs are provisioned, and ensure that they are decommissioned at the conclusion of their lives to release valuable resources for reuse.
Management of Change and Configuration: Growing virtual datacenters introduces a built-in complexity that requires the standardization and maintenance of configurations. In addition, all changes to the environment must be monitored and audited at all times.
Optimizing Resources: Just as a physical data center works to ensure that resources are proficiently used at optimal levels; in a dynamic virtual center this is even more critical.
Policy-based Automation: The development of standard practices, policies and automation are vital to any successful private cloud, regardless of type. This is due to the increased volume of VMs, manual maintenance and environmental support that soon becomes both unreliable and unworkable.
Looking at the Bottom Line
The cost savings from immediate reductions in capital expenditures is what will give management buy-in and momentum for most businesses initial venture into virtualization. However, the financial benefits of virtualization go beyond these cost savings to the true value in the private cloud or cloud VPS servers. This is where long term lower operational expenses can be realized through automation.
The expected return on investment (ROI) from virtualization can be compromised when unexpected downtime together with inefficient hardware utilization and increased staff cost occur when automation is not part of the solution. In some cases it can stall the whole initiative. To realize true long term reduction in operational expenses you must automate the daily tasks associated with virtual systems management.
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