In previous articles, we discussed IT transformation in general, IT transformation and security, and the top-down and migration approaches to IT transformation. Now, it is time to discuss a method of IT transformation I call “no changes to management.” With this method, IT transformation happens by natural, existing means within the data center, by adding software to aid and augment existing management software. That software forms the core of a transformation engine that, in effect, migrates and manages your cloud presence from your on-premises existing management suite.
HotLink is one example of such software. VMware’s own vRealize Automation can also be used to manage hybrid cloud instances but does not transform entities between disparate clouds. However, that can be automated. The use of these tools provides a means to manage your IT transformation as well as your hybrid cloud without changing the majority of how the IT department works. The methods to create, move, destroy, inventory, and otherwise affect your virtualized assets stay the same. The only differences may be a bit of process and the location of your assets.
This approach to IT transformation allows you to sign up for a cloud, register that cloud within your environment, and treat that cloud as if it were just another part of your existing on-premises data center. To make everything seem like it is just part of your data center, however, takes quite a bit of engineering. That has all been done for you in this form of IT transformation, leaving you to just manage your virtual and physical assets the way you do today.
Now, granted, in the future you may wish to move more and more into a cloud. If that happens, the “no changes to management” approach should be able to assist as well. After all, growth is a part of most management tools today. Capacity planning is also a part of those tools’ suites, and good “no changes to management” tools provide the necessary data to handle current and future capacity planning techniques.
One aspect that needs to be covered within the “no changes to management” approach to IT transformation is networking. Networking within one environment needs to be migrated into each cloud used by IT so that everything looks and acts the same within your hybrid cloud. HotLink, for example, will read the network from the on-premises location and build that network within Amazon. This is the beginning of implementing a form of software-defined data centers within your environment that has now been expanded to the cloud.
Security, network, management, and other tools need to span multiple locations spread across thousands of miles. The technology exists to do that without changing how you manage or create things today within your virtual environments. Most of these tools work specifically with VMware vSphere but can branch to multiple clouds using different underlying technology. The tools keep all in sync, while the management stays the same.
The “no changes to management” approach works quite well when you have an administrative team that has been using one form of management tool for a very long time and you know that changes to that tool would adversely impact their productivity and company profits. Minimal changes can be made while implementing a different style of IT transformation.