Data center professionals have long since focused on virtualization as a means to overcoming inefficiency and cost pressures.

As a result, investments have been made to implement private clouds, primarily through the use of server virtualization. Although businesses have largely realized increased server hardware efficiencies, the majority of organizations have found little to no gains in the efficiency of the data center when the network was not part of the transformation.1 To support the business end goal of being a more efficient, flexible and dynamic data center, the Forrester Thought Leadership Paper (TLP) entitled Myth Buster: Deploying Virtualization Technology Does Not Automatically Create A Private Cloud identified four areas that need to be addressed: 1) the virtual switches must be integrated into the network and management; 2) interactions between the server virtual switch hypervisor and the physical switch infrastructure must be controlled; 3) network layers need to be flattened and converged with storage; and 4) network management systems must be integrated to induce automation. This Technology Adoption Profile will highlight that: Organizations are seeking to increase data center efficiencies through server virtualization and the automation of virtual machine movement, ignition, and decommissioning. Virtual machine flexibility and efficiency depends on the conjoined management of networking, servers, and storage. Agile, dynamic, and cost-effective service data centers require the automation of data center networks.

Server virtualization has hit the mainstream in the modern data center. In a recent survey of European and North American large enterprises, IT decision-makers were asked to state their firms plans to adopt x86 server virtualization. According to Forresters Forrsights Hardware Survey, 83% of organizations have already implemented server virtualization to some degree, with a further 7% expecting to make investments in the next 12 months. The motivations for investment are clear: Organizations are trying to extract as much ROI from their environments as possible. As businesses continue to rein in costs due to the current global economic situation, IT decision-makers are looking to virtualization to help drive manageability and flexibility within

the IT infrastructure (86%), improve efficiency (85%), and lower the total cost of owning servers (84%) (see Figure 1).

How important were the following in your firms decision to adopt x86 server virtualization?
Improve IT infrastructure manageability and flexibility Create a more efficient, shared IT infrastructure Lower total cost of ownership for servers Improve disaster recovery and business continuity Speed deployment or time-to-market

54%
54% 59% 50% 40% 29% 25% 16% 16%
4

32%
31% 25% 30% 34% 29% 25% 24%
3 2

12% 2% 1%
11% 4% 1% 11% 4% 1% 14% 16% 5% 2%

5% 5% 14% 4%

Improve power and cooling efficiency

Provide developers with fast, easy resources for testing and development Implement an internal cloud (shared, automated, and self-service infrastructure)

24% 28% 24%

1 - Not at all important

14% 19%

7%

5 - Very important

Dont know

The ROI on the billions that organizations spend on server virtualization is predicated on the premise that all server hardware resources are always optimized such that they support not hinder the business. In a highly dynamic business world, the ignition, movement, and decommissioning of resources needs to be done within seconds (if not more quickly) in order for the infrastructure to remain competitive with other business processes. However, when Forrester asked 84 IT decision-makers at large US enterprises to indicate how long it takes their organization to make changes within the data center, 82% of respondents stated that it currently takes them an hour or more to make generic changes like allocating IP addresses or moving virtual machines (VMs) within a data center (see Figure 2). Eighty-eight percent of respondents currently use manual processes to communicate VM changes in the data center, while only 10% of those surveyed initiate changes through automated processes and systems (see Figure 3). Organizations currently dont have or use the tools and architectures necessary to support automated processes within the data center. As the TLP states, Organizations had not yet considered the interdependency between the server infrastructure and the network. Instead of having a pool of resources responding to business demands automatically, these organizational silos communicate through service tickets. For example, a VM move would require a service ticket being issued to the networking team that would adjust the port settings on both the existing port as well as the destination port for the virtual machine. Upon completion, the ticket would be passed to the server team to perform the move. Lastly, the ticket would be sent back to the requester for verification and closure. This process is antiquated, timeconsuming, and error-prone.

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With regards to generic data center changes, what is the average amount of time it takes to allocate IP addresses, move VMs between servers or between data centers, or deploy new servers or new applications within the data center? Other 5% 1 second 1% 1 minute 12%

One month 2% One week 14%

Two days 10%

1 hour 29%

One day 27%

57%

How are changes, additions, moves, or removals of virtual machines in the data center communicated to the networking teams?

18%

13%

10% 2%

Ticket system

Verbally through team meetings or phone calls

Email

Initiated through automation system

Other

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Organizations need to phase out manual control of virtualization if they are to get the desired ROI out of server consolidation and virtualization. Realizing this, 63% of organizations expect automation of virtualization management to be a high or critical priority in 2012 making it just as important as disaster recovery (see Figure 4). This automation is what will drive organizations to their desired goals, such as the ability to: Decrease operational costs with tools that execute complex tasks. Firms can leverage IT staff with less advanced skill sets to oversee automation tools that perform complex but repetitive tasks, such as manually moving VMs and their associated networking policies. Improve the quality of services. Repeatable and standardized processes are the underpinnings of automation. Automation enables an organization to measure and improve processes, which is the foundation of total quality manufacturing (TQM) and the successful delivery of high-quality products. Increase process reliability. Related tasks can be assembled into more reliable processes. A more sophisticated realization of automation requires the assembly of multiple tasks in a sequence with decisions along the way that facilitate branching and feedback. Tasks within this process workflow may be executed manually or automatically, but the process itself is enforced and accelerated by the process automation tool. This empowerment, speed, and consistency expands your infrastructure and operations (I&O) staff's productivity and effectiveness and results in economic and service quality benefits. React more quickly to the business environment. Instead of taking days or weeks to provision new services, automated infrastructures replace or consolidate functional silos that historically had to coordinate a multitude of functions with coordination of hardware, software, and services instantaneously and on the fly. While virtual machine automation may achieve the expected efficiencies, the effort isnt complete without the support of the networking and storage data center components. Sixty-one percent of enterprises plan to consolidate the management of servers, network, and storage under one system (see Figure 5). Additionally, almost half of North American enterprises (47%) plan to implement automatic network provisioning of ports to support VM movement.

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Which of the following initiatives are likely to be your firms/organizations top hardware/IT infrastructure priorities over the next 12 months? Consolidate IT infrastructure via server consolidation, data center consolidation, or server virtualization
Maintain or implement broad use of server virtualization as the standard server deployment mode Purchase or upgrade disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities Automate the management of virtualized servers to gain flexibility and resiliency Develop a comprehensive cloud strategy for IT infrastructure

29%
29% 20% 15% 13% 30% 43% 48%

52%
50%

Build an internal private cloud operated by IT (not a service provider)

Use cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) at a service provider

Critical priority

10%
7%

26%
24%

High priority

What are your firms plans to implement the following management capabilities? Consolidated management of servers, network, and storage under one system Use live migration of virtual machines as a standard practice Boot all virtual machines from networked storage Track virtual machine resource usage by account to track which users drive usage Automatic network provisioning of ports to support VM movement Implement a "virtual-first" policy for new server deployments Self-service portal for end users such as developers to deploy, manage, and remove virtual machines Policy-based automation of virtual machine allocation for routine adjustments, without human review Create a lights-out data center Chargeback to business user based on actual virtual machine usage in a period
10%

38% 35% 32% 21% 26% 32%

19%

15% 11% 8% 18% 7%

8%

12% 24% 20%

12%

11% 8% 14% 13%

14% 7% 7%
13%

23%
12%
Expanding/ upgrading implementation Planning to implement in the next 12 months Planning to implement in a year or more

13% 18% 11%

14% 8% 13%

12% 11% 7%

10% 14% 14%

Implemented, not expanding

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Aside from the drive to increase efficiencies within the data center, empowered, mobile, and dispersed employees will pull I&O in more directions within the data center than they have been used to. Compounding the demands, I&O responsiveness and the need for resilient, high-performance enterprise networks will become another factor, as users leverage video, cloud, and social technologies to solve customer challenges. Individuals who leverage these new powers are reshaping business and forcing I&O to move from ticket systems, email, and verbal communications to closed-loop systems in which networks automatically identify the demands of new applications by users and reprovision the network to accommodate it. Network automation presents an opportunity to empower I&O staff in a way that will transform the network entity from the stereotypical technology hurdle into a catalyst for business service.

This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by Brocade. Forrester leveraged its Forrsights Hardware Survey, Q3 2011 and isolated responses of European and North American IT decision-makers at large enterprises with 1,000 or more employees. Forrester Consulting supplemented this analysis with custom survey questions asked of 84 IT decision-makers. The respondents were asked about their virtualization priorities, the methods they use to communicate changes made in the data center, and their plans to implement management capabilities within their data centers. This supplementary survey was conducted in February 2012. For more information on Forresters data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, go to www.forrester.com.

2012, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. [1-JZMLQ9]

A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Brocade, Myth Buster: Deploying Virtualization Technology Does Not Automatically Create A Private Cloud, April 2011
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