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Or, The tale of the universal remote vs. integrated audio There are 2 IT infrastructure management philosophies within in the vendor community you should know about…  And you need to know how they’ll impact control data center infrastructures, cloud infrastructures, and IT operations. As I mentioned in an earlier blog about Band-Aids vs Cures, the two philosophies are essentially

• Automate what you’ve got: Use loosely-coupled automation, scripting and run-book-automation to orchestrate the piece-part components that otherwise consume management time and effort
• Virtualize/converge your infrastructure: Logically abstract the infrastructure (analogous to what hypervisors do for software) so that you can construct it in any form you need, with a minimal level of components and complexity

These each have implications into medium- and long-term data center efficiency (operational, capital). Let’s take a look at what they are: The “Universal Remote” strategy: This is known as loosely-coupled automation and/or Run Book automation. At first glance, this approach is pretty cool. Build a Service Manager and GUI, and then simply write drivers that speak to servers (i.e. DRAC, iLO, etc.), switches, SANs, etc.   Whatever you’ve got, this gizmo will orchestrate it… just like the Universal Remote we have at home.  Like your home entertainment center, it’s a *great* solution if you don’t want to make upsetting changes to your stereo, wiring, or components (still occasionally use that old Video Disc player?) Sure, it’s a great investment-protection strategy. Except

1. You still have a rats-nest of connections and components
2. You’re still paying for the software and annual support $ for all of the in-place assets
3. Problem management is complicated by an additional  level of abstraction/indirection
4. You’ve done nothing to reduce/simplify the overall infrastructure, capital expense, energy consumption, etc.

The “Integrated Audio” strategy: This approach is known either as Converged Infrastructure or Unified Computing, and is more analogous to the OS Virtualization world. It seeks to create a virtual infrastructure of logically defined and composed I/O, networking, switching, and storage connections. It’s a bit more like the all-in-one entertainment centers, or at least the systems that are predisposed to work with each other with a single control. This approach has pros and cons. Obviously it can require a new build-out – but one with much more “rip” than “replace” because so many physical components are now virtualized. All I/O, networking and switching are logically composed. The advantages are

1. Never re-wire the data center again. There are minimal cables and components to begin with
2. The infrastructure is infinitely re-composable – and is not limited by the physical topology
3. Since most point-products (and associated SW tools) are eliminated, there are less components to manage, and fewer SW tools to buy, maintain, and pay support for.

So be on the look-out for more about converged Infrastructure and unified computing. As data center drive toward greater simplicity and fewer ‘moving parts’, this approach will continue to accelerate. And while the Universal Remote is pretty cool, don’t forget about the mess of spaghetti you still have behind the cabinet.