A Big happening in the World of Virtualization is around Software Defined. Like Cloud IaaS, there is Software Defined Infrastructure too. Right now, Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is not well defined and not standalone except provided by few providers like Rackspace and Amazon. Like we said before, with Vyatta Network Appliance on Rackspace Cloud; one can practically setup own isolated system.
Obviously, there are technical difference between Software Defined Networking (SDN), Software Defined Data Center (SDDC), Software Defined Storage (SDS) etcetera technologies and current Cloud Computing services. Yet, if we deduct too much theoretical part; at least Rackspace Cloud Services can be imagined a kind of primitive from of Software Defined Infrastructure. OpenFlow is absent.
Basics on Software Defined Infrastructure
Software Defined Infrastructure by definition is the technical computing infrastructure entirely under the control of software with no requirement of human intervention. The concept of Software Defined Infrastructure refers to the ability to define requirements from the infrastructure, which in turn can be functional and non-functional requirements and can be automatically derived and created. Typical deployments, as can be understood will require Software Defined Storage (SDS) and other specific capabilities for abstraction.
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Advanced capabilities will enable the transition from one already configured infrastructure to another without any downtime. Typically this will be seen as a calculated set of dynamic state between one configuration and another and an automated transition step between each. This, actually resembles cloud server backup and restore in current situation.
Intel describes Software Defined Infrastructure as “More Bang, Less Buck”. There is a company named Adara Networks, hugely promoted by InfoWorld like websites for Software Defined Infrastructure. However, in the Linux driven virtualization and cloud computing software world, we heard less from VMware, OpenStack, RedHat at the time of publishing this article.
