Transforming your data center from a cost center to a business enabler requires a holistic approach. There are ten domains in the data center you must consider in order to achieve successful transformation. Cisco Domain TenSM is a framework that reveals these essential domains. It can help you identify gaps and create an architectural roadmap for: Consolidation and Virtualization Cloud Applications Desktop Virtualization
Understanding the Cisco Domain Ten framework allows you to accelerate the transformation of your data center, regardless of whether you want to take advantage of virtualization, move to a cloud-based IT model, or operate your data center more efficiently and agilely.
Begin your journey by clicking on any domain to your left or the quick links above.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
BEST PRACTICE Expand virtualization across computing, storage, and networking resources. Design virtualized environments to support bare-metal and virtual provisioning. At present, a number of workloads still cannot be run in a virtual environment for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure must be thoughtfully designed to allow bare-metal provisioning while still providing the enhanced benefits of virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
The User Portal defines the user experience and is the domain in which we work, live, and play. Users can order what they need from a menu of standard options using an intuitive portal interface (for example, Amazon.com). The user portal has two main components: the software tool, which provides the functions, and the governance model, which enables the tool. Management can control and track each service from initial request to decommissioning. IT can enable self-service provisioning of application and infrastructure requests within minutes instead of weeks. BEST PRACTICE Determine the scope of the user portal, including current and future needs. Will it be used only for IT infrastructure tasks? Will it offer new applications? Or will it enable access to other functional assets such as marketing campaigns? It is also critical to determine who can access the user portal, what limitations are placed on what each user can see, and how sophisticated the user portal will be.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
Figure 1: Example of a user portal interface
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
It is important to thoughtfully consider the usability of the portal; together with domains 5 and 6, the user portal supports consistent ordering and delivery processes through automation and IT policy enforcement. Creating a single interface that interacts with the complex computing systems empower users to order what they want and are authorized to order. Learn about Cisco Cloud Portal. It helps IT organizations: Encourage adoption of standardized options with a menu in an online catalog Deploy an internal private cloud and govern public cloud usage with a self-service portal Manage the lifecycle of services and monitor consumption for pay-per-use tracking Improve visibility into demand to help ensure more accurate capacity planning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): Domains 1 through 6 provide the foundation for a true private cloud that offers IaaS. The infrastructure is provided to an end user as a service according to what that user orders through the portal and service catalog. As shown in figure 2, an IaaS offering contains the essential characteristics of cloud computing as defined by ISACA: figure 2
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The Platform Domain provides an environment for developers. What sets the platform apart from other domains is the platform combines commercially available software elements on top of the infrastructure. Software includes OS, middleware and database applications. BEST PRACTICE Reduce the number of OS images supported to simplify management and deployment of a cloud platform. Many organizations have one unique OS image per server. However, IT departments have learned as they move toward automation that a better approach is to use a small number of standardized OS images that can apply to multiple servers, to standardize automation. For example, a traditional guideline is the use of one system administrator for every 25 servers. A best practice is to have one administrator for every 100 servers. With standardization, organizations can move to one administrator for every 2,500 servers, greatly reducing the number of staff members devoted to system administration and allowing members to focus on other activities.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The platform includes the provisioning of these software elements through the user portal, providing the platform-as-a-service (PaaS). For instance, with PaaS, clients can offer database-as-a-service capabilities with the database administrator (DBA) able to enter through the user portal to provision the database. To be effective in this domain, clients must be able to justify the number of OS, middleware, and database versions they are supporting. Each variation in platform components adds complexity to the overall system, so decisions about the platform layer need to be made with care.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Applications
The applications that are physically located and run on the cloud infrastructure are commonly referred to as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Just like the software in the platform domain, the applications in domain 8 need to be prepared before they can be provisioned in the cloud. Before migrating to the cloud, you need to determine whether your applications are compatible with a cloud environment. Many existing applications were not developed to take advantage of cloud infrastructure, and as a result they will not run well in a cloud infrastructure. BEST PRACTICE Determine the application strategy by considering where the applications will reside, the suitability of applications for the target environment, and potential application modernization.
Cisco can help determine how the application stack should look. We can help identify which applications are well suited for the cloud, which will work with some remediation and which are inappropriate for cloud deployment. Cisco can help enterprises understand the scale of their cloud environment and the size of the infrastructure needed and then migrate the applications to the cloud infrastructure.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
When migrating or deploying business applications such as those from Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP, organizations must address the application environment. They need to: Migrate applications to a computing platform that helps reduce costs and increase business agility Decide which applications to virtualize and modernize Decide which operating systems to standardize Identify the core business-critical applications and their dependencies Determine application data location and proximity for low-latency user experiences Profile applications for capacity and reliability Understand the complex interdependencies of the network, storage, computing, and server layers and how they affect application layout Assess the effects on disaster recovery plans Simplify application management Automate provisioning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
All these tasks require the organization to take a strategic approach to align business goals with the target application environment. Case study: Avago Technologies Accelerate Business Cycle Times
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
End users are moving towards a world of greater workplace mobility by bringing their own devices to work. The need for access to corporate applications and data at anytime, from anywhere, and on any device is increasing daily. Desktop virtualization technologies, which replace the traditional desktop environment with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to meet the demand for secure mobile access, delivers these capabilities and when provided through the cloud, are combined with the ubiquitous access, elasticity, and measured service that distinguish cloud computing and make delivering these services both viable and practical. Desktop virtualization may also include application, virtual desktop, and remote services. It decouples application execution from where the client physically resides, allowing new client computing paradigms. BEST PRACTICE Avoid the initial capital costs associated with deployment of a virtual desktop solution. Explore cloud based as-a-service options. In addition, inquire about storage and network optimization approaches and technologies to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements and improve performance.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
Benefits of desktop virtualization include: simplified desktop and application management; reduced operational costs; secured company data; and the foundation for a rich user experience. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services deliver rich, expert-based services end to end that can help you rapidly plan, build, and manage a desktop virtualization solution of your choice. These services also help provide the right fit with your existing investments and align your IT and business strategies. Transitioning to desktop virtualization requires alignment across numerous technologies and IT departments. This change can be a time-consuming effort, often requiring specific skills across multiple technology domains that are not readily available in most IT departments. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services can streamline this transformation with expert-based services that can help you rapidly achieve the desktop virtualization solution of your choice anywhere, with any device, over any medium. Case Studies: Seattle University Regains Control of Desktop Applications
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Collaboration Applications
Cloud environments provide a new level of flexibility in application and data delivery. Applications and services that are provisioned from a cloud provide operation benefits without the capital expenses of on-premises environments. As direct consumers of cloud-hosted applications and services from Cisco and our partners, end users get access to high-performance, enterprise-class applications and services. Learn more about Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solutions.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Application Modernization
Besides migrating applications to a more efficient infrastructure, there are two other ways to improve application management: workload automation and application modernization. Workload automation includes automation of common tasks such as running scheduled batch workloads and event-based business processes, as well as determining where and when to run them, without the need to manage scripts or customize existing tools. Workload automation can be used for a wide variety of business processes and helps simplify operations, reduce costs, and promote business flexibility. Application modernization involves migrating custom applications to a more efficient infrastructure and transforming them into stateless applications that can dynamically respond to changing business requirements. For example, if a stateless application is hosted in the United States but is needed in Australia, it can be run in Australia, and all the local security policies will be respected. Performance will be better because the application does not have to be run over the WAN.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
After
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Together with our partners, Cisco brings people, processes, and technologies to accelerate the transformation of your data center. Realize the full value of your data center investment faster and successfully transform, optimize and secure your data center. Learn more about services from Cisco and our partners. Overview of Cisco Services Cisco Cloud Enablement Services Cisco Virtualization Services Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Cloud
Welcome to the Cloud quick link.
Continue your journey by clicking on any highlighted domain to your left, starting with domain 1. These domains are the ones most relevant to the Cloud.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
BEST PRACTICE Expand virtualization across computing, storage, and networking resources. Design virtualized environments to support bare-metal and virtual provisioning. At present, a number of workloads still cannot be run in a virtual environment for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure must be thoughtfully designed to allow bare-metal provisioning while still providing the enhanced benefits of virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
The User Portal defines the user experience and is the domain in which we work, live, and play. Users can order what they need from a menu of standard options using an intuitive portal interface (for example, Amazon.com). The user portal has two main components: the software tool, which provides the functions, and the governance model, which enables the tool. Management can control and track each service from initial request to decommissioning. IT can enable self-service provisioning of application and infrastructure requests within minutes instead of weeks. BEST PRACTICE Determine the scope of the user portal, including current and future needs. Will it be used only for IT infrastructure tasks? Will it offer new applications? Or will it enable access to other functional assets such as marketing campaigns? It is also critical to determine who can access the user portal, what limitations are placed on what each user can see, and how sophisticated the user portal will be.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
Figure 1: Example of a user portal interface
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
It is important to thoughtfully consider the usability of the portal; together with domains 5 and 6, the user portal supports consistent ordering and delivery processes through automation and IT policy enforcement. Creating a single interface that interacts with the complex computing systems empower users to order what they want and are authorized to order. Learn about Cisco Cloud Portal. It helps IT organizations: Encourage adoption of standardized options with a menu in an online catalog Deploy an internal private cloud and govern public cloud usage with a self-service portal Manage the lifecycle of services and monitor consumption for pay-per-use tracking Improve visibility into demand to help ensure more accurate capacity planning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): Domains 1 through 6 provide the foundation for a true private cloud that offers IaaS. The infrastructure is provided to an end user as a service according to what that user orders through the portal and service catalog. As shown in figure 2, an IaaS offering contains the essential characteristics of cloud computing as defined by ISACA: figure 2
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The Platform Domain provides an environment for developers. What sets the platform apart from other domains is the platform combines commercially available software elements on top of the infrastructure. Software includes OS, middleware and database applications. BEST PRACTICE Reduce the number of OS images supported to simplify management and deployment of a cloud platform. Many organizations have one unique OS image per server. However, IT departments have learned as they move toward automation that a better approach is to use a small number of standardized OS images that can apply to multiple servers, to standardize automation. For example, a traditional guideline is the use of one system administrator for every 25 servers. A best practice is to have one administrator for every 100 servers. With standardization, organizations can move to one administrator for every 2,500 servers, greatly reducing the number of staff members devoted to system administration and allowing members to focus on other activities.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The platform includes the provisioning of these software elements through the user portal, providing the platform-as-a-service (PaaS). For instance, with PaaS, clients can offer database-as-a-service capabilities with the database administrator (DBA) able to enter through the user portal to provision the database. To be effective in this domain, clients must be able to justify the number of OS, middleware, and database versions they are supporting. Each variation in platform components adds complexity to the overall system, so decisions about the platform layer need to be made with care.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Applications
The applications that are physically located and run on the cloud infrastructure are commonly referred to as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Just like the software in the platform domain, the applications in domain 8 need to be prepared before they can be provisioned in the cloud. Before migrating to the cloud, you need to determine whether your applications are compatible with a cloud environment. Many existing applications were not developed to take advantage of cloud infrastructure, and as a result they will not run well in a cloud infrastructure. BEST PRACTICE Determine the application strategy by considering where the applications will reside, the suitability of applications for the target environment, and potential application modernization.
Cisco can help determine how the application stack should look. We can help identify which applications are well suited for the cloud, which will work with some remediation and which are inappropriate for cloud deployment. Cisco can help enterprises understand the scale of their cloud environment and the size of the infrastructure needed and then migrate the applications to the cloud infrastructure.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
When migrating or deploying business applications such as those from Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP, organizations must address the application environment. They need to: Migrate applications to a computing platform that helps reduce costs and increase business agility Decide which applications to virtualize and modernize Decide which operating systems to standardize Identify the core business-critical applications and their dependencies Determine application data location and proximity for low-latency user experiences Profile applications for capacity and reliability Understand the complex interdependencies of the network, storage, computing, and server layers and how they affect application layout Assess the effects on disaster recovery plans Simplify application management Automate provisioning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
All these tasks require the organization to take a strategic approach to align business goals with the target application environment. Case study: Avago Technologies Accelerate Business Cycle Times
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
End users are moving towards a world of greater workplace mobility by bringing their own devices to work. The need for access to corporate applications and data at anytime, from anywhere, and on any device is increasing daily. Desktop virtualization technologies, which replace the traditional desktop environment with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to meet the demand for secure mobile access, delivers these capabilities and when provided through the cloud, are combined with the ubiquitous access, elasticity, and measured service that distinguish cloud computing and make delivering these services both viable and practical. Desktop virtualization may also include application, virtual desktop, and remote services. It decouples application execution from where the client physically resides, allowing new client computing paradigms. BEST PRACTICE Avoid the initial capital costs associated with deployment of a virtual desktop solution. Explore cloud based as-a-service options. In addition, inquire about storage and network optimization approaches and technologies to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements and improve performance.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
Benefits of desktop virtualization include: simplified desktop and application management; reduced operational costs; secured company data; and the foundation for a rich user experience. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services deliver rich, expert-based services end to end that can help you rapidly plan, build, and manage a desktop virtualization solution of your choice. These services also help provide the right fit with your existing investments and align your IT and business strategies. Transitioning to desktop virtualization requires alignment across numerous technologies and IT departments. This change can be a time-consuming effort, often requiring specific skills across multiple technology domains that are not readily available in most IT departments. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services can streamline this transformation with expert-based services that can help you rapidly achieve the desktop virtualization solution of your choice anywhere, with any device, over any medium. Case Studies: Seattle University Regains Control of Desktop Applications
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Collaboration Applications
Cloud environments provide a new level of flexibility in application and data delivery. Applications and services that are provisioned from a cloud provide operation benefits without the capital expenses of on-premises environments. As direct consumers of cloud-hosted applications and services from Cisco and our partners, end users get access to high-performance, enterprise-class applications and services. Learn more about Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solutions.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Application Modernization
Besides migrating applications to a more efficient infrastructure, there are two other ways to improve application management: workload automation and application modernization. Workload automation includes automation of common tasks such as running scheduled batch workloads and event-based business processes, as well as determining where and when to run them, without the need to manage scripts or customize existing tools. Workload automation can be used for a wide variety of business processes and helps simplify operations, reduce costs, and promote business flexibility. Application modernization involves migrating custom applications to a more efficient infrastructure and transforming them into stateless applications that can dynamically respond to changing business requirements. For example, if a stateless application is hosted in the United States but is needed in Australia, it can be run in Australia, and all the local security policies will be respected. Performance will be better because the application does not have to be run over the WAN.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
After
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Consolidation/Virtualization
Welcome to the Consolidation/Virtualization quick link.
Continue your journey by clicking on any highlighted domain to your left, starting with domain 1. These domains are the ones most relevant to Consolidation/Virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
BEST PRACTICE Expand virtualization across computing, storage, and networking resources. Design virtualized environments to support bare-metal and virtual provisioning. At present, a number of workloads still cannot be run in a virtual environment for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure must be thoughtfully designed to allow bare-metal provisioning while still providing the enhanced benefits of virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Applications
Welcome to the Applications quick link.
Continue your journey by clicking on any highlighted domain to your left, starting with domain 1. These domains are the ones most relevant to Applications.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
BEST PRACTICE Expand virtualization across computing, storage, and networking resources. Design virtualized environments to support bare-metal and virtual provisioning. At present, a number of workloads still cannot be run in a virtual environment for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure must be thoughtfully designed to allow bare-metal provisioning while still providing the enhanced benefits of virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
The User Portal defines the user experience and is the domain in which we work, live, and play. Users can order what they need from a menu of standard options using an intuitive portal interface (for example, Amazon.com). The user portal has two main components: the software tool, which provides the functions, and the governance model, which enables the tool. Management can control and track each service from initial request to decommissioning. IT can enable self-service provisioning of application and infrastructure requests within minutes instead of weeks. BEST PRACTICE Determine the scope of the user portal, including current and future needs. Will it be used only for IT infrastructure tasks? Will it offer new applications? Or will it enable access to other functional assets such as marketing campaigns? It is also critical to determine who can access the user portal, what limitations are placed on what each user can see, and how sophisticated the user portal will be.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
Figure 1: Example of a user portal interface
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
It is important to thoughtfully consider the usability of the portal; together with domains 5 and 6, the user portal supports consistent ordering and delivery processes through automation and IT policy enforcement. Creating a single interface that interacts with the complex computing systems empower users to order what they want and are authorized to order. Learn about Cisco Cloud Portal. It helps IT organizations: Encourage adoption of standardized options with a menu in an online catalog Deploy an internal private cloud and govern public cloud usage with a self-service portal Manage the lifecycle of services and monitor consumption for pay-per-use tracking Improve visibility into demand to help ensure more accurate capacity planning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The Platform Domain provides an environment for developers. What sets the platform apart from other domains is the platform combines commercially available software elements on top of the infrastructure. Software includes OS, middleware and database applications. BEST PRACTICE Reduce the number of OS images supported to simplify management and deployment of a cloud platform. Many organizations have one unique OS image per server. However, IT departments have learned as they move toward automation that a better approach is to use a small number of standardized OS images that can apply to multiple servers, to standardize automation. For example, a traditional guideline is the use of one system administrator for every 25 servers. A best practice is to have one administrator for every 100 servers. With standardization, organizations can move to one administrator for every 2,500 servers, greatly reducing the number of staff members devoted to system administration and allowing members to focus on other activities.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The platform includes the provisioning of these software elements through the user portal, providing the platform-as-a-service (PaaS). For instance, with PaaS, clients can offer database-as-a-service capabilities with the database administrator (DBA) able to enter through the user portal to provision the database. To be effective in this domain, clients must be able to justify the number of OS, middleware, and database versions they are supporting. Each variation in platform components adds complexity to the overall system, so decisions about the platform layer need to be made with care.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Applications
The applications that are physically located and run on the cloud infrastructure are commonly referred to as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Just like the software in the platform domain, the applications in domain 8 need to be prepared before they can be provisioned in the cloud. Before migrating to the cloud, you need to determine whether your applications are compatible with a cloud environment. Many existing applications were not developed to take advantage of cloud infrastructure, and as a result they will not run well in a cloud infrastructure. BEST PRACTICE Determine the application strategy by considering where the applications will reside, the suitability of applications for the target environment, and potential application modernization.
Cisco can help determine how the application stack should look. We can help identify which applications are well suited for the cloud, which will work with some remediation and which are inappropriate for cloud deployment. Cisco can help enterprises understand the scale of their cloud environment and the size of the infrastructure needed and then migrate the applications to the cloud infrastructure.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
When migrating or deploying business applications such as those from Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP, organizations must address the application environment. They need to: Migrate applications to a computing platform that helps reduce costs and increase business agility Decide which applications to virtualize and modernize Decide which operating systems to standardize Identify the core business-critical applications and their dependencies Determine application data location and proximity for low-latency user experiences Profile applications for capacity and reliability Understand the complex interdependencies of the network, storage, computing, and server layers and how they affect application layout Assess the effects on disaster recovery plans Simplify application management Automate provisioning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
All these tasks require the organization to take a strategic approach to align business goals with the target application environment. Case study: Avago Technologies Accelerate Business Cycle Times
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
End users are moving towards a world of greater workplace mobility by bringing their own devices to work. The need for access to corporate applications and data at anytime, from anywhere, and on any device is increasing daily. Desktop virtualization technologies, which replace the traditional desktop environment with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to meet the demand for secure mobile access, delivers these capabilities and when provided through the cloud, are combined with the ubiquitous access, elasticity, and measured service that distinguish cloud computing and make delivering these services both viable and practical. Desktop virtualization may also include application, virtual desktop, and remote services. It decouples application execution from where the client physically resides, allowing new client computing paradigms. BEST PRACTICE Avoid the initial capital costs associated with deployment of a virtual desktop solution. Explore cloud based as-a-service options. In addition, inquire about storage and network optimization approaches and technologies to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements and improve performance.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
Benefits of desktop virtualization include: simplified desktop and application management; reduced operational costs; secured company data; and the foundation for a rich user experience. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services deliver rich, expert-based services end to end that can help you rapidly plan, build, and manage a desktop virtualization solution of your choice. These services also help provide the right fit with your existing investments and align your IT and business strategies. Transitioning to desktop virtualization requires alignment across numerous technologies and IT departments. This change can be a time-consuming effort, often requiring specific skills across multiple technology domains that are not readily available in most IT departments. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services can streamline this transformation with expert-based services that can help you rapidly achieve the desktop virtualization solution of your choice anywhere, with any device, over any medium. Case Studies: Seattle University Regains Control of Desktop Applications
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Collaboration Applications
Cloud environments provide a new level of flexibility in application and data delivery. Applications and services that are provisioned from a cloud provide operation benefits without the capital expenses of on-premises environments. As direct consumers of cloud-hosted applications and services from Cisco and our partners, end users get access to high-performance, enterprise-class applications and services. Learn more about Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solutions.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Application Modernization
Besides migrating applications to a more efficient infrastructure, there are two other ways to improve application management: workload automation and application modernization. Workload automation includes automation of common tasks such as running scheduled batch workloads and event-based business processes, as well as determining where and when to run them, without the need to manage scripts or customize existing tools. Workload automation can be used for a wide variety of business processes and helps simplify operations, reduce costs, and promote business flexibility. Application modernization involves migrating custom applications to a more efficient infrastructure and transforming them into stateless applications that can dynamically respond to changing business requirements. For example, if a stateless application is hosted in the United States but is needed in Australia, it can be run in Australia, and all the local security policies will be respected. Performance will be better because the application does not have to be run over the WAN.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
After
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
Welcome to the Desktop Virtualization quick link.
Continue your journey by clicking on any highlighted domain to your left, starting with domain 1. These domains are the ones most relevant to Desktop Virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
BEST PRACTICE Expand virtualization across computing, storage, and networking resources. Design virtualized environments to support bare-metal and virtual provisioning. At present, a number of workloads still cannot be run in a virtual environment for a variety of reasons. Infrastructure must be thoughtfully designed to allow bare-metal provisioning while still providing the enhanced benefits of virtualization.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
The User Portal defines the user experience and is the domain in which we work, live, and play. Users can order what they need from a menu of standard options using an intuitive portal interface (for example, Amazon.com). The user portal has two main components: the software tool, which provides the functions, and the governance model, which enables the tool. Management can control and track each service from initial request to decommissioning. IT can enable self-service provisioning of application and infrastructure requests within minutes instead of weeks. BEST PRACTICE Determine the scope of the user portal, including current and future needs. Will it be used only for IT infrastructure tasks? Will it offer new applications? Or will it enable access to other functional assets such as marketing campaigns? It is also critical to determine who can access the user portal, what limitations are placed on what each user can see, and how sophisticated the user portal will be.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
Figure 1: Example of a user portal interface
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
User Portal
It is important to thoughtfully consider the usability of the portal; together with domains 5 and 6, the user portal supports consistent ordering and delivery processes through automation and IT policy enforcement. Creating a single interface that interacts with the complex computing systems empower users to order what they want and are authorized to order. Learn about Cisco Cloud Portal. It helps IT organizations: Encourage adoption of standardized options with a menu in an online catalog Deploy an internal private cloud and govern public cloud usage with a self-service portal Manage the lifecycle of services and monitor consumption for pay-per-use tracking Improve visibility into demand to help ensure more accurate capacity planning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The Platform Domain provides an environment for developers. What sets the platform apart from other domains is the platform combines commercially available software elements on top of the infrastructure. Software includes OS, middleware and database applications. BEST PRACTICE Reduce the number of OS images supported to simplify management and deployment of a cloud platform. Many organizations have one unique OS image per server. However, IT departments have learned as they move toward automation that a better approach is to use a small number of standardized OS images that can apply to multiple servers, to standardize automation. For example, a traditional guideline is the use of one system administrator for every 25 servers. A best practice is to have one administrator for every 100 servers. With standardization, organizations can move to one administrator for every 2,500 servers, greatly reducing the number of staff members devoted to system administration and allowing members to focus on other activities.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Platform
The platform includes the provisioning of these software elements through the user portal, providing the platform-as-a-service (PaaS). For instance, with PaaS, clients can offer database-as-a-service capabilities with the database administrator (DBA) able to enter through the user portal to provision the database. To be effective in this domain, clients must be able to justify the number of OS, middleware, and database versions they are supporting. Each variation in platform components adds complexity to the overall system, so decisions about the platform layer need to be made with care.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Applications
The applications that are physically located and run on the cloud infrastructure are commonly referred to as software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Just like the software in the platform domain, the applications in domain 8 need to be prepared before they can be provisioned in the cloud. Before migrating to the cloud, you need to determine whether your applications are compatible with a cloud environment. Many existing applications were not developed to take advantage of cloud infrastructure, and as a result they will not run well in a cloud infrastructure. BEST PRACTICE Determine the application strategy by considering where the applications will reside, the suitability of applications for the target environment, and potential application modernization.
Cisco can help determine how the application stack should look. We can help identify which applications are well suited for the cloud, which will work with some remediation and which are inappropriate for cloud deployment. Cisco can help enterprises understand the scale of their cloud environment and the size of the infrastructure needed and then migrate the applications to the cloud infrastructure.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
When migrating or deploying business applications such as those from Oracle, Microsoft, or SAP, organizations must address the application environment. They need to: Migrate applications to a computing platform that helps reduce costs and increase business agility Decide which applications to virtualize and modernize Decide which operating systems to standardize Identify the core business-critical applications and their dependencies Determine application data location and proximity for low-latency user experiences Profile applications for capacity and reliability Understand the complex interdependencies of the network, storage, computing, and server layers and how they affect application layout Assess the effects on disaster recovery plans Simplify application management Automate provisioning
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Business Applications
All these tasks require the organization to take a strategic approach to align business goals with the target application environment. Case study: Avago Technologies Accelerate Business Cycle Times
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
End users are moving towards a world of greater workplace mobility by bringing their own devices to work. The need for access to corporate applications and data at anytime, from anywhere, and on any device is increasing daily. Desktop virtualization technologies, which replace the traditional desktop environment with a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) to meet the demand for secure mobile access, delivers these capabilities and when provided through the cloud, are combined with the ubiquitous access, elasticity, and measured service that distinguish cloud computing and make delivering these services both viable and practical. Desktop virtualization may also include application, virtual desktop, and remote services. It decouples application execution from where the client physically resides, allowing new client computing paradigms. BEST PRACTICE Avoid the initial capital costs associated with deployment of a virtual desktop solution. Explore cloud based as-a-service options. In addition, inquire about storage and network optimization approaches and technologies to reduce storage and bandwidth requirements and improve performance.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Desktop Virtualization
Benefits of desktop virtualization include: simplified desktop and application management; reduced operational costs; secured company data; and the foundation for a rich user experience. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services deliver rich, expert-based services end to end that can help you rapidly plan, build, and manage a desktop virtualization solution of your choice. These services also help provide the right fit with your existing investments and align your IT and business strategies. Transitioning to desktop virtualization requires alignment across numerous technologies and IT departments. This change can be a time-consuming effort, often requiring specific skills across multiple technology domains that are not readily available in most IT departments. Cisco Desktop Virtualization Services can streamline this transformation with expert-based services that can help you rapidly achieve the desktop virtualization solution of your choice anywhere, with any device, over any medium. Case Studies: Seattle University Regains Control of Desktop Applications
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Collaboration Applications
Cloud environments provide a new level of flexibility in application and data delivery. Applications and services that are provisioned from a cloud provide operation benefits without the capital expenses of on-premises environments. As direct consumers of cloud-hosted applications and services from Cisco and our partners, end users get access to high-performance, enterprise-class applications and services. Learn more about Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solutions.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Application Modernization
Besides migrating applications to a more efficient infrastructure, there are two other ways to improve application management: workload automation and application modernization. Workload automation includes automation of common tasks such as running scheduled batch workloads and event-based business processes, as well as determining where and when to run them, without the need to manage scripts or customize existing tools. Workload automation can be used for a wide variety of business processes and helps simplify operations, reduce costs, and promote business flexibility. Application modernization involves migrating custom applications to a more efficient infrastructure and transforming them into stateless applications that can dynamically respond to changing business requirements. For example, if a stateless application is hosted in the United States but is needed in Australia, it can be run in Australia, and all the local security policies will be respected. Performance will be better because the application does not have to be run over the WAN.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.