How to Run SAP, Oracle on VMware SDDC
How can IT service providers migrate mission-critical Oracle (ORCL) and SAP workloads from physical RISC hardware to virtual x86 platforms — then to software-defined data centers (SDDC)? VMware (VMW) is offering up some advice.
Generally speaking, a lot of mission-critical applications continue to run on RISC-based hardware from Oracle (Sun Microsystems) SPARC, HP PA-RISC, IBM Power. Increasingly, those workloads are shifting to x86 servers. And in some cases, the workloads are getting virtualized.
For many customers, the longer-term journey will involve moving workloads all the way to software-defined data centers — where compute, storage and network services are converged, virtualized and easlier to manage.
SDDC 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 Defined
So what does the SDDC journey involve? Girish Manmadkar, an SAP Virtualization Architect at VMware, offers some guidance in a recent blog. It's a safe bet most of the guidance can apply to non-SAP platforms — including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and other mission-critical environments. The advice includes:
- SDDC 1.0: Here customers typically transition to VMware-based x86 environments. VMware vCloud Automation Center and Orchestration provides automation. And at the application layer for SAP environments, IT service providers typically leverage SAP Landscape Virtualization manager.
- SDDC 2.0: At this stage, IT service providers build a basic cloud environment for customers. It has multi-tenancy, chargeback capabilities, monitoring and security, plus separate DB and application instances.
- SDDC 3.0: This is a full-scale shift toward Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and fully-secured self-service capabilities — including the ability to migrate workloads to hybrid clouds.
It sounds like Manmadkar plans a follow-up blog on the SDDC 3.0 stage. In the meantime, The VAR Guy will be checking in with IT service providers that are marching toward each of the SDDC stages that Manmadkar outlined so far.