Database Reference
In-Depth Information
out performance and operational benefits of cloud computing. Customers find it easier
to scale out than to scale up. Yes, this means there may be more operating systems to
manage, but with the amount of automation that exists today, this is becoming less and
less of a concern—especially when one of the objectives of virtualizing mission-critical
databases is reducing operational risk and improving SLAs.
Tiered Database Offering
Traditionally administrators have been accommodating (albeit reactive) to requests for
physical SQL Servers. Let us know if this sounds familiar: A request comes in for a
database server and it takes a team of individuals to satisfy the request. Usually
someone (and by “someone” we mean multiple people) undergoes requirements
gathering, scopes and designs the architecture, procures the hardware (server, storage,
network ports, and so on), deploys the physical server, installs the operating system,
and finally turns the system over to the individual who requested it. That sound about
right? How long does this process take? Weeks or months?
As we move toward a more “on-demand” world, where our internal customers are
looking to outside sources (that is, cloud infrastructure providers) to acquire resources
because “it takes internal IT too long to provision my system,” we need to become more
agile, more responsive, and more dynamic in order to meet these demands. The first
step in this journey is virtualization—surprise! But to virtualize is simply not enough.
Self-service and automation are two key ingredients that must be implemented.
Your internal customers must have the ability to access a self-service portal that allows
them to “build” a database server of their choosing. Controls must be placed around
this, because you cannot have end users running around provisioning servers left and
right with no controls or governance in place. It is important that this portal be
configurable to meet the needs of your business. It needs to be flexible and agile, and it
cannot be tied (dependent) in any way to the physical infrastructure. Enter VMware
vCloud Automation Center, because a key design principle of this product is
infrastructure independence, meaning there is a layer of abstraction, not dependence,
between the automation tool and the things it automates.
VMware vCloud Automation Center allows you to provide a directory-integrated portal
for end user self-service that provides single- and multiple-tier systems that are
customizable (CPU, RAM, disk), provides simple and complex approval processes, and
offers lifecycle management of the system (whether physical, virtual, or residing in a
supported cloud vendor's infrastructure). In addition to vCloud Automation Center, we
suggest the use of VMware App Director. App Director provides application release
management. Between these two products, you can have an end user sign on to vCenter
Automation Center, request a multitier application (web server, application server, and
database server) with their desired amount of RAM, vCPU, and disk, and have the
