Why 2016 Was the Year of the SDDC (and How 2017 Will Follow Suit)

The software defined data center has been on the horizon for several years, but in 2016, technology and business needs aligned in a way that pushed the SDDC from viable proposition to a requirement in the digital economy.

In the SDDC, logical infrastructure services are abstracted from underlying, commodity hardware components and combined with proprietary technologies such as custom applications, platforms and containers. This flexible and dynamic approach enables companies to apply all of the benefits of the cloud—including effective scalability and significant cost savings—in a hybrid environment.

SDDC is not a new concept, but several key conditions had to be in place for the technology to make sense for businesses and service providers.

• It had to run traditional applications as well as cloud-native applications, and provide seamless management across both platforms.
• It had to run applications on any x86, storage and IP network hardware.
• It had to enable IT organizations to build on the work they had done with virtualization.
• It had to provide developers with self-service access.
• It had to securely enable scaling or bursting of services.

In 2016, vendors such as VMware evolved SDDC technology to meet all of these standards and more (including the company’s announcement of VMware Cloud Foundation, a unified platform for the cloud that will enable companies to get to the SDDC faster). Meanwhile, IT and business leaders have realized that every business today is a digital business. And, if it isn’t, it must transform or be left behind.

“Companies everywhere are making investments to build their digital businesses,” states the November 2016 article “CEOs Need to Ask the Right Questions About Their Digital Businesses” in the Harvard Business Review. “Decisions about digital platforms can make the difference between high growth and high margins or limited growth with declining margins. Unlike other technology and business investments, the digital business gets to the core economics of the company: revenue, growth, and margins. “

It’s that simple, and that complicated, but the SDDC is providing the agility that organizations need to move forward along the digital business path and/or close any gaps that appear along the way.

And things along the SDDC front don’t appear to be slowing. In fact, analysts project explosive growth through at least the next five years.

According to the Allied Market Research report “World Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDC) Market: Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 – 2022,” the global SDDC market is expected to generate revenue of $139 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of 32% through 2022.

What SDDC moves did you make in 2016? What are your SDDC plans for 2017? Please let us know in the comments section below.