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Expect Software Defined Splash at VMWorld

Jim Rapoza

There are sure to be plenty of new technologies and products debuting at next week’s VMWorld conference in San Francisco. But one technology trend that attendees should expect to hear quite a bit of is Software Defined Data Centers.

I can hear the complaints already. Wait Jim, what’s this thing? Is it like Software Defined Networking? I’m just kinda of starting to figure that out and now there’s something new?

Sorry to say it but, yes, it is something new that you’ll need to figure out for your organization’s technology needs and, while it has some elements of SDN, it is also in many ways quite different.

Basically, Software Defined Data Centers (or SDCC) are created by taking all of the new networking and data center technologies of the last several years and combining them to create a new dynamic and flexible data center architecture. So server virtualization, storage virtualization, public private and hybrid cloud and SDN are all mixed together to form a new type of data center.

So in an SDCC, everything is programmable, dynamic, software-based and on-demand. Whatever is needed for a data center can be created on the fly, provisioned on an as needed basis and used wherever and whenever. From servers to storage to the networks they run on, everything becomes software that can be flexibly deployed.

If you’ve read my past work, you’ll know that I’m pretty bullish when it comes to Software Defined Networking. But while I also see a lot of potential for SDCC, businesses need to be aware of the many ways that these will be positioned and potentially limited by vendors.

There’s a lot of leeway for vendors to say that they have an SDCC offering that really only handles a couple of the elements. More concerning, there is quite a bit of potential to create locked infrastructures that only provide SDCC capabilities when a customer uses products from a single vendor.

That would be a major problem as, like SDN, the greatest benefits of SDCC will be found in fully open and fully flexible deployments.

So enjoy VMWorld in San Francisco next week. And get ready for your data center’s software defined future.

Jim Rapoza is Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group.

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Expect Software Defined Splash at VMWorld

Jim Rapoza

There are sure to be plenty of new technologies and products debuting at next week’s VMWorld conference in San Francisco. But one technology trend that attendees should expect to hear quite a bit of is Software Defined Data Centers.

I can hear the complaints already. Wait Jim, what’s this thing? Is it like Software Defined Networking? I’m just kinda of starting to figure that out and now there’s something new?

Sorry to say it but, yes, it is something new that you’ll need to figure out for your organization’s technology needs and, while it has some elements of SDN, it is also in many ways quite different.

Basically, Software Defined Data Centers (or SDCC) are created by taking all of the new networking and data center technologies of the last several years and combining them to create a new dynamic and flexible data center architecture. So server virtualization, storage virtualization, public private and hybrid cloud and SDN are all mixed together to form a new type of data center.

So in an SDCC, everything is programmable, dynamic, software-based and on-demand. Whatever is needed for a data center can be created on the fly, provisioned on an as needed basis and used wherever and whenever. From servers to storage to the networks they run on, everything becomes software that can be flexibly deployed.

If you’ve read my past work, you’ll know that I’m pretty bullish when it comes to Software Defined Networking. But while I also see a lot of potential for SDCC, businesses need to be aware of the many ways that these will be positioned and potentially limited by vendors.

There’s a lot of leeway for vendors to say that they have an SDCC offering that really only handles a couple of the elements. More concerning, there is quite a bit of potential to create locked infrastructures that only provide SDCC capabilities when a customer uses products from a single vendor.

That would be a major problem as, like SDN, the greatest benefits of SDCC will be found in fully open and fully flexible deployments.

So enjoy VMWorld in San Francisco next week. And get ready for your data center’s software defined future.

Jim Rapoza is Senior Research Analyst at Aberdeen Group.

Hot Topics

The Latest

AI is becoming the operating system of the enterprise. It acts as an invisible coordination layer that understands intent, connects systems, and executes work across complex SaaS environments. Previously, employees had to click through multiple systems — CRM, ERP, support tools, collaboration platforms — to complete a single task. Now, instead of navigating each application manually, they can simply state what they need to accomplish ...

In 2026, the cost of downtime or an outage is no longer just a technical inconvenience; it's a $600 billion wake up call for global businesses. As our digital ecosystems become  more interconnected, each touchpoint introduces new risks and multiplies the consequences when things go wrong. And the data is clear: aggregate downtime costs  for Global 2,000 companies have surged 50% since 2024, reaching a staggering $600 billion ...

Deloitte found that 74% of enterprises expect to deploy agentic AI solutions in the next 24 months. However, the rush to deployment is outpacing foundational work, though. Only 21% of enterprises have fully formed agent governance models in place. The result? AI agents deployed without guidance or governance begin to function as fragmented islands of complexity ...

Cloud spending is no longer viewed as a passthrough IT expense, but as a strategic financial lever that directly impacts innovation capacity, profitability and enterprise resilience, according to the CFO Cloud Cost Optimization Report from Azul ...

As AI moves from generating responses to performing actions, the need for trust increases exponentially. And as organizations enlist AI agents for increasingly sophisticated business processes, trust is going to be the single most important theme for spurring adoption. What can organizations do to build trustworthy AI agents? ...

I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...