Issue link: https://insights.oneneck.com/i/1200933
Hybrid IT For Dummies, HPE Special Edition 4 These materials are © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. In this chapter, I offer a guided tour of the data center archi tecture options at your disposal. But before I begin, I'll let you in on a little secret (okay, maybe it's not a secret!): You're probably already running workloads in a plethora of locations, including your on‐premises data centers and various clouds. Most companies today have adopted a hybrid IT operating model, but they may still strug gle with how best to define their environment. Traditional IT Architectural Options The data center has always been a somewhat complex place, with a plethora of options from which to choose how you want to operate workloads. The chosen path is generally selected after careful consideration of the costs and outcomes related to each approach. On‐premises infrastructure You probably have an on‐premises infrastructure of some kind in place today. These are your local data centers, server rooms, or server closets — whatever you happen to be oper ating. In a traditional environment, you and your staff decide what storage, servers, and networking gear you want to oper ate and then you go out and buy it, install it, and manage it on your own. On‐premises infrastructure is often unfairly maligned by cloud pushers. They say that traditional on‐premises infrastructure is simply not flexible enough to meet the demands of modern businesses. They say that the need to buy everything upfront is simply not sustainable or desirable. These people are correct . . . when an environment isn't well planned, well supported, well maintained, and well updated. A good on‐premises environment can be just as cost‐effective and reliable as any cloud provider, especially when supported by a highly trained staff. Plus, although many people discuss the rapid innovation in cloud, on‐premises hasn't stood still and many new technologies are available to lower costs and