How can you realize the full benefits of Virtualization?
Break the cycle of project approaches?
Reach beyond the confines of technology silos?
Through a focused Virtualization Evolution strategy. Transforming IT into Business Value With innovative, resource-efficient technologies. www.siemens.com/answers
siemens.com/virtualization
Make the Benefits of Virtualization a Reality Some enterprises are already reaping the benefits of virtualization. They are ramping up utilization, slashing server counts, consolidating compute
Introduction
locations and controlling power costs. By all reports, the numbers speak for themselves. What they do not speak to, though, is how they measure up on delivering the full potential of virtualization. These efforts have been skewed toward project-by-project approaches, geared to short-term savings, limited in scope and confined to individual silos – application, server, storage, network and device. But virtualization is about so much more than cost out and isolated improvements. At Siemens, we believe that virtualization is one of the most disruptive technologies introduced over the last 25 years. Viewed as a process of evolution and guided by a unified strategy, virtualization – and eventually cloud computing – will fundamentally change how everyone uses, stores, accesses and pays for IT services. Virtualization can organize IT around business processes instead of technologies, centralize IT control previously distributed, and deliver strategic benefits – not piecemeal enhancements to servers, storage or applications. To realize this vision requires a unified strategy and a partner with comprehensive answers to the technical, operational, industry and business issues you face. That is our job. The virtualization evolution is still maturing. Proud as some may be with their first steps, without a long-term vision and strategy they still can stumble. Siemens has the strategy, the qualifications, and the ability to guide your business and help it realize the full benefits of virtualization evolution.
Virtualization — and eventually cloud computing — will fundamentally change how everyone uses, stores, accesses and pays for IT services.
Section II Where Do You Stand Along the Timeline of Virtualization Evolution? You may already be reaping some benefits of virtualization. You know your IT must accelerate its response to changing markets and business needs such as: • Delivering flexible costs and elastic computing • Automating processes and adopting policy-driven management to prepare the way for cloud computing • Capitalizing on Green IT, reducing energy consumption and your carbon footprint and avoiding costly data center build-outs • A solution to the IT demands of recent mergers and acquisitions On the other hand, you may still be considering what the benefits of virtualization might be for your enterprise. Will comprehensive analysis, best practices and financial analysis justify investment? Can you find a partner with expertise in hardware, software, systems administration and support, as well as facilities? Wherever you stand and wherever we start, Siemens Virtualization Services can guide you to an end state that is right for your business. We can manage the complexity of transformation and the evolution of virtualization. Our IT experience is exceptional; our industry knowledge, profound. We can prove the value of virtualization for your business. As an evolution of your IT infrastructure, virtualization can create sustainable value in times of growth, in times of consolidation, even in times of retrenchment.
Virtualization can create sustainable value in times of growth, times of consolidation, even in times of retrenchment.
Section III The Basis for End State Goals At Siemens, our concept of virtualization evolution embodies an end-to-end strategy. Earlier approaches have often been one-off projects, notable for how they confine the benefits of virtualization to single silos. But we recognize the variety of scenarios and their components. Some will remain islands and will be left to themselves. Others are organic and can evolve with virtualization. We understand what has been done and we know how to integrate and adapt such scenarios to our target architecture. To do so, we have based virtualization evolution upon three core tenets: Engage, Enable and Evolve. Engage The limited vision of a Capex/Opex approach shortchanges both virtualization and the enterprise. The concept of virtualization evolution sets its sights on powerful strategic, operational and economic benefits – attained by virtualizing across classic silos and throughout the enterprise, sharing advantages as well as resources. In this environment, desktop, server, applications, storage and network can engage in a fundamentally holistic solution that fulfills the user’s request for infrastructure services in the continuum. Enable Virtualization should be designed into an integrated view of the enterprise as a holistic container. The vision and plan enable the virtualization of everything from server and storage to networking and desktop. Operational, financial, organizational and political realities determine the initial extent of enablement. This approach to intelligently balancing the entire infrastructure through virtualization results in a better understanding and control of usage and expenditures for IT services.
Evolve There is a natural progression from the physical world of owning and managing your own servers, data centers, networks and desktop environments to the desired virtual world. An end-state where the environment has evolved to allow resources, anywhere on a network, to be dynamically provisioned and consumed based on application and user demands. A dynamic IT infrastructure, highly automated and organized, to support business processes instead of being siloed by technologies. Virtualization drives dynamic business solutions around priority business processes. It resolves specific issues, like charge backs, and global concerns, such as workload balancing. Speed to market or speed to solution, virtualization does everything more efficiently. Virtualization accelerates your evolution to a state of sustainable value throughout the enterprise.
Section IV 5 Steps to a Virtualization Strategy Successful virtualization requires clear direction. It can be vastly complex at the outset, making the discipline of IT planning all the more critical. With decades of IT transformation experience, we have developed a defined process that produces predictable and repeatable results. 1. Virtualization Workshop Our one- or three-day workshop educates your organization on the technologies, industry trends, concepts and solutions that are driving IT virtualization. The workshop can initiate the mapping of business strategy to a preliminary IT roadmap. 2. Virtualization Assessment We gather vital information on the what, where and how systems are provided in your IT infrastructure. The assessment identifies options and formulates recommendations for your virtualization evolution. 3. Virtualization Design We create the virtualization roadmap, architecture and customized path that will accelerate your evolution from current state to the desired end state and target operating model. 4. Virtualization Implementation We can provide the resources necessary to consolidate, implement, and optimize your virtualized computing platform. 5. Virtualization Management We can provide the resources necessary to centrally manage and operate a dynamic infrastructure. With the Siemens 5-step process to virtualization, you know exactly what to expect every step of the way.
5 Steps to a Virtualization Strategy
Section V Siemens Virtualization Services Benefits Extend virtualization benefits beyond confines of technology silos and break the project-approach cycle with an end-to-end, virtualization evolution strategy. • Siemens’ proven 5-step process to realize a virtualization strategy — Migration to ultimate target operating model. • Best practice guidelines, standards, policies and plans based upon Siemens’ experience delivering virtualization projects to migrate 20,000+ servers. • Siemens’ Strategic Partnerships with key technology industry leaders, Intel, VMWare, NetApp, Cisco and EMC. Allowing Siemens to… — Advise our customers on appropriate decisions related to server refresh and data center planning for optimized server footprint based on power estimates, etc. • Siemens is realizing the benefits of virtualization through our own Virtualization Evolution as we migrate our Industry, Energy and Healthcare sectors, provisioning services to our 430,000 worldwide employees.
The Call The Starting Point for Virtualization Siemens Virtualization Services can guide your company through successful virtualization evolution. Our holistic approach embraces the technical, operational, financial and industry issues you face. The prospect of virtualizing your IT infrastructure is daunting, but exploring its potential does not have to be. A Siemens Virtualization Workshop is an excellent place to begin. It is a professional forum on virtualization that also provides an opportunity for us to become acquainted with your business and IT infrastructure issues, and for you to become acquainted with our company and our approach. Please visit www.siemens.com/virtualization for more information regarding Siemens Virtualization Services.
Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Inc. 101 Merritt 7 Norwalk, CT 06851 203.642.2300 www.usa.siemens.com/it-solutions