VDC

What Is VDC?

A Virtual Data Center (VDC) is an innovative form of DC that utilizes cloud computing technology. It serves as a resource repository, offering quota management for computing, storage, and networking resources. Accessible via a cloud platform, users can oversee and allocate services within a VDC.

Why Do We Need VDC?

With the rapid advancement of digitalization, traditional data centers (DCs) are encountering numerous challenges and obstacles in both their network architecture and service capabilities.

• Network architecture: Regarding network architecture, the evolving trends in data traffic, such as centralized switching of data and the substantial growth of east-west traffic, are imposing various demands on data center networks. These demands include scalability, robustness, cost-effective configuration, high bandwidth between servers, efficient network protocols, adaptable topology and link capacity management, energy efficiency, service traffic isolation, and cost-effectiveness. These demands exceed the capabilities of traditional three-layer architecture data center networks. Consequently, a flattened, virtualized, programmable, and definable network architecture emerges as a new direction for data center network evolution.

• Service capabilities: Concerning service capabilities, traditional DCs suffer from low deployment efficiency. The provisioning of new services entails extensive planning, configuration, testing, and evaluation processes, leading to prolonged deployment durations that do not align with the agility required for new services. Additionally, resource allocation is inefficient, with many systems monopolizing resource pools, resulting in isolated resource utilization. Furthermore, the complexity of operations and maintenance (O&M) management escalates due to the diverse array of services running within a DC, making it challenging to promptly detect and isolate faults in the event of service failures.

To address these evolving trends and overcome the service challenges inherent in traditional DCs, Virtual Data Centers (VDCs) leverage VXLAN and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies in conjunction with cloud platforms. By facilitating adaptation and association between networks and services, cloud-based DCs enhance resource utilization and streamline service provisioning efficiency.

VDC Characteristics

Automated services, flexible resource pools, and streamlined O&M represent three key characteristics of VDCs, aimed at resolving issues encountered in traditional DCs. Unlike traditional DCs that expand through the addition of physical resources, VDCs employ virtualization technology, allowing a single physical server to host multiple virtual machines (VMs). In VDCs, all infrastructure components are virtualized, and hardware configurations are managed automatically by intelligent software systems. This fundamental disparity distinguishes VDCs from their traditional counterparts and underscores one of their prominent advantages.

Currently, support is provided for software-defined computing (virtual servers) and software-defined storage (distributed storage). To establish agile networks, the construction of software-defined networks (SDNs) is imperative.

The VDC technology allocates resources to different applications to avoid resource conflicts.

VDC Advantages

VDCs offer several advantages compared to traditional DCs:

• Flexibility and reliability: Leveraging virtualization and automated deployment technologies, VDCs construct a scalable and virtualized architecture. Services are delivered as infrastructure, integrating physical resources to enhance service capabilities. Dynamic resource allocation and scheduling optimize resource utilization and bolster service reliability.

• Convenience and cost-effectiveness: VDCs establish a unified and innovative operational management system. Adopting centralized management and distributed service patterns, this system furnishes users with comprehensive IT infrastructure solutions and services across the network. Automatic service provisioning capabilities reduce O&M costs and elevate user experience. For instance, traditional DCs incur high routine management and maintenance expenses due to tasks like heat dissipation, physical server deployment, data backup, and testing. In contrast, VDCs utilize fewer physical hardware resources for virtual servers, resulting in reduced heat generation. Furthermore, software-based management streamlines data backup processes, further reducing O&M costs.

• Security: VDCs incorporate additional security and reliability mechanisms to meet enterprise-level application security standards.