IT Infrastructure within data centers has become increasingly heterogeneous and complex to manage over the last decade. Many tasks related to deploying a new solution or application are still done manually, in some cases need weeks or months to deploy. To become effective in this new, data-driven world, organizations must move to the next generation software-defined data center.  

A software-defined architecture leverages logical infrastructure services that are abstracted from, as opposed to integrated with, the underlying hardware. Applications in an SDDC run entirely on logically defined resources for which the underlying hardware is abstracted away.  

An SDDC is characterized by several unique factors as compared to traditional data centers. First, all infrastructure in an SDDC is fully virtualized. Physical servers, networking gear, and storage arrays are abstracted from the workloads that run in the SDDC. Second, an SDDC brings automation, operations, governance, and business insight to IT through a cloud management platform. An SDDC architecture is also geographically agnostic because the logically defined infrastructure resources can span across data centers, including those owned by IT or cloud service providers. Finally, people and processes in an SDDC evolve from manual, day-to-day operations to supporting business priorities by offering infrastructure, applications, data, and IT services to business users on demand.