Top Software-Defined Data Center Providers (SDDC)

Software-defined data centers (SDDC), or virtual data centers, are data centers that are built on virtualized infrastructure and managed by software. SDDC providers give customers virtual compute power, storage, and networking components. 

The SDDC market size is estimated to grow from $43.7 billion in 2020 to $120.3 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.4%, according to MarketsandMarkets.

SDDCs have expanded in value for their ability to remove hardware dependencies, make managing data centers easier, and enable automation.

See below to learn all about software-defined data center technologies and the top SDDC providers in the market:

For more: Top Data Center Security Software

Choosing the right SDDC provider

• Top SDDC providers

• • VMware SDDC

• • VMware Cloud on AWS

• • Azure VMware Solution

• • Google Cloud VMware Engine

• • VMware SDDC on IBM Cloud

• • Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

• • HPE Software-Defined Infrastructure

• SDDC features

• SDDC benefits

• SDDC use cases

• What to look for in SDDC providers

Top SDDC providers

VMware SDDC

Palo Alto, California-based VMware is a provider of virtualization and multicloud services.

VMware Software-Defined Data Center, can leverage a fully virtualized infrastructure, handled by a cloud management platform, runs on both private and hybrid clouds and  provides availability and security for an enterprise’s applications. 

VMware has more data center solutions to assist customers with their SDDC: such as VMware Cloud Foundation, a hybrid cloud platform; vSphere, virtualization software; and NSX Data Center, a network and security virtualization platform. 

“With a true SDDC, there is liberation in your infrastructure design, as it provides options for multiple hardware scenarios. SDDC protects the investment in legacy hardware, which doesn’t need to be refreshed, just virtualized. It enables all apps, including the most mission-critical, to take advantage of the efficiencies and flexibility of SDDC,” says Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware.

VMware won nine awards at the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in 2022.

Differentiators

• Offers additional SDDC software support and integration through portfolio
• Run applications across multiple platforms and clouds
• Partnerships with major cloud providers

Pricing

For pricing, contact sales here.

VMware Cloud on AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the largest cloud provider, and their partner, VMware, is the main provider of virtualization, covering 83% of the market. Through their partnership, VMware and AWS created an SDDC solution called VMware Cloud on AWS.

The fully managed solution brings the SDDC to the cloud, helping the workload migrate through AWS infrastructure. VMware Cloud on AWS connects across on-premises data and cloud data, making the process of switching to an SDDC more achievable. VMware Cloud on AWS can also restore data using disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS), allow businesses to expand SDDC capacity and help build new applications with AWS infrastructure and on-premises vSphere environment.

“Operating desktops on VMware Cloud on AWS feels exactly the same for users as an on-premises environment and enabled us to transit to remote working easily. With our cloud-first approach, we want to use AWS whenever we build a new system,” says Hisaaki Ogata, senior manager, ICT strategic division, Lotte Co.

VMware Cloud on AWS has multiple other partners to build a better SDDC.

Differentiator

• Both main providers in the market

Pricing

For pricing, go to the offering’s pricing and TCO calculator.

Azure VMware Solution

Based in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft, a cloud computing leader with Azure, teamed up with VMware on Azure VMware Solution in the SDDC space.

Azure VMware Solution can integrate workloads from a data center to a VMware environment. Azure VMware Solution also offers scale and automation on workloads, can create vSphere VM in the Azure portal via API calls or CLI,automate deployments, and enable single sign-on (SSO). Azure VMware Solution uses several Azure technologies, such as compute, monitoring, backup, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI).

“Azure VMware Solution gave us the opportunity to branch out beyond web-facing workloads in the cloud to more of our critical infrastructure components, in a way that bolsters our environment’s resiliency,” says Mari Lovo, director of cloud, infrastructure services, University of Miami.

Azure has been certified in ISO/IEC, CSA/CCM, ITAR, CJIS, HIPAA, and IRS.

Differentiators

• $1 billion for cybersecurity research
• Over 3,500 data security experts
• Managing existing environments

Pricing

For pricing, go to Azure VMware Solution pricing.

Google Cloud VMware Engine

Google Cloud is focused on digital transformation for their customers. They joined forces with VMware to create an SDDC solution called Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Without changes to a company’s apps, tools, or processes, VMware-based applications can shift to Google Cloud. The solution includes all the hardware and VMware licenses to run in dedicated VMware SDDC in Google Cloud. VMware and Google Cloud work together and provide VMware services and tools with unified identities, management, monitoring, and support. The SDDC solution also offers resource management and auto-scaling and integrates with leading database, storage, backup, and disaster recovery (DR) solutions.

“Our VMware Engine migration has translated to faster time to market to support higher revenues. We can also scale to support more work and have increased completed units of work monthly by 4x thanks to the Google Cloud ecosystem,” says Rick Cirigliano, SVP of cloud operations, Mitel.

VMware won the Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year,  Infrastructure Modernization award by Google Cloud for their work on Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Differentiators

• Private layer-3 access
• 100 Gbps networking
• Provides 99.99% availability

Pricing

For pricing, go to Google Cloud’s total cost of ownership (TCO) page and request assessment.

VMware SDDC on IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud is a leader in cloud computing for enterprises. IBM Cloud partnered with VMware to create the SDDC solution VMware SDDC on IBM Cloud.

VMware SDDC on IBM Cloud is a private cloud that can be increased or decreased based on customer needs, allowing VMware virtualized data center customers to move their workloads into the IBM Cloud. VMware SDDC on IBM Cloud provides cloud-based backup, prevents disaster scenarios, and the ability to set up development, test, training, or lab capacity. This SDDC solution also includes a software-defined networking (SDN) solution that provides new VLANs, produces IP addresses, and network services, such as load balancing, firewalls, and routers.

“Migrating the VMware stack to IBM Cloud has enabled ease of access for our organization as well as a level of redundancy that did not exist prior. It has enabled us to replicate and distribute as we grow and increase in our requirements,” says Steve Redman, IT manager, City of Jacksonville.

Differentiator

• KYOK certified

Pricing

For pricing, go to the IBM Cloud for VMware solutions pricing page.

Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

Oracle is a leader in the database and cloud computing sectors. Their cloud service, Oracle Cloud, partnered with VMware SDDC to create the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution.

Oracle Cloud VMware Solution assists businesses in creating and managing an SDDC solution. It offers many VMware components, such as the vSAN, which can replicate data in the ESXi hosts in the SDDC. A business can start with three ESXi hosts and 64 hosts in one SDDC. Oracle Cloud VMware solutions also provide layer 2 networking and offer both multi-host SDDC and single-host SDDC.

“Using a multicloud strategy, we are the first carrier in Brazil to move 100% of our workloads to the cloud. It includes moving our customer billing system, our CRM, and VMware to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Oracle has been a fantastic partner in our technology evolution,” says Pietro Labriola, CEO, TIM Brasil.

Differentiators

• Customer-controlled
• Scales apps globally
• Edit vSAN cluster settings

Pricing

For pricing, go to the Oracle Cloud pricing page.

HPE Software-Defined Infrastructure

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a global edge-to-cloud company. HPE Software-Defined Infrastructure includes a set of technologies for the SDDC space as well as virtualization tech from their partnership with VMware.

The infrastructure is made up of several parts: HPE OneView, infrastructure management software; HPE SimpliVity,  hyperconverged system; HPE Synergy, composable software to speed up application delivery; HPE ProLiant for Microsoft Azure Stack, hybrid cloud software; and HPE Pointnext Services, IT service that helps with a customer’s digital transformation.

“Anyone like us, with a diverse and multi-layered hybrid infrastructure, wants clear, manageable systems, a high degree of automation, and the greatest possible security, in addition to high computing power,” says Johannes Strasser, virtualization architect, Porsche Informatik.

HPE is one of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” by Fortune in 2022  and Customers’ Choice for Hyperconverged Infrastructure by Gartner Peer Insights.

Differentiators

• Multi-part SDI architecture
• Works in 80 countries

Pricing

For pricing, go to the HPE shop page.

For more: How Software-Defined Data Centers (SDDCs) are Used by JE Dunn, Işbank, BCX, Nýherji Iceland, BCX, and Netherlands Cancer Institute: Case Studies

SDDC Features

• Automation and orchestration: automatically operate and update while maximizing the ability to manage applications, data, and workflow
• Compute virtualization: a central processing unit (CPU) and memory are separated from physical hardware, allowing businesses to develop their software performance using virtual machines
• Analytics and insights: monitoring software collects data and information about the performance of their systems
• Storage virtualization: the transportation of data and applications from the storage of physical servers into the SDDC
• Networking virtualization: using services such as routing, switching, firewall, load balancing, and provisioning throughout the network
• Flexibility: gives the ability to add to or deduct storage depending on the growth of a company and their information

SDDC Benefits

Improve agility: duplicates functions to enhance the overall productivity of your business giving transferring and data move quickly

Reduce costs: enables companies to reduce a their total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase return on investment (ROI) by reducing downtime and hardware needs

Simplified management: uses automation and orchestration to customize usage as needed by an enterprise

Enhanced scalability: allows enterprises to expand their data centers or cut unnecessary space as they grow

Use cases

Carrefour

Carrefour is an ambassador of French food culture, delivering French food worldwide, with 13,000 stores in over 30 countries. 

Due to their large size, Carrefour needed a change in their IT system. They had a mix of on-premises data centers, and 5% of their applications were in the cloud. To meet customer expectations, Carrefour signed up with Google Cloud.

As Carrefour began to close many of their on-premise data centers, they needed to expand their applications in the cloud. Carrefour switched over to Google Cloud VMware Engine to avoid any issues with employees or businesses and for flexible capacity, and smoother e-commerce for their customers.

“Our digital transformation is part of our mission to make healthy, sustainably produced food available to everyone. With Google Cloud, we’ve been able to build the technological foundation for this transition, strengthening our customer focus while reducing costs and emissions. Now we’re ready to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges together,” says Nicolas Forgues, CTO, Carrefour France.

DenizBank

Turkey-based DenizBank is a large private bank that offers corporate and retail banking, leasing, factoring, insurance, and investment brokerage. 

DenizBank wanted to decrease costs, inefficiencies, and complexities, especially in managing remote data and applications.

DenizBank decided to use VMware’s SDDC technologies to help with these issues. They chose to use VMware Cloud Foundation, NSX, vSAN, and vCloud Suite to help build a stable and more productive infrastructure to help keep up with customer needs as well as their own business needs. DenizBank was able to transform their network and security systems, saved money and time, and increase performance on applications and their environments.

“In today’s world, IT leaders’ success comes from establishing the sustainability of business and taking part in creating business strategies and showing how a technology can give added value to this structure. By using VMware’s SDDC, virtualization and private cloud infrastructure solutions that we experienced and implemented completely from the beginning, are important examples,” says Kemal Ozcan, infrastructure and system management group EVP, DenizBank.

What to look for in SDDC providers

SDDC providers assist businesses in eliminating hardware dependency, using automation and orchestration, and increasing flexibility over traditional data centers. Many of the SDDC providers offer improved agility, automation services, and management systems. However, cost savings on software and capacity, built-in AI, and cybersecurity are examples of useful tools that not every SDDC is providing. These are the types of features that a business should consider when evaluating the SDDC market. 

For more: Top Software-Defined Data Center Trends