As Anexinet’s Director of Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG), Tim is a seasoned architect and technology leader with over 15 years of experience in the information technology field.
Tim focuses on the exploration and layout of IT infrastructures including, data center design and relocation, multi-tenant hosting, enterprise storage, and data backup and recovery solutions. Tim manages a team of ISG professionals who specialize in server platforms, storage, networking, virtualization, data protection, end-user computing, and mobility.
Tim is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
What is trending in the market right now?
The latest IT trend is a deeper focus on utilizing the growing data assets to convert/analyze and produce relevant information so that organizations can make informed business decisions. This ultimately leads to a more personalized and meaningful relationship with clients. Whether we look at Big Data for the analytics functions, mobility/convergence for the delivery of this information, or cloud-computing to manage infrastructure demands in a rapid and scalable approach, the foundation is still the core IT layers Compute, Network, and Storage resources. How we address the dynamic and "just-in-time" demands in a cost-efficient manner will determine how quickly organizations will be able to realize competitive advantage through better data analysis and more relevant information.
Convergence was a great start – the impact of compute-level virtualization and centralization of storage assets, as well as the protocol convergence of network and storage communication has provided a solid foundation to achieve the next evolution of Infrastructure – the "Software-Defined Data Center" (SDDC). By abstracting the control plane from the data plane through the virtualization of the network, security, and data layers, companies will be able to address infrastructure demands at a far-quicker pace, all while maintaining the security and compliance requirements to protect their data assets.
We are already seeing standards developing and being adopted, especially in the SDN (Software Defined Network) space via Openflow and Overlay technologies. Major vendors like VMware, HP, Cisco, and larger cloud providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and others are adapting SDN standards and technologies to provide a super-flexible, easily deployable, infrastructure solution. In the storage space, similar efforts are underway to standardize SDS (Software Defined Storage) as the increase of machine-data and consumer—data continue to outpace business-data. EMC's investments into ScaleIO and ViPR, VMware's development of VSAN and Virsto assets, HP's growth in VSA, are among the examples of how SDDC had changed the IT landscape forever.
What are common challenges organizations are facing?
- Leveraging virtualization efforts to automate and orchestrate the process of procuring and deploying IT assets in a secure manner. This requires more than just the IT component, but a true discussion with the business about defining service processes and understanding the benefits of a true share-services IT model.
- Understanding the upcoming technologies in the Software-Defined Data Center space and how to maintain "investment protection" around IT projects and initiatives that have to be addressed today.
- SDDC will be disruptive, but in order to provide the future infrastructure needs, this disruption is necessary. How do we minimize the disruptive nature of designing and deploying the new IT environment as well as the cost? How do we change the conversation from "IT as a cost center" to "IT as an asset" that drives competitive advantage?
What Anexinet Offers
Anexinet offers a proven methodology, strong ecosystem of vendor partners and ISVs, and highly qualified and experienced architects and consultants that understand how to address the common challenges as defined previously. Anexinet is uniquely positioned to offer a full solution set.
- Do you need assistance in building and deploying a Software-Defined Data Center while utilizing your current infrastructure investments? We can do that.
- Do you need application development capabilities to address the growing demand for mobile application access? We can develop that.
- Do you need help in determining the best approach for mining your existing data sets and utilizing external data sources to provide more useful information? We can model that.
- Do you need an option to rapidly address infrastructure needs in an on-demand model – potentially utilizing cloud resources? We can provide that.
More importantly, we can provide these solutions in an integrated fashion while providing substantive TCO. Addressing the functional requirements as well as the financial requirements – that's the Anexinet value.Labels: Anexinet, ISG, Openflow, SDDC, SDN