If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s been the mantra for the data center throughout much of the IT era, but at what point does the enterprise have to consider the very real possibility that without significant upgrades, the data center of today will no longer provide the support needed for modern applications and workflows?

At the moment, much of the industry is engaged in digital transformation to a new services-driven economy, and it is becoming clear that yesterday’s data infrastructure is woefully inadequate to the task. So without question, it must be modernized, and quickly. The question is, how? Is there value in revamping the local data center for the digital age, or should the enterprise go cloud-native?

No matter how you do it, says VMware’s Muneyb Minhazuddin, the overriding goal should be to abstract infrastructure away from hardware so applications can achieve the flexibility they need to produce real value. The enterprise should start by mapping out which apps require on-premises infrastructure and which can go to the public cloud. Once you have an idea of where you want to be at each point in the transitional timeline, you can set about making the necessary changes in hardware and software. And all the while, you should see steadily improving agility and a greater capacity to innovate as software-defined infrastructure takes hold.

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http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/infrastructure/crafting-a-thoroughly-modern-data-environment.html