Quick, quick, which one is built with a proven, predefined recipe and which one is built custom? Without any other information you would have answered all of them or maybe none of them. (Correct answer the one with a cherry on top of course) Think of all of the ingredients that are needed to make cupcakes as the raw materials. Flour, eggs and milk are the physical infrastructure; the hardware and software needed to make the cupcakes. The recipe(process) for making the cupcakes considers the perfect baking temperature,measurements of ingredients per batch and any other procedures needed to turn the ingredients into a finished product. Come to think of it baking cupcakes is a lot like building a Hybrid Cloud. This may seem like a silly analogy but my point is valid.
Much like cupcakes Hybrid Cloud architectures start out with the same raw ingredients. They are tweaked by each individual baker to their tastes. They may use egg whites or be vegan. Cupcakes are a tasty metaphor and they highlight the difference between an ad hoc recipe and a predefined one. An EMC Hybrid Cloud (EHC) is a very specific recipe; proven after many tweaks over the years to deliver the perfect combination of economics, agility and interoperability. Think of it as the pre-measured cupcake mix you can buy from the grocery store. It’s pre-measured with proven directions printed right on the box. It’s repeatable, economical and best of all convenient.
Are ad hoc hybrid clouds a true EMC Hybrid Cloud? Not exactly. Are they a hybrid cloud? Sure. Do they have the same taste? Maybe but you can’t guarantee since they are tailored to an individual’s desire.
The product list is simply that, a product list. What EMC has done is create prepackaged workflows, and other tools to essentially give the end use a ‘starter kit’ for the most common policies. The goal of EHC is accelerate time to value by doing the hard work for you.
An EHC has an out of the box recipe currently defined as Greenfield VBLOCK hardware configured with the following software enablement:
For those of us who prefer pictures to words…Here is the visual for an EMC Hybrid Cloud recipe:
A Hybrid Cloud On-Prem example may be:
- VSPEX Converged Infrastructure
- Previously deployed VBLOCK with highly customized software stacks
- All deviations and substitutions from the EHC specifications listed above
EMC Hybrid Cloud is a specific, proven solution with integrated components that are tested for interoperability and functionality, backed by EMC and its partners. It is NOT just any hybrid cloud technology stack solution coupled together that may provide like functionality.Continuing with the cupcake baking analogy and since a picture is worth a thousand words.
EMC has done the work, done the testing, done the integration work and delivered the proven recipe. If you are a bake from scratch, with a pinch of this and a handful of that until you find the consistency of what looks like the perfect batter, by all means enjoy choosing the raw materials you feel most comfortable with. If you prefer a proven recipe with proven temperatures and step by step directions, then EHC is for you.
Only an EHC specification is the real McCoy, or I should say, cupcakes anyone? Mmmm cupcakes.
