Infrastructure 2.0 Model

Infrastructure 2.0 is a model that Wikibon believes will dominate computing over the next decade or longer. It provides an integrated and pre-tested environment built on well tested best-of-breed volume components. It allows higher utilization of resources and flexible real-time addition and subtraction of resources without any significant impact on end-user availability or performance. The Infrastructure 2.0 model allows IT resources to be moved dynamically between physical machines and locations to meet resource balancing and data protection requirements. This movement can be between computing resources managed by an organization (the internal cloud) and computing resources that are managed outside the organization (the external cloud). A company's stack that is virtualized between internal and external locations is often referred to as a private cloud.

The focal point of an Infrastructure 2.0 model is support for an Application 2.0 environment that directly supports the objectives of an organization. The Infrastructure 2.0 provides the computing resources, compliance model, security model, and telemetry that will allow efficient, secure, and reliable deployment using a consumption model. The resources used by the application can be increased or decreased dynamically to meet business SLAs, and the organization pays for the resources actually consumed. The data created by the application is automatically classified and can be secured and destroyed to meet the business usage, security and compliance requirements.

Infrastructure 2.0 Components

The Infrastructure 2.0 environment consist of interoperating layers

• Hypervisor Layer provides the single point of control for the application spread over multiple virtualized operating systems, servers, and locations.
• Operating System provides control of the IT resources attached to it. It runs applications and controls the server and storage resources.
• Server Layer provides the compute infrastructure to execute the applications and infrastructure layers, provides the inter-server network (iSCSI, Infiniband, etc.), provides the high-performance local persistent storage, and proves access to the shared data storage.
• Access Network Layer (utilizing a single “wire”) provides the logical and physical connections between the user of data and the IT resources.
• Data Network Layer (utilizing a single “wire”) provides the logical and physical connections between the applications and the data.
• Data Storage Layer provides a shared virtualized storage environment and the logical and physical connections between the application and the data storage infrastructure.
• Device Layer provides the logical and physical connections between the application and the end-user devices (static and increasingly mobile). The end-users are real people and as well as data collectors.

Each of the layers is independent but provides information to the other layers that will allow end-to-end compliance and security of the data, with knowledge of the resources available and consumed and performance contribution to the application.

There are two services columns which run orthogonally to the component layers. These service columns are:

• Security Column provides a set of end-to-end security services required for either or both infrastructure or application integration.
• Management Column provides a set of end-to-end management services required for meet the business service level objectives and to create, monitor and delete sub-components in the layers.

Figure 1 - Infrastructure 2.0 Layers and Columns

Integration of Infrastructure 2.0 Components

Wikibon expects the component layers to be pre-integrated and pre-tested into Infrastructure 2.0 stacks. Infrastructure 2.0 will not be owned by one supplier. Winners will provide best-of-breed components that will work cooperatively with other components. Winners will provide pre-tested and pre-integrated Infrastructure 2.0 stacks with all the components included. Wikibon expects that a large variety of Infrastructure 2.0 stacks will be provided by traditional vendors, systems integrators, ISVs, and industry-focused solution providers. Creating and sustaining brand reputation for components and the integration of components will be a key business imperative for Infrastructure 2.0 providers.

While a few IT user organizations will be tempted to secure business advantage by creating these stacks themselves, the vast majority of IT users will maximize cost and speed to deploy by selecting the optimum pre-tested and pre-integrated stacks and focusing on the application layer.

Key Benefits of Infrastructure 2.0

The key benefits of an Infrastructure 2.0 environment will be reduced cost of volume components, increased utilization of components, flexible provision of resources (increase and decrease), and flexible deployment of resources (location and ownership). Wikibon models expects the overall cost of computing to be decreased by at least 50%, and speed to deploy (flexibility) to be increased by an order of magnitude.

Action Item: IT consumers and IT suppliers will need to change the business models of supplying and consuming IT resources in a profound way. IT consumers should pick winners that embrace the spirit of competition and focus on creating and integrating best-of-breed components. They should be wary of attempts to own both the technology and the integration of stacks, as these are very unlikely to survive long term.

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