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| Synergy Research Group Case Study Unified Service Delivery |
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- Reduces time to enablement by a factor of 10.
- Provides CapEx and OpEx advantage to SPs migrating towards cloud services.
- Delivers greater power efficiency than traditional data centers by a factor of 2x.
- Produces 4-year cumulative OpEx savings on virtualized video infrastructure of 5.5–7x.
- Demonstrates a 4-year cumulative OpEx savings of 2x on virtualized unified communications voice infrastructure.
- Delivers virtualization & scaling up of performance, which is driving operational efficiency.
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| Maximizing Data Center Efficiency & Longevity While Providing Secure Delivery of Cloud and Virtual Services |
| Service providers are faced with the dual pressures of providing more entertainment, information, cloud, and collaboration services while simultaneously keeping an eye on cost containment, CapEx, and OpEx. Additionally, they face operational constraints such as power consumption, cooling capabilities, utilization levels, the ability to provision, and the ability to ensure continuity and data center longevity due to the complexity of their networks. Most service providers have networks where each area of service delivery requires its own packet network, computing powers, video head-end, video head office content caching, and central office equipment. |
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| Figure 1. Data Center Evolution |
| Clearly, these types of duplicated resources produce inefficiency and multiple operational challenges, which, in turn, increase costs. More servers, more management, and more resources translate into more operating expenditures. |
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Carriers worldwide are asking: How do you put the underlying assets and infrastructure in place to transform the data center to ensure delivery of virtualized services? Can you increase profit even with stagnant revenue growth as you make this transition?
As carriers scramble to respond to their customers’ demands to deliver more visual and voice media-based content, two-way interactive personalized and collaborative services on their existing fragmented networks, they realize that their data centers are lacking a common set of attributes to securely and successfully deliver a high quality of end-user experiences and services. These sophisticated visual and voice media-based services require a delivery solution that scales cost, provides data center consolidation and virtualization with unified fabric architecture that enables delivery of next-generation cloud computing and virtualized services.
Synergy Research Group conducted a study on Cisco Unified Service Delivery (USD) solution analyzing the capital expenses and operating expenses associated with transitioning from data centers 2.0 to data centers 3.0 using USD solution, which integrates computing systems with virtualization and networking by laying down a common infrastructure for a service provider’s entire portfolio and providing the framework for data center longevity.
Underlying USD is secure virtual architecture composed of unified computing, unified fabric, and consolidated storage that delivers a secure virtual experience that meets the provider’s requirements for operational efficiency:
» Physical and logical separation of planes for secure delivery
» Extended virtualization and cloud computing capabilities
» Network intelligence
» Connecting and virtualizing multiple areas of delivery
» Immediate off load capabilities
» Benefits apply to both inside the data center and outside of the data enter
» Combination of USD + IP Next-Generation Network = Differentiation Factor
Unified Service Delivery can meet a variety of service providers’ needs:
» Enhance secure virtual experience
» Transform services with secure virtual experience, including SP data center and SP IP NGN
» Reduce CapEx and OpEx costs associated with data center operations
» Provide better rack-space utilization
» Lower data center space costs
» Improve power efficiency
» Set up the framework for data center longevity and efficiency
Establish the foundation for next-generation virtualized services
» Reduces time to enablement by a factor of 10
Synergy Research Group evaluated and outlines the costs savings associated with the USD solution using a virtualized voice scenario and a virtualized video scenario. Our analysis determined that re-engineering a data center can save a service provider:
» Approximately 30% on traditional service delivery costs
» Improvement of 40% in ROI
Our analysis further confirmed that USD increases data center efficiency, lays the foundation for data center longevity, increases service velocity, increases a service provider’s profit, and allows for virtualized service delivery.
When considering data center architecture, decision makers focus on the value of their business, optimization of their return on investment, total cost of ownership, productivity improvement, service velocity, and increasing data center longevity. USD supports these requirements. Our TCO assumptions were based on the following:
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Traditional Data Center CapEx Savings as Multiple of Unified Service Delivery |
Traditional Data Center OpEx Savings as Multiple of Unified Service Delivery |
| Virtualized Voice Infrastructure – CUCM |
1.18x |
1.78x |
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Table 1. Virtualized Voice Savings
Most of the CapEx savings in a voice or visual media scenario are realized as a result of reduction in hardware from the consolidation of servers, storage, cabling, administrators, and network facilities. With the deployment of virtualization solutions, utilization of servers can increase from 20% to 70% with a resulting decrease in required infrastructure. This hardware reduction translates to a dramatic decrease in some associated operation expenditures: rack space, real estate, power, and cooling.
Ease of management and the additional savings associated with streamlined operations are other important factors to consider. USD solution includes Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), which simplifies operations through its integrated UCS management capabilities. |
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Traditional Data Center CapEx Savings as Multiple of Unified Service Delivery |
Traditional Data Center OpEx Savings as Multiple of Unified Service Delivery |
| Virtualized Video Infrastructure |
5.3x – 5.86x |
5.49x – 6.99x |
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Table 2. Virtualized Video Savings
Ease of management and the additional savings associated with streamlined operations are other important factors to consider. USD solution is based on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS), which simplifies operations through its integrated UCS management capabilities. Whereas stand-alone IT alternatives introduce separate physical management ports and interfaces for each element deployed (every server and switch is managed as a unique element), UCS offers a single interface from which to manage all of its functionality. USD features CRS-1 and Nexus 7k devices that supports layer 2 and layer 3 to provide separation and virtualization.
When leveraging stand-alone alternatives, each server, chassis, and switch presents its own management point that needs to be individually addressed in the provisioning process. With UCS Manager, a deployment of up to 320 servers can be managed as a single system using an intuitive GUI (or CLI and XML API) to enable rapid enablement and configuring of resources. Unified Computing System Manager allows services to be provisioned in minutes, as opposed to hours or days.
If, for example, an SP needs to throw out more caching for high quality video service delivery, virtualization allows easy off-loading to handle the increased traffic and high volume generated by the service requirements. This instant time to market has an immediate impact on the agility of the organization; it consumes far fewer operational resources.
Furthermore, this organizational flexibility and rapid provisioning allows for consolidation, which can translate to increased revenue potential. The service provider can now easily provision collaboration services on top of the existing unified communications service.
If a business customer with unified communications now wants to add, for example, WebEx One Connect, then provisioning can be done simply without the addition (and cost) of new hardware in the data center. In pre-USD data center setups, the service provider had to weigh carefully the financial and resource opportunities of setting up new equipment to offer a new service. This is no longer the case with Unified Service Delivery. |
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Figure 2. Virtualized CUCM Infrastructure Before and After CapEx & OpEx Savings
Service providers can now meet and manage new service delivery requirements from multiple providers with minimum costs. The consolidated approach in architecture decreases total data center costs while addressing security issues associated with virtual and cloud services. |
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Figure 3. Virtualized Video Infrastructure Before and After CapEx & OpEx Savings
Another factor influencing the data center transition is the demand for more and richer media content, which is driving SPs toward virtualization and cloud services. With the additional pressure of managing and delivering content from many different providers, the push to virtualization to meet customers’ demands is inevitable, and it will be those SPs that successfully make that move that will differentiate themselves from their competitors. |
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Summary
The evolution of service delivery now requires that service providers move their data centers toward virtualization. One of the key components of this transition is setting up the framework associated with data center longevity and efficiency and the expansion of cloud services. Some of the key drivers associated with this framework are:
» Increasing service velocity
» Enhancing customers’ experiences
» Increasing speed in service delivery within networks
» Reducing the overall costs associated with data centers
» Allocating resources more efficiently
» Establishing new revenue options
» Securing networks
For service providers looking for next-generation sound infrastructure solutions, improved service delivery model, and maximum hardware efficiency as they evolve their data centers toward cloud computing and virtualization, Unified Services Delivery solution provides an architectural approach with multiple benefits. |
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Figure 4. Efficiency Framework
USD allows SPs to break down computing, networking, and integration network silos and run them as a single design model. USD optimizes SPs’ return on investment and total cost of ownership by promoting data center longevity and deferring the additional hardware acquisition costs and allows them to increase their financials — even during stagnant revenue growth periods.
There are some challenges to consider when implementing this type of solution; it may not be an ideal solution for small service providers with limited deployments. Efficiency returns often move with the scale of the deployment; as these solutions scale to 100,000+ end users in voice, smaller SPs should investigate scale and which solution is appropriate for them. This solution is primarily aimed at the mid-tier and higher level providers. Similarly, video is not for the small “mom and pop” video deployment system providers; it is more suited to larger service providers who can invest and ultimately benefit from the savings of implementing a USD solution. As SPs evolve their data centers and networks, they need to recognize and reconcile the disparities between data center and network operations team. Although daunting, streamlining operations and teams will ensure that the ROI exceeds the challenges.
Overall, based on our case study findings, the USD solution provides a cost-effective model that supports the service providers’ requirements for flexible, innovative, dynamic infrastructure, which allows them to focus on increasing service velocity, reducing time to market, simplifying operations, enabling cloud service delivery, and, most importantly, enhancing data center longevity.
Click here for Synergy’s methodology and details on this case study.
Tags: Ray Mota, Virtualization, TCO, Data Center, VVI, CUCM |
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