A great musical orchestra requires three key elements: a collection of individual virtuosos, a talented conductor and a powerful score to shape and direct each performance. Individually, each musician must be an expert and must be able to play intuitively, with little effort. The conductor must have continuous communication with each player, while staying focused on the score to make sure the end result is greater than any individual contribution.
The same is true of the modern enterprise IT organization. There are many different, powerful technologies in the data center, and each year they become more reliable and add greater value. The same is true for operations staff; there are a wide variety of expert skills, and many staff members are indispensable local gurus. From servers to networks to storage, IT teams have made great strides in automating the management of infrastructure components and have become virtuosos. The challenge is to orchestrate these players to perform within a framework that delivers the greatest value for the business.
Orchestration is all about delivering business value, and this paper will help guide the CxO seeking better return on IT investments through the current orchestration services landscape. The past decade has seen the emergence of many products variously referred to as automation, provisioning, run book and systems management, all of which have improved the lives of IT operators. However, none of these technologies can provide the true linkage of IT to the needs of the business. Tying business goals to IT operations requires an orchestration service with these characteristics: governs multiple infrastructure and application components, including both hardware and software; contains inherent automation and workflow controls; is policy-aware; and is as autonomous as possible, requiring little or no human intervention.
Orchestration services and related technologies are coming to market rapidly to fill this need, and it is critical that the forward-looking CxO be aware of what orchestration means, how it is defined in technology terms, how it delivers value through automatic policy controls and how each vendor service or solution fits into the orchestration market space. With this knowledge, it is possible to achieve the goal of transforming IT from a cost center to a crucial business-value delivery engine.