If you are a service provider (SP) thinking about your next generation cloud and hosting services, this paper will help you navigate a go-forward strategy. It provides next generation data center (NGDC) trends and business strategies in the context of five architectural principles. It examines key market influences fueling IT transformation in the SP market and the technological trends that support them. The five architectural principles are scale-out, guaranteed performance, automated management, data assurance, and global efficiencies. Cloud infrastructure delivery models such as IaaS, private clouds, and software-defined data centers (SDDC) are foundations for the NGDC.

In an era where SPs are expected to ensure production-grade infrastructure and support while their enterprise customers deploy a plethoric array of new applications and data, these models demonstrate how to help enterprise customers eliminate bottlenecks, increase self-service, and move their business forward. The NGDC applies a software-defined everything (SDx) discipline in a traditional hardware-centric business. This approach is helping SPs gain significant business advantages in a highly competitive market.

The five architectural principles comprise a fundamental, integrated approach affecting the software, processes, and people that support each layer of the data center stack. They represent a paradigm shift from enabling technology at the speed of business to enabling business at the speed of technology. Driven by the unchained cloud economy offering innovations in infrastructure design, service design, and fundamental cloud services, SPs are well-positioned to embrace this shift.