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They call these their LEAP Data Centers. LEAP stands for Learn, Experience, Architect and Plan. These are the equivalent of a showroom that gives the customer access and the ability to do hands-on work. The data centers are fully functioning with a full-time staff. Customers use the data center to learn what is required to build a data center environment.

So what could have been a real expense has become a way to market virtualization.

Turning to Virtualization

To create the LEAP centers, Westcon drew from what it learned when deciding to build its Cincinnati data center.

For instance, they looked at the considerable costs that go into play when virtualization is considered. Depreciating technology is a common issue when virtualization is explored as an option. Westcon learned that the chief financial officer needed to have direct involvement in the technology adoption.

They learned that it is not just the CFO but the CIO, too, who is affected when writing off tens of millions of servers. Savings and optimization are critical but they come at a certain cost when existing technology has to be shelved.

The process required conversations in executive management for the strategy to be fully realized. It turned the context of the discussion as the subject became one about building the LEAP centers and not just building a new data center for internal operations.

Making Choices

Westcon chose VMware for virtualization. This was two years ago and VMware was about the only game in town.

With the context changed, Westicon started looking at its infrastructure. They asked themselves the question:

"What are the tools that do not add a competitive advantage?"

Westicon decided that messaging, IT development and CRM would be better outsourced to the cloud.

The company then decided to virtualize everything else. In particular, that meant its ERP software.

Westcon had used JD EDwards ERP software and Oracle database and SQL servers. They turned to SAP and IBM DB2. They chose Cisco UCS for its servers and networking. They used EMC Clarion technology for storage.

They also used Amazon Web Services for storage.

Westcon CTO Bill Hurley said to us in an interview that they learned how networks become critically important in a virtualized world. In the past, data centers have had a three-tier architecture. Now networks need higher speeds. They need the Internet and other ways to penetrate the network. Zero latency is the goal.

"There is a lot more intelligence that needs to be put into the network because with virtualization you are moving from a virtual perspective back and forth from physical devices with no down time even though you are traversing from one machine to another," Hurley said.

The flexibilities that come with elasticity also affect the data center and how it operates. Machines are moving around all the time, sometimes with robots doing the work.

Westcon took the experiences of how it made its decisions with its internal operations to create the LEAP centers. Hurley and his team learned through developing its own data center that customers would benefit from doing it themselves, too. That's the premise behind its LEAP program.

"It's a full data center with truly a classroom feel," Hurley said.

The Westcon experience shows how much data centers are changing. Virtualization is leading the way.

Now as we head into 2011, it's evident networking is a hot topic. The network is flattening. The proof is in the data centers.

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