EMC IT AUTOMATES ENTERPRISE PLATFORM AS A SERVICE Self-service portal delivers ready-to-use development platform in less than one hour

Application developers order from online catalog with just a few clicks

EMC IT has automated provisioning of Enterprise Platform as a Service (ePaaS) using cloud-optimized management tools and a self-service portal.

The initial prototype service automates on-demand delivery of EMC VMware vFabric™ Suite runtime platforms to application developers at EMC, leveraging VMware vCloud Suite and Puppet Labs tools. The service reduces the time-to-provision a complete development environment for SpringSource Java applications—including network, storage, data protection, and application monitoring— from months to days, and, in some cases, to less than one hour.

The automated ePaaS capability marks an important milestone in EMC’s cloud journey to transform its global IT operation into a fully automated service delivery organization. The portal is now being extended to enable EMC developers to self-provision ready-to-use Microsoft .NET runtime platforms as well.

EMC PERSPECTIVE

NEED FOR SPEED Like other enterprises, EMC recognizes that its continued business innovation and competitiveness depends on ever more agile and cost-efficient IT services.

EMC IT has long envisioned automated platform provisioning as a fundamental part of being able to provide businesses with the IT services they need, when they need them. Achieving this goal, however, had been hindered by a legacy of fragmented and overlapping management tools and cumbersome IT processes.

With virtualization and the availability of new virtualization management tools, the organization recognized an opportunity to take a new approach to delivering ready-to-use platforms as a service.

FOCUSING ON APPLICATION DEVELOPERS EMC IT decided to focus first on meeting the platform provisioning needs of application developers. With approximately 500 EMC business applications, many different project teams are concurrently creating, modifying, testing, and deploying software around the world. The ability to quickly, efficiently, and securely provision development platform requests would contribute significantly to strategic software development lifecycle (SDLC) objectives and reducing the time and cost of bringing innovation to market.

In addition, a relatively large proportion of IT provisioning requests are from application developers. By streamlining and automating provisioning for this community, EMC IT could realize considerable efficiency improvements, while also restricting the impact of change and gaining experience for rolling out services to a broader user population.

FOUR MONTHS, 600 WORK-HOURS Traditionally, the creation of application development environments is an ad hoc, largely manual, and siloed process. It is resource-intensive, error-prone, and takes too long to support critical business and time-to-market objectives.

At EMC, for example, custom application development platform configurations could take as long as 2-to-2.5 months to design—with deployment adding another month or more. In all, the time from initial request to platform delivery could be as long as 4 months—and require 600 work-hours of effort.

Highly variable development platform configurations have consequences after deployment, too. They make the IT environment less stable and scalable, increase support costs, and complicate enterprise SDLC initiatives.

What’s more, developers are increasingly bringing their own personal servers to work—or purchasing servers from the public cloud—to meet critical deadlines for testing projects and delivering innovation. When the project is done, the user must submit a request with IT to integrate the server into the corporate standard, which is a long and costly process. These practices also expose the enterprise to multiple security risks.

ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT WITH PRIVATE CLOUD In addressing development platform provisioning time, cost, and risk issues, EMC IT was able to build on and leverage virtual cloud infrastructure and efforts already underway to optimize its cloud operating model with end-to-end IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) capabilities.

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With 93 percent of its data center infrastructure now virtualized, EMC IT has achieved many of its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) objectives. Enterprise applications, virtualized on VCE Vblock™ Systems are managed using VMware operations and automation tools. An IaaS infrastructure service catalog has been developed. And virtual infrastructure (virtual CPUs, memory, storage) is dynamically pooled and shared across EMC global data centers.

To be productive, however, users need more than infrastructure. They need access to specific software capabilities.

EMC IT is working to reduce the cost and time of delivering these capabilities in multiple ways, including:

• Enterprise Platform as a Service—ePaaS delivers on-demand delivery of automated IT platform operations as a service, including compute, network, storage, data protection, monitoring, and application development

• Software as a Service—SaaS enables authorized users to securely access and work with private or public cloud based applications using an on-demand consumption model

• User Interface as a Service—UIaaS exposes each user to the layers of application services they need through a variety of virtualized client interface experiences, including mobility, virtual desktop, and/or “bring your own device” (BYOD) computing choices

Wrapping all of these services together are user-centered IT Service Management practices and end-to-end processes that replace traditional technology-centered silos and leverage new, more intelligent and automated IT operations and services orchestration tools.

EMC IT TRANSFORMATION RESULTS EMC IT’s new ePaaS capability builds on the transformation to-date in the organization’s Cloud Infrastructure and Virtual Data Centers.

EMC’s IT transformation journey began in 2004, when, as an $8.2-billion-dollar company with 24,000 employees, it installed its first virtual VMware ESX server. Today, EMC is a $21.7-billion-dollar company, with 60,000 employees. More than 93% of its infrastructure is virtualized (~10,000 OS images) and it is closing in on its goal to be 100% virtualized.

Since then, EMC’s service business, solution portfolio, revenues, and workforce have grown dramatically—and the size of its data has grown 13-fold—yet the corporate IT budget and physical data center space have remained constant.

Years ago, every application that came into the datacenter was designed from the ground up with its own dedicated stack. Now EMC IT is leveraging its virtual infrastructure to change its IT service delivery mode and to “go to market” with new PaaS and other highly responsive and efficient IT-as-a-Service offerings for business users.

For more information on EMC IT initiatives and results, visit the:

EMC IT Proven website at: www.EMC.com/emcitproven

EMC IT Blog Site at: www.EMC.com/emcit

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EPAAS PROOF-OF-CONCEPT

EMC IT, working with EMC Global Services consultants and Puppet Labs, developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) self-service portal for the EMC application development community that automates platform provisioning and significantly reduces the time-to-deploy new applications.

The team began by defining software development lifecycle (SDLC) provisioning processes and designing a flexible proof-of-concept ePaaS architecture suitable for deployment across both private and public clouds that would automate these processes.

The initial prototype focused on enabling development and IT administrators to create, modify, or decommission standardized vFabric Suite application environments to build, run, and manage SpringSource Java applications—and to monitor the platform build and delivery in real time from a single access point.

The following components work together to enable end-to-end, automated platform request, definition/selection, build, and delivery:

• VCE Vblock Systems for virtual compute, storage, networking, and the VMware vSphere data center operating system

• VMware vCloud® Automation Center™ for managing the self-service ordering portal, including approvals and notifications and enforcing business and IT policies throughout the service lifecycle

• VMware® vCenter™ Orchestrator™ for provisioning infrastructure

• Puppet middleware, developed jointly by EMC and Puppet Labs for automated co-promotion and integration

• VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite for automated operations management

• VMware vCloud Networking and Security (formerly VMware vShield) for automated security and load balancing

Figure 1. The Working with consultants from EMC Global Services, EMC IT automated delivery of Platform as a Service. The initial workload is for custom Spring Java applications in the VMware vFabric Suite runtime environment. The service is currently being expanded to serve Microsoft .NET development platforms as well.

1© Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

ePaaS Proof-of-Concept

VblockVMware Private Cloud

Automated SDLC

ProcessesvCenter Operations Management Suite

Monitoring and Management

vCloud Networking and SecuritySecurity

vCloud Automation CenterService Catalog and Automation

vCenterOrchestrator

Infrastructure

PuppetMiddleware

VMware Virtual Private Cloud

(FUTURE)

Initial target workload:

Custom apps running on

vFabric

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HOW IT WORKS Rather than submitting a request for specific infrastructure and software to IT, users choose from a list of standardized platform service offerings in a secure, self-service portal.

Users log in and select virtual machine (VM) images that reflect the corporate “gold standard” image with standard corporate security and backup.

Structured, standard service offerings, based on three tiers—the application tier, web tier, and data tier—limit variation to ensure consistency and simplify downstream support.

Requesters can use the portal to monitor the progress of their order through the automated build and delivery.

Once the user has completed development and testing the VM is returned to IT.

AUTOMATED SERVICE CATALOG vCloud Automation Center (vCAC) controls portal access and automates the catalog request service, using role-based access to deliver the service options relevant to the individual user.

The user selects from a graphical menu to specify requirements, including configuration, compliance, delivery, and chargeback information and enters the quantity required. The user can review their order and edit if required. They can also review cost prior to submitting their order.

After the order is submitted, vCAC monitors the progress of the provisioning process and sends the requester update notifications via email. The requester can also return to the portal to check status, which is updated in realtime.

AUTOMATED PROVISION MANAGEMENT vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) acts as the virtual infrastructure provisioning engine. It adds virtual machines (VMs) to the network, and generates the application configuration. It manages the sequence of provisioning and, as required, calls other subsystems to execute specific provisioning tasks.

vCO also monitors the provisioning process as it executes. Authorized users can view a dashboard with the status of all orders submitted. They can select an expanded view for each order to view details of workflow execution progress and status, and drill down for still more detail on each of the specific services initiated by the vCAC order.

AUTOMATED SECURITY AND LOAD BALANCING vCloud Networking and Security automatically implements pre-approved policies to manage platform security, including secure application isolation from other applications hosted in the environment. The tool uses the provisioning pools, which describe individual machines attached to virtual interfaces, to automatically configure load balancing.

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Figure 2. The EMC IT ePaaS solution uses VMware operating and management software and middleware jointly developed with Puppet Labs to automate the entire development platform provisioning process.

AUTOMATED INTEGRATION The Puppet Labs Provisioning Solution, an open source, operating system-agnostic provisioning solution developed with EMC, works in conjunction with vCO and vCloud Networking and Security to automate integration and co-promotion.

It creates a source code control repository using the open source Git version control and source code management (SCM) system and creates a build workspace in Jenkins, an open source continuous integration tool written in Java.

It uses the Jenkins build and deployment script to automatically configure the Apache web server, install the vFabric TC Server, and create the database.

The Puppet management console enables EMC IT to validate the successful build and configuration of the web servers, application servers, and Oracle database servers necessary for hosting the application.

Puppet also uses Jenkins and Git for configuration and license management throughout the lifecycle, for strict control of license utilization and costs.

AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT In addition to delivering the vFabric and SpringSource tool suite platform, Puppet clones the Git repository it has configured and imports the user’s project into a local copy of the Git repository, where new application code can be added. After the developer has completed code development, the application is automatically pushed to the Git repository, where the Jenkins build and deployment automation scripts are invoked. The deployed application is accessed through the web server, where authentication is provided using RSA Access Manager, which provides secure access management.

AUTOMATED MANAGEMENT IT administrators can monitor the build process through vCenter Operations (vCOPS) Manager. At login, users are presented with a dashboard showing a high level view of applications and infrastructure components and the performance, capacity, and availability associated with the application tag.

3© Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

ePaaS Automated Platform Provisioning

ePaaSSelf Service Portal (Services Catalog)

VMware vCloud Automation Center

VMware Cloud Orchestration (VCO) Puppet

Configure ERS Apache Web Server

Install vFabric TC Server

Create Database

Add VMs to DNS

Add to DB Components / Best

Practices

Generate Host Name

Provision Virtual

Machines

Request New vFabric based Application Platform

Specify Application

Platform Data

Start

Report Completion

Create vCloud Networking and

Security Configuration

Update Status

Send Email Notification

Generate Application Configuration File

Install and Start Puppet Agent

Create Source Control Repository

Create Build Workspace in Jenkins

Email

End

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Each resource can then be individually selected to show more detailed metrics, for example: CPU, memory, and storage performance. Administrators can review historical data, as well as current statistics, and use the data to perform predictive analysis.

An automation process runs in the background for each application tag, periodically updating the topology with additional metric data. For example, infrastructure data is collected from Virtual Center and application-specific data is collected by Hyperic and Oracle Enterprise Manager and categorized in the topology view, to provide a single consolidated performance view of the application.

Administrators can again drill down for more detail. For example, for storage, they can see capacity, allocated disk space, disk I/0, the number of running VMs, and individual data stores associated with each platform. They can also look at how other applications are affecting the application; for example, applications sharing virtual LUNs.

FASTER TIME-TO-VALUE Currently, automated ePaaS delivered from private cloud enables user-selected application development platforms to be deployed within an hour or a day, instead of taking weeks and months.

Combined with the use of agile development methodologies and more integrated and efficient management techniques across the application life cycle, ePaaS helps EMC IT to meet demand from application and business unit stakeholders for faster production releases, which, in turn, enables the company to better meet the needs of its customers and compete in the marketplace.

EMC IT is continuing to invest in the evolution and enhancement of a robust ePaaS capability. Currently, it is working to extend the service to developers requesting Microsoft .NET platforms.

The business case indicates payback of operational and capital investment in an enterprise capability within 2 years through benefits, including:

• Faster time-to-value with platform provisioning, with turnaround times reduced from weeks and months to hours and minutes

• Increased quality through configuration standardization, automation, and enforcement

• Increased efficiency through automation and complexity reduction

• Increased self-service, from help desk to portal

• Increased user satisfaction, from IT issued to business and user choice

• Increased financial accountability and transparency, from subsidized budget to metered, cost-neutral chargeback

• Increased operation efficiency, from Infrastructure silos to IT services

SUMMARY Reaching a fully automated ePaaS capability is an important milestone for EMC IT in providing the agility EMC needs to meet rapidly changing customer needs in global markets. Allowing business users to create their own application landscapes with a few clicks of a button is no longer a futuristic vision.

EMC GLOBAL SERVICES ACCELERATES OPERATIONAL TRANSFORMATION The EMC IT ePaaS project team enlisted the experience and support of professionals in EMC Global Services to help automate the processes used to offer platform provisioning services to application developers. EMC Global Services experts enable IT organizations to realize the practical advantages of cloud-optimized operations, faster, by helping to:

• Prioritize and focus initial service management efforts on automating a particular set of services

• Quantify and measure incremental payback on operating model improvements

• Guide teams in making the technical, organizational, cultural, and operational shifts necessary to move from managing IT components to managing IT services

• Transfer and mentor service design skills by working alongside internal staff

• Define standardized tiers of services and present these services to the business through intuitive, role-specific service portals

For more information about how EMC Global Services can help with operational transformation, click here.

CONTACT US To learn more about how EMC products, services, and solutions can help solve your business and IT challenges, contact your local representative or authorized reseller—or visit us at www.EMC.com.

EMC2, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. VMware and vCloud are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc., in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. © Copyright 2013 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA. 12/13 EMC Perspective H12674

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EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.