Software-defined data center

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Software-defined data center (SDDC; also: virtual data center, VDC) is a marketing term that extends virtualization concepts such as abstraction, pooling, and automation to all data center resources and services to achieve IT as a service (ITaaS).^[1] In a software-defined data center, "all elements of the infrastructure — networking, storage, CPU and security – are virtualized and delivered as a service."^[2]

SDDC support can be claimed by a wide variety of approaches. Critics see the software-defined data center as a marketing tool and "software-defined hype," noting this variability.^[3]

In 2013, analysts were divided into three different groups,^[3] those who think it is "just another software-defined hype", those who think most of the components are already available and those who see a potential future market. There was no unified agreement about the direction of SDDC. For some areas like the software-defined networking a market value of about US$3.7 billion by 2016 was expected, compared to US$360 million in 2013.^[3] (software-defined networking was expected to reach US$18.5 billion in 2022^[4]) IDC estimates that the software-defined storage market is poised to expand faster than any other storage market.^[3]