Towards End-to-End Localization: Key Challenges and Solutions for Virtualized Data Centers.
Unlock VMware alternatives to virtualized data center localization. Understand the key challenges and innovative solutions to achieve the transformation of localization.
[Summary].From the perspective of virtualized data centers, this article discusses the key challenges and solutions of end-to-end localization based on the current situation of "VMware replacement".
In recent years, geopolitical turmoil has intensified, and the technology industry has been affected by sanctions. Since 2018, the United States has sanctioned hundreds of Chinese high-tech companies. After the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, leading IT manufacturers also stopped supplying to Russia. Since 2018, the United States has continued to increase sanctions on China's technology industry, and has added hundreds of Chinese high-tech companies to the Export Control Entity List. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, leading IT vendors in the fields of databases, virtualization, and servers have also stopped their products in Russia**.
International factors and digital transformation highlight the urgency of independent and controllable IT industry in China. In order to break through the bottleneck of core technology, the national strategy clearly proposes to be self-reliant and self-reliant in science and technology. The urgency of the IT industry to be autonomous and controllable is becoming more and more prominent. In order to solve the problem of "stuck neck" in core technology, self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology has become a national strategy in China.
National policies promote the process of localization, especially in key areas of government and enterprises. In 2022, we will further deepen the independent substitution of e-documents to e-government.
Faced with the challenge of localization of virtualized data centers, VMware alternatives have surfaced.
The localization ecosystem has become large-scale, and there are alternatives from office systems to data center infrastructure. By overcoming key technologies, localized substitution will shift from supporting business to enabling production, escorting the digital transformation of governments and enterprises. The transformation of office systems such as OA office and electronic official documents has also been continuously implemented. In 2022, the policy requires that autonomous and controllable work should gradually realize the full replacement from electronic documents to e-government, and the scope of transformation will be further expanded, which means that the localization substitution will begin to shift from peripheral business to more important production business and data center infrastructure. From the perspective of virtualized data centers, this article discusses the key challenges and solutions of end-to-end localization based on the current situation of "VMware replacement".
Key challenges
VMware's localized alternatives have obvious shortcomings in their ability to carry core production services, mainly in the following aspects:
1. Focusing only on partial replacement, or relying heavily on open source, cannot achieve true full-stack autonomy and control.
Breakthrough in the pain points of domestic IT infrastructure.
Traditional VMware alternatives are limited to compute virtualization and fail to address the pain points of domestic alternatives for storage and networking.
Currently, domestic alternatives lack the ability to match core production systems in the storage and networking domains. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown the importance of autonomy and control.
In the storage field, most of the domestic products are based on CEPH and GlusterFS, but the secondary development is weak, the key features rely on the community, and there are risks in long-term independent development. The three elements of IT infrastructure: compute, storage, and networking. Most of the existing VMware alternatives focus on the replacement of compute-layer virtualization (i.e., vSphere) and do not address the real pain point: the replacement of storage and networking. The reason for this is that neither FC SAN storage nor fiber switches can truly support the core production system of domestic alternatives.
In addition, judging from the events of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, open source does not mean that it is independent and controllable, and it cannot deal with extreme risks. Taking storage software as an example, the storage technology of most domestic manufacturers comes from the open source software Ceph or GlusterFS, the secondary development capability is weak, the key features rely on the community, and the dislocation needs to be compensated for through third-party solutions.
2. It cannot support the requirements of high performance, high security, and high reliability of core applications.
The demand for high-performance computing is strong, but there are performance, reliability, and O&M challenges in China. Oracle OLTP has strong processing capabilities, but database and table sharding will cause query performance to deteriorate. Storage network performance and reliability need to be improved. In terms of safety and reliability, domestic manufacturers with the ability to truly have all regions and all scenarios are scarce, and it is difficult to land. Databases have many problems in terms of performance, reliability, and O&M.
Oracle has obvious advantages in OLTP processing of massive data, but removing "O" often requires database and table sharding, which brings problems of multi-table association and poor query performance. Pure ROCE (Ethernet) replaces FC for storage networks, and there are obvious shortcomings in network performance and reliability, which need to be further improved. In addition, in terms of safety and reliability, there are not many domestic manufacturers that are truly safe and reliable in all regions and scenarios, and most of them stay at the solution level, which is difficult to actually land.
3. Insufficient preparation for smooth migration and continuous innovation of the business.
Localization transformation needs to be gradually migrated from the periphery to the core business, and it is important to coordinate the smooth operation of the business, effectively reuse the old, and unify operation and maintenance management. Container engines are scalable and flexible to deliver applications quickly, becoming the foundation for business innovation. At present, most of the domestic container engines are open-source modifications, and the security, upgrade, and application capabilities are weak, and the productization capabilities are insufficient. Therefore, the choice of localization solution should consider its effective support for enterprise business innovation.
Scalability and flexibility, with the ability to deliver applications quickly and in a standardized, efficient manner to anywhere in the world, are the foundation and foundation for business innovation. At present, most of the domestic container engines are based on open source modifications, and the capabilities of enterprise-level application features such as security, upgrade, and application-consistent backup are weak, and the productization capabilities are insufficient. Therefore, whether it can effectively support enterprises to carry out business innovation is also an important consideration in the selection of localization solutions.
A guide to the selection of localized technologies.
For enterprises with localized transformation, it is very important to choose technical routes and manufacturers. Factors such as product stability, manufacturer strength, and adaptability should be considered.
Localized infrastructure solutions.
Localized software and hardware infrastructure vendors can overcome localization problems and improve the elasticity, agility, and scalability of enterprise systems by providing solutions such as cloud native, microservices, and open source ecosystems. Overcoming the dilemma of localization.
Solution Exploration
To build a localized data center IT infrastructure solution, it is necessary to focus on:
Localization of chips and servers.
Localization of operating systems.
Localization of databases.
Network equipment localization IT infrastructure localization plan needs to be made from the following aspects.
1. The core components are 100% domestically developed and have the ability to develop independently.
Data center core IT infrastructure includes: chips, servers, storage, networking, and operating systems.
In terms of storage, it focuses on independent research and development of SSD main controllers, storage controllers and storage operating systems. In terms of networking, the software and hardware integrated NOF solution is adopted to optimize performance, reduce costs, and replace traditional FC and IB storage networks.
Independent research and development of key components, such as storage and databases, to avoid open-source dependence and ensure independent innovation. The core components of IT infrastructure include chips, servers, storage, networking, databases, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. For storage products, the focus should be on the self-development of the three key components of the SSD main control, storage controller and storage operating system; In terms of networking, you can consider simplifying the data center network through an end-to-end NOF solution that integrates software and hardware, and occupies the dual advantages of performance and cost, so as to replace the traditional FC and IB storage networks. In addition, for key components such as storage and databases, it is necessary to not rely on open source and grasp the initiative of independent development.
Grasp the core domestic substitution requirements, and realize the localization substitution of performance, safety, and reliability through the collaborative optimization of software and hardware, so as to meet the carrying capacity of the core business system. Aiming at the localization of core business substitution, through the end-to-end in-depth collaborative optimization of software and hardware, it truly has the ability to carry core business systems in terms of performance, security, and reliability.
Integrate the advantages of localization to create a high-performance database solution.
Using high-performance storage, intelligent lossless network, domestic virtualization and database collaborative optimization, the performance far exceeds that of a single component and is close to that of a physical machine.
It meets the requirements of financial-grade high performance and achieves high throughput, low latency, and zero packet loss.
Ensure security and compliance, provide classified protection** and national secret evaluation and certification, and comprehensively protect core business.
Provide a comprehensive disaster recovery solution to ensure high data reliability and cope with various faults and attacks. Relying only on the capabilities of a single domestic database component, it is difficult to meet business requirements in terms of performance. A feasible solution is to give full play to the advantages of full-stack localization and perform collaborative optimization among multiple components to form a 1+1>2 effect. For example, it realizes the software and hardware synergy of domestic devices of high-performance storage + intelligent lossless network + domestic virtualization + database, creates a high-performance, high-reliability, and easy-to-operate domestic database solution, and achieves high throughput, low latency, and zero packet loss through end-to-end NOF and small LUNs, and the performance is close to that of physical machines, so as to meet the high-performance requirements of financial and other industries.
In addition, the localization solution needs to meet the security compliance requirements such as classified protection** and national cryptography evaluation, provide classified protection compliance and national cryptography compliance security solutions, escort the all-round security protection of the core business, and provide a full range of high-availability disaster recovery solutions from local to remote to ensure high business reliability and data loss in the event of data logic errors, equipment failures, DC failures, and security attacks.
3. Through the dual-track mechanism and self-developed containers, it supports the smooth evolution and continuous innovation of the business.
Dual-track parallel deployment of ARM and x86 CPUs to achieve a smooth transition to localization.
Container service is overlaid with virtualization to support agile and steady-state services.
Self-developed containers enhance enterprise-level application capabilities
Open source vulnerability management.
Certificate rotation. Key encryption.
Cross-version upgrades.
Batch node upgrades.
Application-consistent backup and recovery.
Container cluster management, image management, application management, operation monitoring ARM and x86 CPU hybrid deployment, and self-developed management software to achieve unified management of multiple resource pools, supporting customers to smoothly localize their businesses on the basis of protecting existing investments. On the basis of virtualization, enterprise-level container services based on K8s can be superimposed, and dual-stack supports agile and steady-state services.
Self-developed containers need to enhance enterprise-level application capabilities, including key features such as open source vulnerability management, certificate rotation, key encryption, and password encryption of image warehouses, support cross-version upgrades, batch node upgrades, application-consistent backup (including application configurations, PV volume data) and recovery, and have the capabilities of container placement, image management, application management, and operation monitoring.
Summary
Localization of information technology industry strategy.
National goal: By 2025, we will completely solve the problem of core technology being controlled by others, and build a safe and controllable information technology industry system.
Full-stack localization solution.
Domestic manufacturers jointly provide full-stack localization solutions to ensure:
Maintain product capability.
Improve core business performance.
100% independent research and development of key components.
Basic capabilities drive enterprise modernization.
Lightweight and elastic: Start with two nodes and flexibly stack.
Intelligent management: One-click resource provisioning and unified management of software and hardware.
Diversified and open: multi-cloud interconnection and ecosystem compatibility.
These foundational capabilities greatly improve the efficiency of resource acquisition and operation and maintenance management, freeing up developers to focus on more valuable work. In 2025, it is the strategic goal of the country's informatization development to fundamentally change the situation in which core and key technologies are controlled by others and form a safe and controllable information technology industry system.
In terms of solutions, how to provide enterprises with a set of full-stack localization solutions that do not reduce product capabilities, core business performance without downgrading, and 100% self-developed key components requires manufacturers from all over the world to work together to explore. At the same time, the basic capabilities that support modern enterprise applications cannot be ignored: key basic features such as lightweight elasticity (starting with 2 nodes, flexible stacking of components), intelligent management (one-click resource provisioning, unified management of software and hardware), and diversified openness (multi-cloud interconnection, ecological compatibility) can make the resource acquisition and operation and maintenance management of data centers more agile and efficient, liberating development and operation and maintenance personnel from tedious resource management and equipment maintenance work, so as to focus on more valuable development and design work.
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