Storage Reporting and Chargeback in the Software Defined Data Center

Cloud environments are technology 'stores' where customers can choose from a menu of IT services based on their requirements. The infrastructure that enables cloud services and allows offering IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) is the software-defined data center (SDDC).

While software-defined compute and software-defined networking (SDN) have become fairly well established in the SDDC, software-defined storage (SDS) is a relatively new concept. As such, SDS, and storage automation, storage-as-a-service (STaaS) reporting and chargeback are commonly relegated to afterthoughts or last-minute suboptimal additions In SDDC environments.

In this Knowledge Sharing article, Brian Dehn introduces the concept of SDS and explains the vital role played by ViPR—EMC’s software-defined storage solution—in the SDDC. Focusing on the ViPR Controller, Brian goes on to discuss basic reporting requirements met by ViPR M&R (including reporting for STaaS, consumer utilization, virtual capacity usage, and more) as well as key features that allow enhanced usage of the tool. Finally, Brian explains how EMC ViPR SRM facilitates reporting and chargeback for software-defined storage. He introduces EMC ViPR SRM, differentiates it from ViPR M&R, explains advanced reporting requirements met by ViPR SRM, and explains key features available in ViPR SRM.

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