Virtualisation technology is driving the change of the way applications are provisioned and managed and dramatically improving cost efficiency. Extending virtualisation across computing, network, and storage layers enables a comprehensive data center transformation that further improves efficiencies. However, many data center architectures are still built around complex, heterogeneous silos of servers and storage systems that result in poor utilisation and captive resources. These resources require multiple provisioning toolsets, data management processes, and teams of people to manage them. In addition, massive data growth combined with power, cooling, and space limitations exerts extreme pressure on IT responsiveness.