Datacenter Infrastructure Architectural Rules

It is always more complex but in general following rules applies to any datacenter infrastructure architecture transforming to cloud principles ...

Compute Rule

Compute performance is relatively cheap, but CPU context switching is pricey.
In other words, vCPU/pCPU ratio drives your consolidation.

Storage Rule
Storage capacity is relatively cheap, but I/O performance and response time is pricey.
In other words, storage performance drives your consolidation.

Network Rule
Network bandwidth is relatively cheap, but latency is pricey.
In other words, network latency drives your datacenter consolidation, geo clustering, DR architecture and hybrid cloud considerations.

Operational Rule
The infrastructure resources (compute/storage/network) are relatively cheap, but human resources are pricey.
In other words, automate as much as possible and keep it as simple as possible.