The future infrastructure of the data center is increasingly becoming "software defined": instead of adhering to (or even being aware of) the limits of the underlying physical infrastructure, applications and platforms will be able to specify their fine-grained needs, thus precisely defining the virtual environment in which they wish to run; software, placed at key locations within the datacenter infrastructure, will implement the needed functionality, thus delivering hardware-like features to applications and services in the manner they desire; the various components that make up such a system will be deeply programmable, facilitating the realization of such systems. This "software-defined datacenter" (SDD) thus forms the core of the future cloud platform. To tackle these problems, and usher in a new era of the software-defined data center, we are forming the Wisconsin Institute on Software-defined Datacenters in Madison (WISDoM). The institute brings together an eclectic group of researchers in the Computer Sciences department in storage, networks, and security. The storage team consists of Professors Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, and Michael Swift; Professors Aditya Akella and Paul Barford form the networking team; Professors Somesh Jha and Thomas Ristenpart comprise the security team. This "micro-interdisciplinary" group, reaching across three distinct areas of computer science, has been brought together with the single focus of defining the future SDD and attacking the research challenges therein; because the problems within SDDs are large and complex, we believe such a broad team is critical to success. WISDoM is a targeted effort to tackle the research problems within the SDD environment over the next four to five years. In this time, we will address the key challenges in SDDs, train and educate large numbers of graduate and undergraduate students in the relevant topics, and help further computer science in general through outreach activities. These three missions (research, education, and outreach) form the core of the institute.