Introduction
Almost every company in the world is using VMware technology to run a Software-Defined Data Center. VMware revolutionized the IT industry by virtualizing compute with vSphere and the ESXi hypervisor, virtualizing storage with VMware vSAN, and virtualizing networking and security with VMware NSX. With the majority of new workloads now being deployed on public cloud, VMware has embarked on a major company transformation from on-premises perpetually licenced software, to public cloud SaaS services.
From Cloud-First to Cloud-Smart – Best approach for Organizations!
The first wave of companies moving or extending to public cloud arguably resulted in varying outcomes. Many companies successfully transformed their operating model to optimize their IT environment for cloud. Others were not that successful and saw their cloud spend skyrocket. These ‘first wave’ cloud migrations were typically driven by a ‘cloud first’ approach.
This simply meant public cloud had be the first choice for every and all workloads, regardless of architecture, business value, and so on. This ‘Cloud First’ approach can result in a state VMware calls ‘Cloud Chaos’, where companies are not in control of their cloud environments.
VMware cloud solutions in the VMware Cross-Cloud portfolio help companies become ‘Cloud Smart’. This means they can run workloads where they run best, deliver a consistent operating model across datacenters and clouds, and deliver a consistent developer experience.
VMware Cloud is part of this VMware Cross-Cloud portfolio, and allows companies to run a consistent cloud infrastructure. VMware Cloud Foundation allows companies to run private cloud environments in their own datacenters. VMware Cloud also contains managed VMware Cloud solutions for on-premises datacenters, such as VMware Cloud on Dell-EMC, or the recently announced VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal. Finally, companies can consume VMware Cloud as a public cloud SaaS service from the major cloud providers, such as VMware Cloud on AWS, Google cloud VMware Engine, Azure VMware Solution, and more.
Because all VMware Cloud options are built on VMware Cloud Foundation (with leading IaaS products such as vSphere, vSAN and NSX), migrating workloads to and between datacenters and clouds is very easy. Companies can move workloads between these different cloud environments without complex re-platforming or the need to (re)train IT staff on new cloud technologies. All public cloud based VMware Cloud offerings offer low-latency and easy integration with native cloud services. This allows them to create true hybrid environments that combine the enterprise capabilities of a VMware datacenter with the flexibility and virtually endless scalability of public cloud, all packaged in a managed SaaS offering.
VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC)
VMC is a native VMware offering. VMware and AWS co-engineer and offer VMware Cloud on AWS as a fully managed service. The VMC and native AWS cloud environments are integrated easily, so VMC customers can tie in native AWS services to create a true hybrid cloud environment. VMC is fully managed, so updates and upgrades to the VMware products are handled by VMware. VMware and AWS deliver a cloud console from which customers can consume and manage their VMC environments. vSphere admins can simply treat the VMC environment as a secondary VMware datacenter because it’s architecturally consistent with an on-premise VMware datacenter.
Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE)
Google offers a functionally similar experience to VMC. Google leverages the VMware Cloud Foundation to deliver a fully managed VMware Cloud environment. Google’s approach is more open compared to VMware Cloud on AWS. This means more flexibility in how customers build and operate their GCVE environment, but arguably at the cost of adding more complexity. Customers get full access to VMware vCenter Server and NSX Manager to build and configure use cases. Google also allows customers to temporarily request elevated access to install 3rd part solutions, for example. Like VMware Cloud on AWS, Google Cloud VMware Engine is a fully managed service, so the life cycle management of the entire VMware environment is handled completely by Google.
Conclusion
Regardless of the specific flavour of choice, the main takeaway is that workloads and apps can be migrated between on-premises VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud on Dell-EMC, VMware Cloud on AWS, Google Cloud VMware Engine, or any of the other VMware Cloud options with relative ease. The VMware Cloud Universal multi-cloud subscription program even allows companies to purchase a single subscription and consume any of the VMware Cloud offerings.
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