Cloud News

VMware, AWS Collaborate on New Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure

AWS and VMware come together to produce a collaborative hybrid cloud solution, VMware Cloud for AWS, to bring their public and private cloud solutions together.

By Elizabeth O'Dowd

- VMware and Amazon Web Service (AWS) have announced their collaboration on a new hybrid cloud service, VMware Cloud on AWS, available for enterprise deployment mid-2017.

AWS VMware collaborate

According to the official press release, “AWS will be VMware’s primary public cloud infrastructure partner and VMware will be AWS’s primary private cloud partner in their strategic alliance.”

VMware Cloud on AWS is an integrated hybrid cloud offering that provides IT infrastructure with a software-defined data center (SDDC) where all components of the data center are virtualized. VMware Cloud on AWS allows customers to leverage AWS’s cloud infrastructure using VMware software and tools.

VMware and AWS partnered in response to customer requests for an easier way to run on-premise environments using AWS as a public cloud infrastructure and VMware's virtualized private cloud together as a cohesive hybrid cloud solution. Traditionally organizations run applications via vSphere in their private cloud while separately running applications on AWS.

“Our customers continue to ask us to make it easier for them to run their existing data center investments alongside AWS,” said Andy Jassy, CEO of AWS. “Most enterprises are already virtualized using VMware, and now with VMware Cloud on AWS, for the first time, it will be easy for customers to operate a consistent and seamless hybrid IT environment using their existing VMware tools on AWS, and without having to purchase custom hardware, rewrite their applications, or modify their operating model.”

VMware Cloud on AWS is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, which is a unified SDDC platform that integrates VMware vSphere, along with VMware Virtual SAN, and NSX virtualization technologies. VMware’s various technologies will provide access to the full range of AWS services.

“This new service will make it easier for customers to preserve their investment in existing applications and processes while taking advantage of the global footprint, advanced capabilities, and scale of the AWS public cloud,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware.

The official product page for VMware Cloud on AWS highlights several features organizations can expect from the imminent release:

  • Radically Simple and Consistent Operations: Organizations will be able to rapidly provision and scale AWS resources on-demand. These resources will be operationally consistent with vSphere-based clouds.
  • Cloud-Scale Flexibility: VMware Cloud on AWS will deliver workload portability across an organization’s clouds. The service will be powered by the same platform that powers VMware technology-based, on-premises data centers.
  • Hybrid Cloud Capabilities: Organizations will leverage VMware technologies across compute (vSphere), storage (Virtual SAN) and networking (NSX) which are optimized to run on next-generation, elastic, bare metal AWS infrastructure. Virtual machines running in this environment will have smooth local access to AWS services.
  • Operated and Supported by VMware: All software components of this service will be fully certified and supported by VMware. VMware will be responsible for the patches and upgrades of the infrastructure software components.

The product page also states that VMware Cloud on AWS will run on an elastic bare-metal AWS infrastructure that maintains standard AWS elasticity and security. Organizations will be able to choose from on-demand (hourly) or subscription-based (1 year, 3 year) options for VMware Cloud on AWS. Customers will also be able to leverage their existing investments in VMware licenses through VMware customer loyalty programs.

VMware and AWS are both currently used in the healthcare industry. VMware features several healthcare specific infrastructure solutions for the private cloud. A recent survey conducted by SADA Systems as one of the top three cloud platforms used in healthcare with 27 percent of respondents using AWS.  

Healthcare organizations already using VMware, AWS or both can look forward to the release of VMware Cloud on AWS for a compatible hybrid cloud environment.  

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