THE CONTINUING EVOLUTION OF VMWARE CLOUD ON AWS – AND WHY IT MATTERS
Customer perceptions of VMC on AWS have changed since the offering was first released. Originally, customers didn’t understand the value prop behind bringing VMware’s enterprise-class Software-Defined Data Center software to the AWS Cloud, enabling customers to run production applications across private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, with optimized access to AWS services.In its earliest days, they were more focused on asking if ithelped generate revenue, or how it would contribute to the business-critical apps or line of business applications that were in use by their organization.VMC on AWS is an operational efficiency play in terms of speeding time to delivery – it is not strictly speaking, a reduce overhead service – which is a common misconception.
New Use Cases Provide New Perspectives
For customers that are not quite ready to leverage public cloud and go cloud native, they see VMware on the public cloud as a great option for Disaster Recovery. Rather than having to pay for and maintain their own secondary site,theyfully understand and valuehaving a partner like VMware to provide a solution that is availableon–demandand can be scaled up as needed.Especially since itrelievesnearly allof the operational burden andmostof the capital expendituresoff ofthem for Disaster Recovery.
Additionally, customers who are evacuating a Data Center rapidly who don’t want to have to manage their on-premanymore,arealsoleveraging VMware Cloud on AWS as a way to exit the Data Center.In many cases, theyhave expiring data center contracts, or theirhardware or software has reached the end of its useful life andthere is no reasonto renew and re-deploy.Movingtheir existing applications to VMware Cloud on AWSis aneasy and effectivealternative.
Why It “Pays” To Never Underestimate Adopting VMC on AWS
While some maylook at the cost of VMware Cloudon AWS directly and compare it to what their most recent capital expenditure was for hardware or for software licenses(or their colocation contract with their data center), it’s easy to overlookthat this is a fully-managed service. That means many ofthe things thatfolksare used to dealing with within the various VMware software layers(or the hardware itself), are no longer their responsibility. It’s all taken care of by VMware and database for them. Andthat doesn’t even take into accountthe rapid-scalingthat VMware Cloudon AWS provides. The fact that you can procure and deploy additional nodes to expand your compute-and-storage footprint within minutes is a far cry from the weeks (or even months!) that it has taken to do these things in anon-premisedata center.
Additionally, VMware Cloud on AWSbrings much more flexibility in terms of capacity management for customers – and so they can be much more optimized than they used to be – rather than trying to predict what they’re going to need for the next 3-to-5 years, they can provision only what theyneed NOW, scale UP as needed and even scale DOWN if there’s a period of demand that has diminished and is no longer needed.
The Best Is Yet to Come
Just over the horizon,wecan anticipate seeingimprovedand enhanced services for Disaster Recovery, as well as better ability for customers to “purchase capacity” – buyinglicenses that can be used either on-premises or VMware Cloud On AWS, that will allow customers to have the flexibility to decide where their workload should land –without re-purchasing those capabilities.There are plenty of exciting new features coming, too.VmWaremakes the entire road map for VMware Cloudon AWS publicly available – they put it on their website –so you can easily seewhat they’re working onԻwhatthefutureis looking like.The fact that they are very open and transparentmakes it fun forcustomersto keep up-to-date.
What Makes VMware Cloud on AWS thePreferredڴڱԲ
VMware Cloudon AWS was the “original” VMware public cloud solution. It isstillthe only one that haseverbeen developed first-party by VMware and was co-engineered by AWS.Other hyper-scalers have realized the value of providing potential solutions in their cloudand have worked with VMware in partnership to develop something on their own cloud.But none of them are identical to one another –even though theyall share very similar architecture. VMware CloudOnAWScertainly remainsthe most mature offering. It’salsoseenthe mostupdates and it has been shared the most.Other solutionsare sureto see adoption increase.And we expect them to mature just as well,and we expectsomefeatures to catch up to VMware Cloud On AWS. But weare also confidentVMware Cloudon AWSwillmaintain its position as the premier offering.
The 91ý Enterprise Cloud Advantage
As VMware’s top partner in the nation, 91ý is bestpositionedto bring our expertise and experience to all of the VMware offerings and services of VMware Cloud On AWS.
91ý enjoys the privilege of having beeninvolved inthe exclusive“Project Lighthouse,” which was VMware Cloudon AWS in beta form.These advantages allow 91ý tobring our expertise in other VMware products and portfolios to bear in a customer’s VMC Journey.That means we’ve seen all thenetworking involved with things like NSX(VMware’s Software Defined Networking Platform), andmany other operational tools around intelligent operations and automation that can be leveraged against VMware Cloud On AWS.
Also,our robust AWS capability is unrivaled. Especiallyfor customerslookingto bridge to cloud native. If youwant to leveragemore than justVMware Cloud on AWS, includingall of those nativeAWSservices, 91ý’s expertise and experience will ensure you canrealize thosebenefitsin full measure.
Customers who would like to refactor and re-platform their apps into the cloud native services that partners like AWS provide, but don’t necessarily have the skills or time to do it immediately, can leverage VMware Cloud on AWS – without having to learn any new operational skills or application development skills. This also adds the benefit of not having to run both an on-premises environment and a cloud environment at the same time. By being to operate out of the data center quickly, they can get rid of the data center expenses while maintaining their familiarity with operational and application toolsets – which is obviously a big win-win.