VMware Cloud

VMware: A Cloud Company

With VMworld US 2018 complete and the information coma subsiding, I felt it was best to write this blog based upon months of thought and meditation focusing on the word… cloud. Through this blog, I will be using screenshots from VMworld US 2018 keynote presentations to describe the VMware “cloud” vision.

VMware is not running away from the cloud, but embracing it.

VMware is a leader in digital transformation, with efforts focused across multiple areas such as cloud, mobility, edge, blockchain and, most importantly, humanitarian causes.

This blog will define terms used throughout the VMware strategy to ensure we are all on the same page. In future blogs, I will dig further into VMware multi cloud and native public cloud strategy.

Multiple Paths to the Cloud

Many organizations are heading for the cloud, but the directions from which they come are very different.

From on-premises to public cloud

The goal for infrastructure is to deliver the simplest path to the hybrid cloud by leveraging a common infrastructure and consistent operational model, connecting existing private clouds with native public clouds that are fully compatible, stretched and distributed.

Directly to the public cloud

The goal is for lines of business and developers to consume public cloud services that drive speed and agility. I speak with many organizations and the common theme is utilizing best-of-breed services from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Think Amazon EC2 for workloads, Azure for Business Intelligence and Google Cloud for Analytics and Machine Learning services.

Multi-Cloud Journey

Two Approaches: Same Destination

 

Hybrid Cloud

Leveraging the foundation of VMware, including but not limited too vSphere, vRealize, NSX and vSAN. Traditionally, hybrid cloud solutions are purchased via Enterprise license agreements as perpetual licenses.

Cloud Native

Leveraging the benefits of native public cloud, cloud native, DevOps principles. Many believe this to be running workloads on Native AWS, Azure, Google without having an on-premises data center or any VMware solutions required. One of the core values of Cloud Native is the consumption of software, services and solutions in a SaaS or Software as a Services model.

While some may not see VMware as Cloud Native, I will discuss why this is not really the case later in this blog and subsequent posts.

During the keynote on day one of VMworld US, CEO Pat Gelsinger mentioned that he plans on swiping Michael Dell’s credit card to spin up 100,000 workloads in native AWS.

Enjoy for yourself below:

Hybrid Cloud

Three Parts: Same (VMware Cloud) Foundation

VMware has been on this journey for over 20 years and we continue to expand the portfolio. Think of SDDC: Software Defined, now Self Driving.

The hybrid cloud consists of VMware solutions across:

  • Private Cloud — vSphere based (on-premises) data center infrastructure
  • Public Cloud — VMware Cloud on AWS (VMWonAWS) and over 4,500 VMware Cloud Provider Partners including AliCloud. Read more here. And let’s not forget our friends at IBM Cloud.
  • Edge — The proliferation of IoT devices is astounding. VMware announced Project Dimension to bring the simplicity of VMWonAWS and on-premises private clouds to the Edge. Read the blog from CTO Kit Colbert about this exciting new offering.

VMware Cloud Foundation is what makes all of this possible.

  • Compute — vSphere
  • Storage — vSAN
  • Network — NSX + vRealize Network Insight
  • Management — vRealize Suite (vRealize Operations, vRealize Automation and Log Insight)Check out some of the benefits of VMware Cloud Foundation from some of our customers.

    Native Cloud

    The rise of cloud computing over the past decade has been phenomenal. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are the three major vendors that come to mind. While VMware may not be the native cloud provider, customers are already seeing the benefits of the VMware Cloud Services in a cloud native and multi cloud world. VMware Cloud Services is a SaaS offering to manage your entire app portfolio across hybrid and native public clouds.

    Cloud Native Adoption

    VMware continues to listen to developers and lines of business by making investments in areas that are important to them. Think about the contributions to Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) efforts like Project Harbor.

    There are two methods to consume cloud native solutions:

    Hybrid Cloud — Delivering cloud native solutions from SDDC, VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware Cloud Provider Partners to the Native Public Cloud

    VMware Pivotal Container Service (PKS) is a purpose-built product that enables enterprises and service providers to simplify the deployment and operations of Kubernetes clusters. It provides a production-grade Kubernetes distribution with deep NSX-T integration for advanced networking, a built-in private registry with enterprise security features and full life cycle management support of the clusters.

    PKS is built to support multi-cloud environments through BOSH, an open source project in the Cloud Foundry Foundation. PKS runs on vSphere and Google Cloud Platform.

    Native (Public) Cloud — Leveraging Cloud Native solutions from Public Clouds including SaaS offerings from VMware.

    VMware Cloud PKS is an enterprise Kubernetes-as-a-Service offering in the VMware Cloud Services portfolio that provides easy to use, secure by default and cost-effective Kubernetes for modern application development.

    VMware Cloud PKS runs natively on AWS today with support for Azure expected in the future. Unlike other public cloud Kubernetes offerings, VMware Cloud PKS is multi-cloud ready.

    I understand that there is more to cloud native than Kubernetes, but they can not be covered in a single blog.

    Stay tuned for the next installment in the blog series called, ‘It’s a multi-cloud life for us’.

    Here I will lexplore common scenarios I am seeing in customer environments and how VMware Cloud Services provides solutions to the ever-changing cloud.

Related Articles