VMware Cloud Marketplace has rolled out updates to the VMware Cloud Director integration, making it easier for cloud providers to elevate their IaaS offering to application PaaS, deliver a more modern user experience, and serve developers who want out-of-the-box applications. Read on to learn about the updates.
Over the past two months, VMware Cloud Marketplace has rolled out significant updates to the VMware Cloud Director (VCD) integration that greatly benefit our cloud provider partners and their tenants.
VMware Cloud Providers can use VCD to invest in VMware infrastructure on a monthly subscription basis, driving the success of public and hybrid clouds. The program consists of VMware software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, including VCD, and our global ecosystem of 4,200+ cloud provider partners. Becoming a VMware Cloud Provider is ideal for companies that offer hosted services to third parties, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers, cloud service providers (CSPs), application service providers (ASPs), Internet service providers (ISPs), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers.
In the sections below, we highlight major updates from VMware Cloud Marketplace that enhance the user experience of the VMware Cloud Director integration.
New in VCD 10.1: App Launchpad
In April 2020, the VMware Cloud Director team released VCD 10.1, which includes a critical new service called App Launchpad. This new service enables cloud providers to offer a curated set of ISV applications from VMware Cloud Marketplace and in-house VM applications to their tenants. Moreover, cloud providers can also offer the Bitnami Community Catalog (BCC) of open-source solutions to tenants via App Launchpad.
The deep integration between App Launchpad and VMware Cloud Marketplace empowers cloud providers to:
- Serve developers who want out-of-the-box, continuously updated applications
- Elevate their offering from IaaS to application-platform-as-a-service
- Add value to their existing services through a modern user experience
In essence, App Launchpad pulls third-party and open-source applications from VMware Cloud Marketplace and abstracts the vApp creation process (e.g. infrastructure provisioning, network attachment) from the tenant. The result is a clean, easy-to-use and modern ecosystem experience for cloud providers and their tenants.
To watch our introduction video, click here.
Logging in as a provider in VCD
We recently introduced a core update that allows cloud providers to subscribe solutions into their provider catalogs via VMware Cloud Marketplace. Cloud providers can now log in as “System Administrator” during the subscription flow. It provides great value because now an SP (service provider) can create a single catalog for all its tenants. It provides great value because now, an SP (service provider) can create a single catalog for all its tenants, while tenants will not have to go through an individual catalog creation process.
Figure 1: Provider Login during VCD Deployment
Supporting multiple catalogs – VCD integration
The VMware Cloud Marketplace now provides the flexibility to create and manage multiple catalogs within a single account. Previously, users were restricted to a single catalog per Marketplace account. Now, users can create and manage multiple catalogs while subscribing to a solution.
Figure 2: Multiple Catalog Support during VCD Deployment
Update Manager for VCD
The VMware Cloud Marketplace recently introduced the Update Manager feature for VMware Cloud Director deployments. Users can utilize this feature to effectively manage and automate the lifecycle of a solution subscription.
During the subscription flow, the Marketplace user can select the ‘Auto update’ option, which will enable Marketplace to directly and automatically push the solution’s new version template into the chosen content library as a separate subscription. Moreover, the user can select the number of versions that they would like to be pushed. For example, if the user selects five versions, then the latest five versions of the solution will be pushed automatically to the content library as separate subscriptions.
Importantly, this auto-update feature is also available when the user selects the “Multi-selection” option to deploy multiple solutions at once.
Figure 3: Auto-update – Single Solution
Figure 4: Auto-update – Multiple Solutions
A user can disable auto-update flow-in for any template in their VCD catalog, which will stop automated push of the templates in that VCD catalog.
If a user does not wish to automatically push new versions to the content library, they can opt to use the manual update workflow. In this flow, the user signs up for real-time notifications on the subscription through the Notifications tab, selecting the chosen channel (Slack, webhook, email). Once the notification is received, the user can manually update the solution from the subscription management tab.
Figure 5: Manual Update
The Update Manager feature is currently available for VCD deployments. We’re looking to roll out the feature for VMware Cloud on AWS and on-premises deployments in the near future.
Note: In order to utilize the deployment capabilities from the Marketplace to VMware Cloud Director, be sure to pre-configure your settings as shown below. The subscription process will not be completed without these pre-configuration settings.
Next Steps
- Visit VMware Cloud Marketplace to try out these new features
- Read our VMware Cloud Provider Blog on the App Launchpad feature
- Browse a recent technical blog on App Launchpad
- Contact us for any further questions
