VMware Cloud on AWS

VMware Cloud on AWS: What’s New at VMware Explore Las Vegas 2023

VMware Cloud on AWS: What’s New at VMware Explore Las Vegas 2023

Hello, hello from the fabulous city of lights-Las Vegas! We are super excited to be back in Las Vegas this year for VMware Explore 2023. And , as you’ve come to expect, we are bringing tons of innovations in VMware Cloud on AWS that will help you accelerate your cloud transformation journey.

In this blog, I will talk about all these key announcements for VMware Cloud on AWS. But before we dive deep into the key announcements for VMware Cloud on AWS, please secure your spot and register for my session CEIB2530LV where we will share all the details about these announcements. Also check out my blog on VMware Cloud on AWS presence at VMware Explore 2023 and schedule VMware Cloud on AWS sessions on your agenda if you have not done so. And that’s not all. Please register for VMware Cloud on AWS customer and partner reception happening tonight 7-9 PM PST and be part of lots of fun activities we have planned.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about – What’s New in VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud, please check out this blog.

Now let’s check out the Top 5 announcements for VMware Cloud on AWS:

VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced subscription tier: We are excited to announce a new subscription tier- VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced. With this subscription tier, customers can make cloud management more efficient with enterprise cloud management capabilities of VMware Aria products – all included in the base VMware Cloud on AWS service out of the box. In summary, the key enterprise capabilities newly added to the VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced subscription tier are:

  • VMware Aria Automation: Modern, self-service infrastructure automation to streamline IT processes and deliver a DevOps-ready automation platform.
  • VMware Aria Operations: AI-powered operations management to optimize performance and improve efficiency.
  • VMware Aria Operations for Logs: Faster troubleshooting with deep operational visibility and intelligent log analytics.
  • VMware Tanzu Transformer (formerly VMware Aria Migration)-30-day free trial: A migration assessment tool for migrating workloads from on-premises to VMware Cloud on AWS.

Learn more

Please note:

  • VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced subscription tier is available on i3en.metal and i4i.metal instance types only.
  • All new deployments (new SDDCs) of VMware Cloud on AWS- i3en.metal/i4i.metal host types now include advanced cloud management features available in VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced tier
  • Existing deployments (existing SDDCs) will be entitled to these advanced cloud management features over time.
  • The pricing for VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced subscription tier is same as previously offered VMware Cloud on AWS subscription pricing.
  • For any further questions, please reach out to your VMware sales representative.

Enhancements in Networking:

  • Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Controller

VMware Advanced Load Balancer Cloud(ALB) Controller is a native and managed load balancing service that brings application awareness to VMware Cloud™ on AWS by mapping applications to the underlying infrastructure, including networks and servers. The NSX ALB can load balance applications deployed across hybrid cloud with operational consistency and simplicity. Cloud admins can readily access application health scores, end-to-end latency, and traffic patterns with an intuitive UI and deploy applications in minutes. It will eliminate blame game among network, server, and application teams with holistic end to end visibility and analytics for troubleshooting problems.  This will also simplify day 0 to day 2 operations, including controller installation, configuration, upgrades, disaster recovery, and autoscaling, so IT teams can focus on applications. 

Benefits

  • Native load balancer for VMware Cloud on AWS for faster deployment and better compliance 
  • Holistic application visibility and faster troubleshooting
  • Shift of focus from infrastructure management to application availability with managed services
  • Brings application awareness to the underlying cloud infrastructure with simple GUI

Enhancements in Storage

  • vSAN Express Storage Architecture: VMware Cloud on AWS is introducing vSAN Express Storage Architecture that delivers enterprise-grade performance without tradeoff and optimizes storage to reduce cost per capacity. With the launch of vSAN Express Storage Architecture, VMware Cloud on AWS will offer the industry’s first single-tier HCI storage solution, that delivers optimized performance, supreme efficiency, high resiliency, and agile operations with next-generation storage devices. vSAN Express Storage Architecture is designed to optimally leverage high-performance storage devices, providing up to 4x performance boosts*. Advanced compression algorithms enable up to 4x better compression*, furthering storage efficiency and contributing to a TCO reduction of up to 40%*. vSAN Express Storage Architecture features scalable, native snapshots for improved backups, and a storage pool architecture that reduces fault domains and improves data availability. (*Based on VMware internal analysis, August 2022)

Key use cases:

  1. Mission-critical, performance-oriented workloads, such as OLTP workloads: Due to the combination of high-performance devices, improved compression, and lack of deduplication in vSAN, Express Storage Architecture best meets the requirements of mission-critical, performance-oriented workloads, such as OLTP workloads.
  2. Edge workloads: These workloads can take advantage of vSAN Express Storage Architecture’s single tier of storage to fit more capacity into a smaller footprint and still support a variety of workloads including mission-critical workloads.

Please note: vSAN Express Storage Architecture will be available on i4i.metal host type only.

  • VPC Peering for external storage: With this capability, customers will be able to route traffic between two Virtual Private Clouds (VPC). VPC Peering allows a direct connection between two VPCs to allow traffic to pass without the need to traverse a routed connection like Transit Gateway. The NFS Datastore connection bypasses NSX and is between ESXi and the NFS Storage. With the release of VPC Peering support, customers can take full advantage of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP without incurring the additional cost of Transit Gateway data processing fees. This in turn will allow customers to reduce costs further. Learn more

Disaster and Ransomware Recovery

  • Ransomware Recovery and Disaster Recovery Innovations: VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery offers on-demand disaster recovery to IT administrators responsible for IT infrastructure and services resiliency, delivered as an easy-to-use SaaS solution with cloud economics. VMware Ransomware Recovery provides a purpose-built ransomware recovery-as-a-service solution to help organizations recover from ransomware attacks with confidence and agility, featuring an automated ransomware recovery workflow and intrinsic security through embedded scanning of recovery points. New enhancements include:
    • Multi-VM Ransomware Recovery in VMware Ransomware Recovery: Inspect, curate and recover up to 50 VMs concurrently for faster recovery and minimized downtime.
    • Protect Google Cloud VMware Engine and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts workloads (source): VMware Cloud DR now protects Google Cloud VMware Engine (Generally Available) and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts (Tech Preview) workloads. Thus, customers can now protect their workloads running in different clouds against ransomware attacks and other disasters, and restore those workloads back to the original site once recovery operations have been completed.
    • Cybersecure storage: Integration of VMware Ransomware Recovery workflow with native vSAN snapshots to deliver accelerated recovery through delta-based transfer optimizations.
    • Run production VMs in the Cloud: Run production VMs in the recovery SDDC until on-premises site is fortified and forensics are completed.

For all other latest innovations on VMware Ransomware Recovery and VMware Cloud DR, please check out this blog.

VMware Tanzu Transformer (formerly VMware Aria Migration)- Free 30-day Trial: With this capability, customers will be able to create a readiness assessment for moving to VMware Cloud on AWS using VMware Tanzu Transformer. With VMware Tanzu Transformer, customers can understand the TCO impact, use machine learning to reduce the time and effort required to scope a migration that groups VMs into applications and use the cost-benefit analysis of VMware Cloud on AWS compared to running the application on-premises to justify the migration. They can quickly receive migration assessments for workloads up to 2,000 VMs based on an inventory-based evaluation from your vCenter(s) using application discovery. Now customers can try VMware Tanzu Transformer for FREE for 30 days. Sign up for Free Trial, Learn more about VMware Tanzu Transformer

Here are some enhancements planned in VMware Tanzu Transformer:

  • Planning and Migration Wave Creation
  • Network cost for planning VMware Cloud on AWS and on-premises

Apart from these key announcements, there are bunch of other features and capabilities that we expect to release this quarter. Now let’s look at these below

Enhancements to enterprise workload support:

  • Expanding regional availability: Availability in AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad): VMware Cloud on AWS will be available in AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) towards the end of VMware’s Q3 of fiscal 2024. This will further improve reach for our global and regional customers. With 2 regions in India (Mumbai and Hyderabad), Indian customers will have greater control, better resiliency and availability, and local governance of their data so that they can run their mission critical workloads that have data sovereignty requirements locally while taking advantage of the flexibility, scalability, and increased security of the AWS cloud. With this new regional availability, this service will become available across 26 AWS regions globally.
  • Compliance certifications: We continue to accelerate our customers’ migration to the cloud by addressing specific regional compliance requirements. Here are some of the latest certifications we have achieved:
  • C5 (Germany): VMware Cloud on AWS has achieved the German Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5) certification. C5 is a cloud security certification prescribed by the German Federal Office of Information Security (BSI). The certification is based on some of the leading international standards such as ISO27001/17/18, AICPA SOC2, Cloud Security Alliance ANSSI Référentiel Secure Cloud 2.0, IDW and BSI IT-Grundschutz Catalogues.
  • TISAX (Germany): VMware has achieved TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) certification. TISAX, widely recognized in the automotive sector, provides a standardized benchmark for information security, and VMware’s accomplishment underscores its dedication to fostering trust and reliability in its solutions and services. This esteemed recognition reaffirms VMware’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of data protection and security for its clients, especially within the automotive industry.
  • CLOUD Act Whitepaper: To provide clarity and guidance for its customers around data sovereignty and compliance, VMware Cloud on AWS has recently published a whitepaper on the CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act). This comprehensive document demystifies the implications of the CLOUD Act for enterprises operating across borders, especially those leveraging cloud services. VMware’s proactive approach in explaining this legislation reinforces its commitment to transparency, trust, and enabling its customers to be well-informed on pivotal data governance issues.
  • RBI Master Direction on Outsourcing Whitepaper: VMware Cloud on AWS has released a whitepaper addressing the Reserve Bank of India’s Master Direction on Outsourcing. Recognizing the complexities and challenges that businesses face when navigating the financial regulations in India, this insightful document aims to provide a resource for organizations regarding meeting RBI guidelines when using VMware Cloud on AWS.

Enhancements in compute:

  • Enhancements in compute:
    • The Amazon EC2 I4i.metal instance – Expanding regional availability:  i4i.metal is now available in AWS Asia Pacific (Melbourne) and AWS Europe (Zurich), making it available across 23 regions globally. Learn more about i4i.metal instance type in this blog.

Enhancements in availability and resiliency:

  • Enhancements to VMware Site Recovery: VMware Site Recovery™ for VMware Cloud on AWS simplifies traditional disaster recovery and delivers a high-performance service. The service automates workload recovery in a disaster recovery (DR) event between on-premises data centers and VMware Cloud on AWS, as well as between different instances of VMware Cloud on AWS. Built on top of enterprise-grade DR tools (VMware Site Recovery Manager, vSphere Replication) and global cloud infrastructure (AWS), the service provides an end-to-end disaster recovery solution that is quick to deploy and leverages existing know-how.

New enhancements include:

  • VMware Site Recovery support for vSAN Express Storage Architecture: Introducing VMware Site recovery support for VMware Cloud on AWS with vSAN Express Storage Architecture that will deliver enterprise-grade performance without tradeoff and optimize storage to reduce cost per capacity. With the launch of vSAN Express Storage Architecture, VMware Site Recovery will offer optimized performance, with high resiliency for disaster recovery needs.
  • Expanding regional availability: VMware Site Recovery will support the AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) region towards the end of VMware’s Q3’ of fiscal 2024. VMware Site Recovery will then become available in 26 Global AWS Regions.
  • Recovery plan queuing support for more than 10 recovery plans: With the enhanced recovery plan queuing option, as the recovery plans complete, additional ones in the queue will be automatically executed in sequence to a maximum of 10 concurrent plans.  This provides greater flexibility so that a DR test can be enabled by an application team, for example, to conduct their DR test when need and not be tied to a companywide test.
  • Expose DR REST APIs through a VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator plugin: Introducing the end-to-end support of REST APIs through VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator.  Customers will benefit by automating manual workflows using the VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator REST API plugins to monitor, protect, manage appliances and execute protection plans.

Enhancements in sizing, commerce, and pricing options:

  • New VMware Cloud on AWS Promotions: Low cost starter pricing promotion is now extended till Jan 31st, 2024. Here are the existing promotions for VMware Cloud on AWS:
    • 20% List Price reduction on i3en.metal hosts runs through October 4, 2023.
    • Low-cost starter pricing for 2 &3 i3en.metal and i4i.metal hosts extended untill Jan. 31st, 2024.

Please check out this blog to learn more about these promotions.

  • VMware Cloud Sizer enhancements:
  • Support for cluster conversion estimation in VMware Cloud Sizer, a self-service tool for customers to get the target cluster estimation to plan the current cluster conversion, e.g., i3.metal to i4i.metal
  • Support for VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced software edition sizing with software cores-based recommendation.
  • Enable vSAN Express Storage Architecture sizing for i4i.metal instance type
  • External storage (Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and VMware Cloud Flex Storage) sizing support in advanced manual mode.
  • Support for importing and processing VMware Aria operations data for VMware Cloud Sizing.

Improvements in migration capabilities

  • VMware HCX Enhancements:

VMware HCX 4.7: With latest release of VMware HCX 4.7, lot of enhancements have been made to address new requirements, stabilize the current feature set and provide additional security. Some of these enhancements include:

  • Workload Migration for NSX V2T in Federated NSX Environments: VMware HCX Workload Migration for NSX V2T now includes Federated NSX architectures. For V2T workload migrations on Federated NSX environments, you must configure the HCX Cloud Manager UI (:9443) with the location of Global Manager that is running V2T Migration Coordinator, under the NSX Migration Coordinator section. For more information, refer to Understanding Workload Migration for NSX V2T. Note: HCX Network Extension does not support NSX-T Global Federation configurations.
  • Interoperability Enhancements: Interoperability with VMware vSphere 8.0 Update 1, VMware NSX 3.2.3 and NSX 4.1.1
  • vSAN 8 Express Storage Architecture (ESA): VMware HCX is now interoperable with VMware vSAN 8 ESA, which is an alternative vSAN architecture for high-performance storage devices.

For more details about all features included in VMware HCX 4.7 version, please check out this blog

Enhancements to advanced cloud management:

  • VMware Aria Operations for Networks: VMware Aria Operations for Networks is a solution for end-to-end network visibility, troubleshooting, and analytics that enables application discovery to enable migrations, optimizes network performance with troubleshooting capabilities, and manages the scaling of VMware Cloud on AWS deployments. Key feature enhancements include:
  • HCX Troubleshooting Enhancements: Improved VMware HCX troubleshooting enhancements to identify MON (Mobility Optimized Networking) enabled flows and VMs with ease.
  • CSV upload support with Flow Based Application Discovery: Flow Based Application Discovery now supports CSV upload for customers who have CMDB’s such as ServiceNow which provide an optional starting point for application discovery. Flow Based Application Discovery utilizes machine learning to map out application boundaries by grouping relevant VMs together.
  • VMware Aria Operations for Logs: It delivers centralized log management, deep operational visibility, and intelligent analytics across your VMware SDDC software stack running in VMware Cloud on AWS. Some of the new enhancements are:
  • Federated Queries: A Comprehensive Search Experience for Logs Across On-Premises Clusters and SaaS Instance in a single pane of glass
  • Native integration with VMware Aria Operations receiving log information so now cross launch is not required
  • Scheduled Reports: configure and receive periodic dashboard reports through email
  • Ingestion Limit Notifications: proactively monitor log ingestion volume and send notifications when approaching thresholds
  • Usage Reports: gain visibility into top log-generating sources and drop irrelevant log messages for cost savings
  • Public APIs for better integration and automation across 3rd party (SaaS)

To view the latest status of features and release updates for VMware Cloud on AWS, visit: https://www.vmware.com/products/vmc-on-aws.html. And refer to the release notes VMware Cloud on AWS release notes.

The following capabilities are available today: Compliance certifications, i4i.metal in Melbourne, Multi-VM Ransomware Recovery in VMware Ransomware Recovery, Protect Google Cloud VMware Engine workloads (source), Low-cost starter kit promotion extension, VMware HCX 4.7, VMware Tanzu Transformer: (Free 30-days Trial)

The following capabilities are in Preview today: Protect VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts workloads (source), Cybersecure storage

The following capabilities/offerings are expected to be available in VMware’s Q3’ of fiscal 2024: VMware Cloud on AWS: Advanced subscription tier, Availability in AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad), Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Controller, vSAN Express Storage Architecture, VPC Peering for external storage, VMware Site Recovery enhancements, VCDR and Ransomware Recovery: Run production VMs in the Cloud, VMware Cloud Sizer enhancements, VMware Aria Operations for Networks enhancements, VMware Aria Operations for Logs

For more information related to VMware Cloud on AWS, here are some more learning resources for you:

Disclaimer: VMware makes no guarantee that services announced in preview will become available at a future date. The information in this blog is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into any contract. This article may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites.

Sonali Desai

Sonali Desai is part of a Product Marketing team for VMware Cloud Foundation at VMware by Broadcom, Inc. Sonali has been working in IT industry for more than 15 years…

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