By: Mathew Lodge
Today, VMware introduced vCloud Connector 2.0, the latest version of our tool for reliably and efficiently transferring virtual machines and data between vClouds. VMware’s vCloud platform is unique in that deploying applications and data to any cloud is a core capability. Rather than building an application so it can run in just one cloud, your application can run without changes in any vCloud, whether your own, or from one of our 160+ vCloud service providers.
vCloud Connector is the tool that simplifies the movement and management of applications and data between clouds. In version 2.0, we have made that process even simpler:
- One network: move your application between clouds while retaining the same IP and Ethernet MAC address. Customers often told us that reconfiguring DNS and other network services and devices was time-consuming and error-prone. By using VXLAN to extend your Ethernet network into the public cloud, vCloud Connector can move the application without requiring DNS or other network reconfiguration – a great example of the power of software-defined networking.
- One catalog: vCloud Connector can now automatically synchronize catalogs of virtual machines and applications (vApps) across clouds using a publish-and-subscribe mechanism. This is often used in software development and testing to automatically distribute the latest version of an application, for example. For customers with many applications and multiple clouds, this eliminates tedious and time-consuming manual catalog management.
- One cloud: deployment of vCloud connector is now simpler and faster in multi-tenant clouds. The vCloud Connector node, which handles the transfers, can now be deployed once to manage all tenants in a cloud – in the previous version one node per tenant was required. We also improved the user interface and transfer capability based on your feedback.
In vCloud Conector 2.0, two editions will be available – vCloud Connector 2.0 Core (free download) and vCloud Connector 2.0 Advanced (included with VMware vCloud Suites). Here’s a graphic that shows the capabilities of each version:
- Datacenter Extension allows users to transfer workloads across clouds in a way that extends the logical boundaries of the datacenter. Datacenter Extension creates a Layer 2 VPN between private and public vClouds and retains the same IP address while moving workloads between the clouds. This allows the VM to continue to be consumed and managed by users, application and management solutions without any changes as if the VM never left the datacenter.
- Manage a single content catalog across your entire cloud environment with a feature called Content Sync. Content Sync defines a ‘source’ catalog and to which other catalogs can subscribe. When new templates are added or changed in the source, the content will be securely and automatically copied to the subscribers. This allows for distributed teams to coordinate their efforts and ensure that everyone has a single, synchronized workload catalog across the cloud environment.
With features like Datacenter Extension, Content Sync and multi-tenant node support, and an ecosystem of more than 160 service providers, vCloud Connector 2.0 enables cloud consumers to extend the logical boundaries of their datacenters, realizing the potential of hybrid cloud.
vCloud Connector 2.0 Core will be available as a free download and vCloud Connector Advanced will be available as a part of the VMware vCloud Suites later this year.
Learn more about vCloud Connector, the vCloud Suites, or browse the vCloud Service Provider ecosystem. Follow Mathew on Twitter @mathewlodge or follow the team for general updates on vCloud Connector and the vCloud ecosystem @vcloud and @VMwareSP.
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