Recently, VCE announced a new VCE Integrated Solution for Cloud Management that delivers pre-integrated, pre-tested and pre-validated cloud management software on Vblock Systems. VCE Integrated Solution for Cloud Management with VMware includes the VMware vRealize Suite cloud management platform to accelerate POC and cloud deployments.
This is a great pre-integrated solution that multiplies the fast time to value benefits of converged infrastructure. But based on my experience with VMware customers who experience the power of Infrastructure as a service, they get a taste and then want more than IaaS.
If you are like them, you will want to provision app stacks in addition to infrastructure resources. You will want to optimize application service quality, not just infrastructure uptime. And you will want automated service costing and showback to give cloud tenants full visibility into the cost of Vblock services they are consuming. And, you will want to have the option to extend your private cloud with public cloud services now or in the future.
VMware vRealize™ Suite is purpose-built for the hybrid cloud. As part of a VCE integrated solution, it can quickly deliver and manage both infrastructure and application services on Vblock or in the public cloud. It is optimized for VMware vSphere®, but works with other hypervisor platforms such as Microsoft HyperV, as well as external clouds such as VMware vCloud® Air™ and Amazon Web Services, as well as those based on OpenStack.
With a hybrid cloud management solution you will get maximum flexibility and return on your Vblock investment. This new integrated cloud management platform offers four powerful capabilities.
Automation – delivers infrastructure and application services both on VCE Block-based private cloud and public cloud services with both speed and control, including:
- Automate self-service delivery of infrastructure, application, and custom IT services on both VCE block and public cloud via a single service portal with role-based access.
- Use out-of box easily customizable blueprints for both infrastructure configurations, as well as application stacks.
- Deploy blueprint-base services governed by policies related to cost profiles, resource reservations, resource limits and service level requirements.
Operations – optimize infrastructure and application service quality in VCE and public cloud environments with integrated capacity, performance, log, and configuration management, including:
- Gain comprehensive visibility from application to all VCE converged infrastructure resources with OOTB and customizable dashboards and reports.
- Proactively identify and resolve emerging performance, capacity and configuration issues based on predictive analytics and machine learning.
- Utilize smart alerts and recommended action, with push button automated resolution to put power at administrators finger tips to fix issues before they impact users.
Business Management – align IT spending with business priorities by getting full transparency of service cost and quality, including:
- Automatically calculate fully loaded VCE Vblock cloud service delivery costs for any application and infrastructure blueprint including infrastructure costs based on where it is deployed.
- Show cost and service quality in the service request portal, and also track and analyze demand and usage patterns as well as show back or charge back costs.
- Compare internal VCE Vblock cloud costs to similarly configured public cloud services, and benchmark with other IT organizations.
Unified Management – leverages a common set of cloud management tools for VCE Vblock and public clouds with a simplified management experience and fast time to value. The Unified Management approach allows you to:
- Give a single admin the power to identify and address issues across converged compute, network and storage functions.
- Use a single management stack for Vblock resource management as well as application stacks and cloud environments.
- Leverage OOTB integrations with major public cloud vendors such as vCloud Air as well as all vCloud service providers, Amazon Web Services, Savvis, and other providers.
I’m convinced that VMware offers the best cloud management option for deploying and managing a hybrid cloud. But you would expect that since I work for VMware. So don’t take my word for it!
- IDC named VMware the leading cloud systems management software vendor with 20% marketshare based on 2013 software revenues.
- IDC determined that VMware is the leader in Worldwide Datacenter Automation Software 2013 Vendor Shares with 25% marketshare based on 2013 software revenues.
- According to a 451 Research CloudScape report on Cloud Management and Automation, IT practitioners selected VMware as the leading vendor in four of six categories measured in the report including Self-Service Catalog, Unified Cloud Management Console, Cloud Governance, and Metering/Billing. (November 2013)
If you are considering a private or hybrid cloud solution, consider Vblock with VCE Integrated Solution for Cloud Management with VMware.
