VMware Cloud Now Available on Amazon Web Services

Expanding its hybrid Cloud strategy, cloud infrastructure and business mobility leader VMware on Monday announced the initial availability of VMware Cloud on the market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS).

VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware's software-defined data centre (SDDC) to the AWS Cloud, allowing customers to run applications across VMware vSphere-based private, public and hybrid Cloud environments, with optimised access to AWS services.

"VMware and AWS are empowering enterprise IT and operations teams to add value to their businesses through the combination of VMware enterprise capabilities and the breadth and depth of capabilities and scale of the AWS Cloud, providing them a platform for any application," Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer, VMware, told reporters here.

The announcement came as part of the 'VMworld' conference here that kicked off on Monday.

VMware unveiled an expanded set of products and services as part of VMware Cloud that are available through the compant and its partners.

The company announced a new VMware Cloud Provider services and partner offerings based on VMware Cloud Foundation and expanded 'VMware NSX' support of networking and security for clouds and cloud-native apps.

'VMware NSX' is the network virtualisation and security platform for the software-defined data centre.

"VMware Cloud on AWS gives customers a seamlessly integrated hybrid cloud that delivers the same architecture, capabilities, and operational experience across both their vSphere-based on-premises environment and AWS," Gelsinger added.

VMware Cloud on AWS removes barriers to Cloud migration and portability, increases IT efficiency and opens up new opportunities for customers to leverage a hybrid Cloud environment.

"With the availability of VMware Cloud on AWS, for the first time, customers can operate a consistent and seamless hybrid IT environment that combines the VMware software they love with the unmatched functionality, security, and operational expertise of the AWS Cloud," said Andy Jassy, Chief Executive Officer, AWS.

VMware Cloud on AWS is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, the unified SDDC platform that integrates vSphere, VMware VSAN, and VMware NSX virtualisation technologies with VMware vCenter management.

Customers can use familiar VMware tools to manage their applications, without having to purchase any new or custom hardware, rewrite applications or modify their operating model.

With VMware Cloud on AWS, customers can leverage AWS's breadth of services, including compute, databases, analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), security, mobile, deployment, application services and more.

"The majority of the world's enterprises have virtualised their data centres with VMware, and now these customers can easily move applications between their on-premises environments and AWS without having to purchase any new hardware, rewrite their applications, or modify their operations," Jassy said,

The service is initially available in the AWS Oregon region and will expand to AWS regions worldwide in 2018.

"The introduction of VMware Cloud on AWS further solidifies VMware's position as a driving force behind the movement to the software-defined data center and the hybrid cloud," said David Goulden, President, Dell EMC.

VMware is an independent entity that is part of the Dell EMC.

According to Bob Black, principal, Cloud Infrastructure and Engineering, hybrid cloud leader, Deloitte Consulting, this is one of the first offerings of its kind.

The world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted Cloud platform, AWS offers over 90 fully featured services for compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, application services and others.

Vmware already has agreements with some of the top public Cloud vendors including Microsoft, Google and IBM.