VMware has held it’s first ever VMware Cloud Briefing today. This is an online, global event with an agenda featuring a keynote from Pat Gelsinger, new announcements and demos relating to VMware Cloud as well as discussions on cloud trends and market momentum. Key to the messaging is the fact that applications are driving cloud initiatives weather that be via delivering new SaaS or cloud applications as well as extending networks beyond traditional barriers while modernizing the datacenter.

The VMware Cloud is looking like a complete vision at this point and the graphic below highlights that fact. There are multiple partners offering VMware based Cloud Infrastructure along with the Public Cloud and SaaS providers. On top of that, VMware now talks about a complete cloud management layer underpinned by vSphere and NSX technologies.

VMware Cloud on AWS Updates:

The big news on the VMware Cloud on AWS front is that there is a new UK based service offering and continued expansion into Germany. This will extend into the APAC region later in the year.

VMware Cloud on AWS will also have support for stretch clusters using the same vSAN and NSX technologies used on-premises on top of the underlying AWS compute and networking platform. This looks to extend application uptime across AWS Availability Zones within AWS regions.

This will feature

  • Zero RPO high Availability across AZs
  • Built into the infrastructure layer with synchronous replication
  • Stretched Cluster with common logical networks with vSphere HA/DRS
  • If an AZ goes down it’s treated as a HA event and impacted VMs brought back in other AZ

They are also adding vSAN Compression and Deduplication for VMware Cloud on AWS services which in theory will save 40% in storage.

VMware Cloud Services Updates:

Hybrid Cloud Extension HCX (first announced at VMworld last year) has a new on-premises offering and is expanding availability through VMware Cloud Provider Partners. This included VMware Cloud on AWS, IBM Cloud and OVH. The promise here is an any-to-any vSphere migration that cross version while being still secure. We are talking about Hybridity here!

Log Intelligence is an interesting one…it looks like Log Insight delivered as a SaaS application. It is a real-time big data log management platform for VMware Cloud on AWS adding real-time visibility into infrastructure and application logs for faster troubleshooting. It support any SYSLOG source and will ingest over the internet in theory.

Cost Insight is an assessment tool for private cloud to VMware Cloud on AWS Migration. It calculates VMware Cloud on AWS capacity required to migrate from on-premises to VMC. It has integration with Network insight to calculate networking costs during migration as well.

Finally there is an update to Wavefront that expands inputs and integrations to enhance visibility and monitoring. There are 45 new integrations, monitoring of native AWS services and integration into vRealize Operations.

You can watch the whole event here.