Enabling IT Modernization with VMware Cloud on AWS

The benefits unlocked by VMC on AWS can have significant impacts on your organization…including the impressive performance of a VMware environment sitting on top of the AWS backbone.

VMware Cloud on AWS is unique in bridging this gap, as it utilizes the same skill sets many organizations have in-house to manage their existing VMware environments. Sure, there are considerations when migrating, but ultimately the biggest change in moving to VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS is the underlying location of the software defined data center (SDDC) within vCenter. The benefits unlocked by VMC on AWS can have significant impacts on your organization – eliminating the need to worry about the security and maintenance of physical infrastructure (and the associated hands on hardware to address device failure) as well as the impressive performance of a VMware environment sitting on top of the AWS backbone.

Technology That Suits Your Needs

Full and partial data center evacuations are becoming increasingly common and, while there are instances of repatriation (organizations moving workloads from the cloud back to the data center), the majority of organizations are sticking with “cloud-first” policies to gain and maintain business agility. Sometimes, however, even a company that’s begun their IT modernization efforts may still have systems and applications hosted on-premises or in a data center.

This may seem to indicate some hesitance to fully adopt the cloud, but it’s usually due to long-term strategy, technical barriers to native cloud adoption, or misconceptions about cloud security and compliance requirements. It’s rare to find an organization that isn’t loaded with technical debt, fully committed to specific software, tied to lengthy data center commitments – or all of the above.

Mission-critical legacy applications may not be compatible with the cloud, and organizations lack the resources or expertise to refactor those applications so that they can properly function in a native cloud environment. Or perhaps there’s a long-term digital strategy to eventually move all systems and applications to the cloud but, in the meantime, they’re still leashed to the data center. Scenarios like these, and many more, are ideal for VMware Cloud on AWS, which allows organizations to easily migrate legacy VMware workloads with minimal refactoring or rearchitecting, or extend their existing data center systems to the cloud.

New, But Familiar

VMware Cloud on AWS was developed in collaboration between VMware, a pioneer and global leader in server virtualization, and AWS, the leading public cloud provider, to seamlessly extend on-premises vSphere environments to SDDCs built on AWS. VMC on AWS makes it easier for organizations to begin or expand their public cloud adoption by enabling lift and shift migration capabilities for applications running in the data center or on-premises VMware environments.

VMC on AWS also has a relatively minimal learning curve for in-house operations staff because, despite being hosted on AWS, it’s still VMware vSphere at its core and the environments are managed using the vCenter management console. This familiar toolset allows IT teams to begin utilizing the cloud without any major workforce retraining and upskilling initiatives because they can still use VMware’s suite of server virtualization and management tools.

The Right Tools for the Job

The vSphere suite of server virtualization products and vCenter management console may be familiar, but they’re far from outdated or limited. VMware continues to invest in the future, strengthening its cloud and virtualization portfolio by enhancing their existing offerings and developing additional services and tools to further enable IT modernization and data center evacuations.

These efforts mean we can expect VMware to continue playing a major role in helping organizations achieve and maintain agility by ensuring secure workload mobility across platforms, from public cloud to private cloud to hardware.

Cloud adoption doesn’t happen overnight, and organizations have to ensure disparate technologies mesh well.

HCX, which essentially consists of a series of integrations that establish connectivity across systems and platforms and allows workloads to be migrated without any code or configuration changes, is regularly updated to enhance its functionality. VMware HCX can be used to perform live migrations using vMotion and bulk migration for up to 100 VMs at a time. VMware HCX can also provide a secure, accelerated network extension which, beyond providing a seamless migration experience and minimizing operational impacts usually associated with migrating workloads, helps improve the environment’s resiliency through workload rebalancing. This same functionality plays a critical role in disaster recovery and business continuity by replicating data across multiple locations.

A Thoughtful Approach to Modernization

Whether an organization is prioritizing the optimization of spend, revenue growth, streamlining operations, or revitalizing and engaging their workforce, a mature and robust digital strategy should be at the heart of the “how.” Cloud adoption will not solve these business challenges on its own – that requires forethought, planning, and expertise.

It can be challenging to make the right determinations about what’s best for your own unique business needs without a clear understanding of those needs. And for organizations still relying on old school hardware-based systems, the decision to remain with on-premises deployments, move to the cloud, or lift and shift to a platform like VMC on AWS requires a comprehensive assessment of their applications, hardware, and any existing data center/real estate commitments.

Internal teams may not have the specific technical expertise, experience, or availability to develop suitable digital strategies or perform effective assessments, especially as they focus on their primary day to day responsibilities. As an AWS Premier Consulting Partner with the VMware Master Services Competency in VMware Cloud on AWS, Effectual has established its expertise in VMware Cloud on AWS, making us an ideal partner to help ease that burden.

Cloud adoption doesn’t happen overnight, and organizations have to ensure disparate technologies, which may be at very different stages of their respective lifecycles, mesh well. They need to develop an appropriate modernization strategy and determine the best fit for each application and workload. The right partner can play a critical role in successfully overcoming these challenges.