VMware Cloud on AWS Expanding to AsiaPac (Sidney) Region

VMware, Inc., announced that VMware Cloud on AWS is available in AWS AsiaPac (Sydney) region.

VMware also announced new capabilities that help organizations around the globe to migrate applications and data centers to a secure cloud service that meets enterprise application needs.

VMware Cloud on AWS is an on-demand service that reduces the cost and effort associated with migrating applications to the cloud by delivering infrastructure and operations that are consistent with those deployed within customer data centers, and extending tools, processes, and practices to support the most demanding applications.

VMware Cloud on AWS is delivered, sold, and supported by VMware and its partner community and brings VMware’s enterprise software-defined data center software to the AWS Cloud, enabling customers to run production applications across vSphere-based hybrid cloud environments, with optimized access to the breadth and depth of AWS services and disaster protection.

“VMware Cloud on AWS is now available across multiple regions globally including the US, Europe, and now AsiaPac, and we’ve increased the rate at which we deliver innovative capabilities and powerful solutions for our customers,” said Mark Lohmeyer, SVP and GM, cloud platform business unit, VMware. “VMware Cloud on AWS provides a fast and cost-effective way to migrate mission-critical applications, or even entire data centers, to the cloud. And once in the cloud, we provide the industry-leading software-defined data center capabilities of VMware, coupled with the elasticity, breadth, and depth of AWS infrastructure and services, making it the ideal platform for modern applications.“

“Customers have been asking us to bring VMware Cloud on AWS to AsiaPac, and we are pleased to be doing that today,” said Sandy Carter, VP, EC2 Windows enterprise workloads, AWS. “VMware Cloud on AWS is the only hybrid cloud service that allows vSphere customers to leverage consistent infrastructure across on-premises data centers and AWS, allowing them to migrate current and new workloads to the cloud with the most functionality, greatest agility, and best security and performance. VMware Cloud on AWS enables customers to save costs, while also enabling them to scale depending on their application needs.“

VMware Cloud on AWS updates include:

50% lower entry-level price and new minimum configuration: VMware will reduce the entry price for VMware Cloud on AWS by 50% and offer a smaller 3-host minimum SDDC configuration as a starting point for production workloads. For a limited time, VMware will offer the 3-Host SDDC environment for the cost of a 2-Host configuration.
License optimization for enterprise applications (Oracle/Microsoft): With new custom CPU core count capabilities, customers will be able to specify the number of CPU cores they need, reducing the cost of running mission-critical applications that are licensed per CPU core. With VM-Host Affinity customers will be able to pin workloads to a specific host group to support licensing requirements.
Instant Data Center evacuation with live migration of 1,000’s of VMs: Customers will be able to live migrate thousands of VMs with zero downtime and schedule when to cut over to the new cloud environment with VMware NSX Hybrid Connect (previously known as VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension) powered by vMotion and vSphere Replication. VMware is offering a free migration cost assessment with VMware Cost Insight as part of the core service to assist with cloud migration planning.
New high-capacity storage option, backed by Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS): Customers will be able to independently scale compute and storage resource requirements and reduce costs for storage-capacity demanding workloads with new clusters for storage-dense environments. These clusters deliver scalable storage capabilities with VMware vSAN utilizing Amazon Elastic Block Storage and run on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) R5.metal instances. Amazon EC2 R5.metal instances are based on 2.5GHz Intel Platinum 8000 series (Skylake-SP) processors. Each host has two sockets, 48 cores, 96 hyper-threads, 768GB RAM, and 25GbE network bandwidth.
Application-centric security with VMware NSX: Customers will gain granular control over east-west traffic between workloads running in VMware Cloud on AWS through micro-segmentation provided by NSX. Security policies can be defined based on workload attributes (e.g., VM names, OS versions) and user-defined tags, are dynamically enforced at the VM-level, and follow workloads wherever they are moved.
NSX/AWS Direct Connect integration for simplified, high-performance connectivity: This integration will make it easier for customers to connect across hybrid cloud environments and improve network performance. Integration between NSX and AWS Direct Connect will enable private and consistent connectivity between VMware workloads running on VMware Cloud on AWS and those running on-premises. This integration will also accelerate migration to cloud and enable multi-tier hybrid applications.
Optimized cost/performance with autoscaling: Elastic DRS allows users to automate VMware Cloud on AWS cluster scaling. Elastic DRS enables automated scaling up or scaling down of hosts and rebalancing of clusters, based on the needs of the applications and the policies the customer defines.
Real-Time log management included at no additional cost: VMware has added VMware Log Intelligence to the core VMware Cloud on AWS service, providing customers with access to VMware Cloud on AWS audit logs for increased security and compliance at no additional cost.

Rapidly Growing Ecosystem Validates Demand
for VMware-Based Hybrid Cloud
VMware partners are helping customers deploy hybrid cloud environments using VMware Cloud on AWS. In less than six months since launching the expansion of the VMware partner network to enable solution providers, MSPs, and system integrators to grow their hybrid cloud business with VMware Cloud on AWS, nearly 150 partners have achieved their VMware Cloud on AWS solution competency. Additionally, the number of solutions from VMware technology alliance partners that have been tested and validated for VMware Cloud on AWS has increased 4x to nearly 100 solutions. Read this blog for more details on the expanding partner ecosystem for VMware Cloud on AWS.

Customers adopting VMware Cloud on AWS as their hybrid Cloud of choice
a2z, Inc. provides cloud-based exposition, conference and meeting management and marketing solutions that help boost revenue for organizers and enhance value for event participants. “We started looking at VMware Cloud on AWS when we wanted to move to a full cloud environment but were concerned about the time and effort required to do a full cloud migration,” said Ramon Castro, VP, IT, a2z. “VMware Cloud on AWS was a perfect match for us. We could evacuate our existing data center environment and seamlessly move into a new VMware cloud environment without re-architecting our entire solution. Even better, we would have cloud adjacency whereby we could immediately start taking advantage of the capabilities AWS offered while maintaining our current VMware environment.“

GenPro, Inc. is an US specialist in expedited transportation solutions for perishable and non-perishable commodities. “DR was not economically possible for us before VMware Cloud on AWS,” said Ari Weinstock, director of IT, GenPro. “Now have a cost-effective DR solution that provides dynamic resource scaling to help us meet our RTOs. VMware Cloud on AWS also provides us with a consistent infrastructure across our hybrid cloud environment.“

ME Bank provides personal and business banking products and services in Australia. “One of ME’s key focuses is on consistently delivering frictionless, personalized banking services that meet our customer promises,” said Sunny Avdihodzic, GM, strategy and architecture, ME Bank. “As we explore the VMware Cloud on AWS technology and its capabilities, we’re excited by the potential opportunity to enable development and deployment of new services and resources faster than ever before, while mitigating the risk to our business. The unique platform abilities are expected to give us a greater level of flexibility, enabling our people to innovate more while meeting the security and governance standards expected in our industry.“

Stagecoach UK Bus is a public transport company in the UK that runs over 11,000 trains and buses, transporting over 3 million passengers a day. “VMware Cloud on AWS supports our new cloud-first strategy by providing Group Technology and Change with a VMware environment in the cloud to support our business-critical applications,” said Lesley Ashman, CIO, Stagecoach. “With VMware Cloud on AWS we have gained new levels of agility, scale, and resiliency through a multi-Availability Zone deployed platform. VMware Cloud on AWS mitigated our risk of moving business-critical apps to the cloud because we could leverage a consistent infrastructure and operational model.“

Services in the AWS AsiaPac (Sydney) region, Elastic DRS, Log Intelligence Service, and Cost Insight migration assessment are available. The 3-host configuration, Custom CPU core count, VM-Host Affinity, new NSX Hybrid Connect capabilities, EBS support, Amazon EC2 R5.metal instance type, NSX and AWS Direct Connect integration, and NSX micro-segmentation are in preview¹.

To view the latest status of features for VMware Cloud on AWS

¹ Feature(s) released in preview may not be available to all applicable customers or in all AWS regions.