Migrating Enterprise Applications To The Cloud - VMware Cloud On AWS

Update November 2018: TDS Announces TransitionManager Software for VMware Cloud on AWS

Imagine if you could perform a “Lift and Shift” migration of your entire VMware Software-Designed Data Center (SDDC) infrastructure into the leading public cloud service, Amazon Web Services.

Not merely migrating images and storage into a totally new hypervisor platform, but onto a fully VMware-based infrastructure sitting on AWS-provided hardware. You would have the same virtual architecture as before, while maintaining all the features of VSphere you have come to rely on in the VMware environment, but now Amazon maintains the bare metal and network infrastructure.

For the enterprise that is heavily invested in VMware architecture as the backbone of their infrastructure, moving to Amazon’s industry-leading public cloud has been a less than ideal solution. A complete redesign of the target infrastructure was required to conform the architecture of AWS. Although Amazon Web Services provides a very robust IaaS solution, many of the advantages found in the VMware suite of services, such as vMotion, performance monitoring, performance management and tuning, automation, and security, must be sacrificed.

Enter VMware Cloud on AWS.

Powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, the SDDC platform integrates the familiar vSphere, VSAN, and NSX virtualization technologies with VMware vCenter management. Amazon Web Services provides the bare-metal physical infrastructure. This adds the benefits of AWS’s compute, database, analytics, security, deployment, and other services, creating a true best-of-both-worlds scenario.

[vc_blockquote_2 title=”Pat Gelsinger, VMware’s chief executive officer” content=”I am text block. “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. 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.”[/vc_blockquote_2]

The official VMware press release lists the several key advantages of this new service:

• Enterprise capabilities of VMware SDDC with the agility, unmatched functionality, and operational expertise of AWS’s leading public cloud
• Identical skills, tools, and processes for managing private and public cloud environments so customers have consistent operations, improved productivity, and reduced costs
• Seamless, fast, and bi-directional workload portability between private and public clouds
• Flexibility to choose where to run applications based on business needs, while having access to a broad set of AWS services and infrastructure elasticity for VMware SDDC environments
• Rapid time to value with the ability to scale host capacity up or down in a few minutes, and spin up an entire VMware SDDC in under a couple hours
• Ability to run, manage, and secure applications in a hybrid IT environment without having to purchase custom hardware, rewrite applications, or modify operating models

A full Lift and Shift migration isn’t the only option to get VMware on AWS. A new datacenter can be stood up in AWS as an extension to an existing datacenter and easily migrate application workloads to VMware Cloud on AWS without conversions. This could be a quick and easy path to a hybrid public/private cloud scenario. Access to the new environment in AWS is provided via IPsec and transfers in and out are seamless. NSX is leveraged to allow workloads to move between on-premises and the cloud and back. NSX also hooks into AWS so that you can consume AWS services directly into your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs. Since your SDDC is located within AWS there will be no ingress or egress bandwidth costs for utilizing AWS services such as S3.

[vc_blockquote_2 title=”Andy Jassy, chief executive officer, AWS” content=”I am text block.“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. The majority of the world’s enterprises have virtualized their data centers 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.”[/vc_blockquote_2]

Find out more about how you begin moving your VMware architecture into the Amazon public cloud. Transitional Data Services (TDS) can help you assess your current environment, plan your migration, and execute the transition. Contact TDS today find out how we can help you get your VMware environment into the Amazon cloud!