When expanded, VMC on AWS stands for VMware Cloud on AWS. It refers to a solution that leverages an integration between two powerful technology platforms. They are;
VMware Cloud Foundation (VMware Infrastructure stack). VMware provides the software components. This includes vSphere (for server virtualization), NSX (for network virtualization), vSAN (for storage virtualization) and vRealize Suite. VMware Cloud Foundation also comes with VMware SDDC Manager which is a tool that automates the entire system lifecycle and simplifies software operations.
VMware Cloud Foundation Solution Architecture (Source: Modern Apps on VMware Cloud
Foundation)
Where will all this software run? Typically on some hardware somewhere. This is where the second component of the solution comes in. All of these software will be run on AWS bare-metal hardware.
VMware Cloud on AWS Overview (Source: AWS News Blog)
Here’s another schematic from VMware docs
VMware Cloud on AWS Overview (Source: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-on-AWS)
So, simply put, VMC on AWS is an instance of the vCloud Foundation being executed on AWS bare-metal hardware. And the solution is delivered as a service from an AWS availability zone.
Now that we know how VMC on AWS is built, let’s jump into why you should subscribe to this service and the benefits.
Managed Service: VMC on AWS is a managed service. This I think is one of its most attractive and interesting features because it allows the user(s) to reduce all the overhead and the administrative functions that are normally required to maintain an infrastructure and keep it available, reliable and secure it’s operations.
Speed (Agility): Provisioning new resources on the platform can be done very quickly and easily. Once a host is added, it is ready to use within the cluster and fully provisoned in as little as 20 minutes.
No resource caps: VMC on AWS provides a pool of resources very much like a vCloud Director Organisation vDC. This means that the user is not constrained to the predefined instance sizes that is common in AWS and other public clouds. Example “c6g.medium”
AWS Instance Sizes
Disaster Recovery with SRM: One of the benefits of VMC on AWS is the ability to set up a hybrid cloud environment. However, having a hybrid environment means that you will need to consider a way to protect the workloads at each location, on-premise and cloud. With VMC on AWS you can configure disaster recovery using SRM (VMware site recovery manager). SRM can be setup with a bi-directional or uni-directional failover in the same way as though you have two seperate environments. Check out this post by Schneider Larbi and Kiran Reid. It explains the design considerations for disaster recovery with VMware Cloud on AWS with a focus on VMware Cloud on AWS and the VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) add on.
Disaster Recovery using VMware Cloud Director Availability: Another way of achieving disaster recovery is by utilizing a VMware Cloud Provider’s DRaaS service which is powered by VMware Cloud Director Availability. This tool allows self-service migrations of your workloads from your VMware Cloud on AWS environment to your virtual datacenter on the VMware Cloud Provider environment. A good example of a VMware Cloud Provider that offers this DRaaS service is Layer3Cloud. (shameless plug 🙂 ). Check out more on this service here.
That’s all for this post. In conclusion, I downloaded an IDC business value white paper, sponsored by Amazon Web Services. It’s about The Business Value of VMware Cloud on AWS for Supporting Business-Critical Applications. Download it below.
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