In this article we’ll take a closer look at the benefits of running VMware on AWS, built on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. We’ll focus on advantages that map to today’s top IT priorities: Security, skills, and modernisation. We’ll explore the synergies derived from integrating established on-premise security practices with the global scale of AWS; how VMware on AWS eliminates the need for re-skilling and re-training; and how modernising applications is streamlined by delivering VMware on AWS.
Digital transformation and application modernisation have been priorities for enterprise IT for many years, but the global pandemic shifted these projects into fourth gear. In fact, COVID-19 caused organisations to accelerate their digital transformation plans by three to four years, according to a McKinsey report. So, digital transformation and modernisation are no longer nice-to-have projects. They are absolutely vital to remaining competitive, and public cloud plays a foundational role, as enterprises look to move tier-one applications there. There’s simply no other way to gain the agility, flexibility, scale and ubiquitous access.
Moving to the cloud, however, can cause disruption, especially since the skills for developing, maintaining, and managing cloud-native applications are markedly different from those required to perform the same tasks on-premises in a traditional data center. IT has invested an enormous amount of resources into acquiring and developing these skills, and many organisations are justifiably concerned about these skills becoming far less useful after migrating most or all tier-1 applications to public cloud.
VMware Cloud on AWS built on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors alleviates those concerns. Enterprise IT can minimize risk while working on a platform that enables IT to build for the future. IT can employ familiar VMware technologies that they already use daily, just like thousands of other organisations globally. Enterprises can avoid downtime during the migration, even if they are migrating the entire data center. And once the migration is complete, IT can still take full advantage of AWS’ capabilities, including the more than 200 additional AWS services with which VMware Cloud seamlessly integrates.
Eliminating the need for reskilling IT personnel
VMware Cloud on AWS eliminates the need to reskill IT personnel because they can use the same operational skills they employed while managing VMware environments on-premise. They can use the same familiar and consistent tools for VMware workloads in the cloud, hybrid environments and the data center. The APIs don’t change, so migration doesn’t break prior integration. And policies for management, security and operations can remain the same across cloud and on-premises environments.
Ultimately, VMware Cloud on AWS minimises disruption by leveraging the existing infrastructure, IT skill sets and proven processes. IT can now manage the cloud as code because it’s a virtual environment, which means it’s ideal for DevOps and site reliability engineering (SRE). Even more useful, IT doesn’t have to work with virtual machines (VMs). With VMware Cloud on AWS, IT can create an infrastructure of Kubernetes orchestrated containers, giving the organisation even more agility, flexibility and ease of management.
Moving from Migration to Modernisation
Once migration is complete, that does not mean that the process is over. One of the main advantages of moving workloads to public cloud is that application modernisation is streamlined with VMware on AWS.
Generally speaking, there are three primary groups of stakeholders within the IT organisation when it comes to cloud migration. VM administrators and directors of IT are typically early adopters of cloud. They are aiming to gain cost efficiencies, scale and flexibility, so once the migration is complete, they may feel like the journey is complete.
Builders, developers, and DevOps practitioners, on the other hand, have a cloud-native mindset. They are heavy AWS users and savvy about cloud technologies and the possibilities for growth and innovation that they make possible. By leveraging AWS and additional services such as AI and advanced analytics, they see the potential to significantly reduce what Jeff Bezos famously called “undifferentiated heavy lifting,” i.e. all that back-end IT work that takes up most of IT personnel’s time but adds very little business value.
Finally business leaders are looking to lower IT spend and gain capabilities that will enable them to outpace competitors in the marketplace
VMware on AWS eases the tasks of addressing the different needs of IT administration, DevOps / developers, and business decision makers. IT can easily administer the VMware on AWS infrastructure, because very little has changed from the way they did it when workloads were on-premises. DevOps and developers gain all the advantages of the cloud for simplified agile development, and they can modernise applications through automation, connecting to the more than 200 AWS services and employing containerisation. As a result, business leaders get cost savings and increased agility which provides significant competitive advantage.
AWS data shows that organisations that migrate to VMware Cloud on AWS reduce the total cost of operation by 43% for a five-year ROI of 479%. VMware Cloud on AWS migrates workloads 46% quicker than native migrations. This translates into a 43% cost reduction for VMC customers who experience accelerated modernisation benefits across domains such as Storage, Database and analytics, and Containers.
Here’s a closer look at three different use cases accelerated by VMware Cloud on AWS:
- Storage: Leveraging Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, Amazon FSx and AWS Storage Gateway, IT can enable capabilities such as data protection, inexpensive archiving, disaster recovery and hybrid cloud storage. Amazon RDS can slash the administrative burden of database provisioning, upgrades, patches, backup and ensuring high availability.
- Database and analytics: Data from VMware Cloud can be easily ingested into native AWS accounts, and the AWS Lake Formation service enables IT to build a data lake architecture. Once that’s accomplished, a variety of AWS services make real-time, interactive analytics a snap.
- Containers: A variety of AWS services enable IT to deploy containers without provisioning servers, which lowers management overhead. And those organisations that run Kubernetes on-premises can leverage Amazon Elastic Container Services for Kubernetes, which makes it easy to deploy, scale and manage containerised applications.
Secure in the Cloud
Finally, VMware Cloud on AWS is secure. AWS has a team of hundreds of security experts who are continually working to ensure that the infrastructure is locked down. And enterprise IT can take full advantage of VMware Carbon Black, an endpoint and workload security platform with a cloud-native architecture, an AI-powered data lake and a smart, lightweight agent. IT can also take advantage of the synergies gained from integrating established on-premises security practices with the global scale of AWS.
Migrating to the cloud and modernising applications doesn’t have to be a disruptive process that requires a massive reskilling of the IT workforce. With VMware Cloud on AWS powered by Intel, IT can gain the transformative capabilities of cloud while retaining the tools and processes they’ve been using for years.