Virtualisation has been the foundation of modern enterprise computing for 20 years.
Pioneered and still dominated by VMware, the technology has enabled organisations to deliver new services quickly and use their infrastructure more efficiently.
But broader waves of transformation, such as the shift to the cloud and generative AI, has made technology leaders take a fresh look at their strategy.
Inevitably, they are increasingly asking whether they need to rethink their virtualisation strategies.
Foundry’s 2024 Cloud Computing Study found that 29% of respondents cited replacing on-premises legacy technology as the business objective driving cloud investment (the equal third most popular reason cited in the study).1
The question has become even more pressing with Broadcom’s takeover of VMware.
This has led to significant strategy and product changes, which have in turn, led to confusion amongst some technology leaders.
But the issue is not whether enterprises should be using virtualisation at all, but how and where they should be running their virtualisation workloads.
So, what can enterprises do to ensure their virtualisation strategy continues to help them innovate?
Time to move forward
The first step is to be clear about what the ultimate objective is. Then they can consider the array of products and services they can draw on to achieve it.
Virtually every leader will be considering where the cloud fits into their organisation’s long-term strategy.
They might want to carry out a straightforward shift of existing VMware workloads from existing on-prem infrastructure to the cloud to be able to scale and better manage their operations and improve resiliency.
Or they might choose to take a more transformative approach to take advantage of new technologies to increase agility and deliver digital innovation.
AWS offers a range of VMware service options meaning organisations have the choice of simply preserving their existing VMware investments, or can choose to buildout and extend them further .
These include switching to its recently launched Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS), which offers both managed and self-managed services for VMware Cloud Foundation.
This allows enterprises to optimise and scale their virtualisation stack, and extend it with other AWS services. Alternatively, they can rapidly lift and shift workloads to Amazon EC2 taking advantage of its AWS Application Migration Service or Amazon Q Developer genAI tooling.
But AWS offers other technologies and services which can enable an even more dramatic modernization. These extend beyond the virtualisation layer of the enterprise stack, for example AWS’ cutting-edge data and AI services as well as Amazon Q Developer.
IT leaders seeking to leverage AWS in this way will be able to do so via Broadcom.
Seek advice
These are all strategic decisions, so technology leaders should seek objective advice.
It’s not just a question of choosing the most appropriate destination. They should also ensure they are they are taking the most efficient and speedy path to get there.
Migration should be as simple and friction-free as possible. And not everyone can, or should, move at the same pace.
When it comes to assessing AWS as a destination, they can begin with a free Optimization and Licensing Assessment. Looking further ahead they can look to AWS’s Migration Acceleration Programme and AWS Application Migration Service.
These programs can help them ensure they are on the right path and can move – or race – ahead at the right cadence.
Conclusion
There’s a reason VMware is so embedded in today’s enterprise infrastructure.
Technology leaders need to ensure they are making the most efficient use of their VMware investment and expertise while taking full advantage of the cloud.
Engaging with migration and optimisation experts early will ensure they make right decisions, ready for the era of digitisation and AI.
Learn more about AWS for VMware.
1Foundry Cloud Computing Study 2024, https://foundryco.com/research/cloud-computing/