VMware and Amazon confirm a recent rumour-- the two companies are bringing VMware software-defined datacentre software to the Amazon public cloud with "VMware Cloud on AWS."
The partnership has all Vmware infrastructure software, including vSphere, VSAN and NSX, running on "dedicated AWS infrastructure purpose-built for this offering." The actual service is operated, sold and supported by VMware (not AWS), even if it is integrated with the AWS portfolio of cloud-based storage, database and analytics solutions.
As the two companies put it, customers no longer need to worry whether to run applications on or off premises, since VMware Cloud on AWS adds the flexibility of the cloud to the enterprise capabilities of on-premises infrastructure.
“Our customers continue to ask us to make it easier for them to run their existing data center investments alongside AWS,” AWS CEO Andy Jassy says. “Most enterprises are already virtualised using VMware, and now with VMware Cloud on AWS, for the first time, it will be easy for customers to operate a consistent and seamless hybrid IT environment using their existing VMware tools on AWS, and without having to purchase custom hardware, rewrite their applications, or modify their operating model.”
This is not the first VMware partnership in public cloud, mind-- February 2016 saw the company announce a "strategic partnership" with IBM allowing customers to extend virtualised workloads to IBM's SoftLayer public cloud.
VMware Coud on AWS is currently in technology preview, and should be generally available by mid-2017.