Taking VMware to the cloud – Ben Meadowcroft – Ep43

Over the last couple of episodes, we’ve had some interesting round-ups from the recent VMWorld conference, reviewing the announcements from the show, as well as how VMware are evolving to maintain relevance to their many customers in an ever more software defined, data-centric and of course cloud and as-a-service based world.

Part of the VMware response to these changes ( I hasten to add, not the only technological evolutions they are making) is a smart one, rather than fight the tide King Canute style, VMware is not only embracing that change, but looking to empower it and make businesses ability to embrace a cloud-based world a more straightforward transition.

Embracing this change comes in the form of VMware Cloud on AWS, providing the ability to run your own VMware vSphere environment on top of a dedicated set of AWS resources, providing the flexibility and economics of cloud, while maintaining an infrastructure and management platform that you already know.

This sounds like a really smart move, helping customers to make that tricky transition, keeping it seamless by providing flexibility and integration with your existing on-prem environments, without your IT teams needing to embark on a whole new learning path to understand your cloud platforms.

However, as smart as this sounds, the response has not been totally supportive, with some people asking is there really a need for this type of technology and why, if you are making the investment in AWS, why not just do that, why add these additional VMware costs and infrastructure components?

That is the topic we explore on this week’s show as I’m joined by Ben Meadowcroft, a Product Line Manager at VMware with a focus on VMware Cloud on AWS.

I catch up with Ben to understand more about the solution, why the solution exists at all, the challenges that business faces when building a hybrid solution and how VMware Cloud on AWS is helping to ease that transition, simplify the integration and allow us to start taking advantage of the capabilities of the AWS platform, while removing some of the challenges many of us face when making that transition.

Ben gives some great insight into the platform as well as some helpful use case examples to help you decide whether this kind of technology is a good fit for you.

To find out more details on the solution you can find great resources in the following places;

For an overview of the solution check out cloud.vmware.com/vmc-aws

You can get some hands-on experience with VMWare’s hands-on lab environment at vmware.com/go/try-vmc-aws-hol

To keep up with the latest news you can also follow @vmwarecloudaws on twitter.

Finally, if you want to catch up with Ben you can also find him on twitter @benmeadowcroft

Personally, I think VMWare cloud on AWS is a really interesting solution and I can see it meeting needs in a number of enterprises, check out the show and provide your feedback, either on here or message me @techstringy on twitter.

Next time we start a series of shows looking at the ever-evolving data security challenge.

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Thanks for listening.

As an Interesting bit of information, friend of the show @MichaelCade1 of Veeam produced this really handy blog post on how you can protect your VMware Cloud on AWS environment, using the Veeam tools you already know and love, worth a read, as protecting your data in AWS is your responsibility.

You can read his post here.

Ben in this episode did cover some VMware Cloud on AWS roadmap items, with this in mind, he’s asked me to include the following disclaimer.

Disclaimer

This presentation may contain product features that are currently under development.

This overview of new technology represents no commitment from VMware to deliver these features in any generally available product.

Features are subject to change, and must not be included in contracts, purchase orders, or sales agreements of any kind.

Technical feasibility and market demand will affect final delivery.

Pricing and packaging for any new technologies or features discussed or presented have not been determined.