Understanding VMware Cloud on AWS use cases
This section will describe the most common use cases of hybrid cloud with VMware Cloud on AWS.
The use cases that we’ll explore in this section are data center extension, next-generation application modernization, cloud migrations, and disaster recovery.
The following figure summarizes the four use cases:
Figure 1.2 – The use cases of VMware Cloud on AWS
Let’s describe each of the use cases in further detail in the following section.
Data center extension
Customers look to integrate their existing data center infrastructure into the public cloud. They want to enjoy the benefits offered by the public cloud without being affected by the hybrid cloud challenges described in earlier sections – for instance, when the on-premises environment fails to deliver IT capacity on time to meet business needs. Limited capacity can be because of a lack of physical space, supply chain issues, or a need for a temporary workload.
With VMware Cloud on AWS, a consistent infrastructure between vSphere environments in the data center and the vSphere SDDC that VMware manages in the AWS cloud enables customers to move applications to the AWS cloud or back seamlessly.
VMware Aria is a cloud management platform that allows customers to manage VMware Cloud on AWS as an extension to an existing customer data center. Workload types that are quick wins are testing/development and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. Kubernetes workloads running on-premises can migrate into the VMware Cloud on AWS with the Tanzu portfolio integration.
Cloud migration
Cloud migration, also known as re-platforming or lift-and-shift in AWS terms or relocating in VMware Cloud on AWS terms, involves migrating existing brownfield applications to the public cloud from on-premises with minimal to no adjustments to the application code or VM format.
Business driver customers may have an expiring lease on a data center colocation facility, a management decision to evacuate an existing data center because of a cloud-first approach, or a hardware refresh because of end-of-life. An additional use case is mergers and acquisitions, where one company needs to absorb the IT infrastructure of the acquired company, as well as consolidate branch sites and data centers by migrating applications from the on-premises data center to the public cloud to reduce the total cost of ownership.
VMware Cloud on AWS is the fastest way for customers to migrate VMware vSphere-based workloads to the cloud because they can relocate their workloads in a way that is faster than a standard lift and shift. Consistent infrastructure is delivered using the same VMware on-premises stack leveraging vSphere as the hypervisor. Customers use this on-premises and the cloud enables the migration of workloads without lift-and-shift adjustments or refactoring their applications.
Next-generation apps
Customers looking to go through a development process of refactoring, such as breaking up a monolith application into a microservice architecture, can do this integrally on the platform leveraging the Tanzu portfolio, which is included in VMware Cloud on AWS.
VMware Cloud on AWS provides high bandwidth and low latency connectivity to native services that AWS offers. This integration provides a consistent and easy way for virtual machines and containers to access AWS services. These innovative AWS services can be seamlessly integrated with customers’ applications to enable incremental refactoring and modernization enhancements.
Disaster recovery
The VMware Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) service is available with the VMware Cloud on AWS offering. It enables customers to recover and protect applications without needing to maintain an on-premises secondary or a third DR site. VMware delivers and manages it as a service. IT teams manage their cloud-based resources using familiar VMware tools without learning new skills or performing a lift-and-shift migration.
Customers using on-premises traditional DR build a secondary site with a replica of the production site. They need to prioritize which workloads will be protected because of costs. The operations of the secondary DR site are associated with complexity because of manual processes and siloed IT solutions.
DRaaS with VMware Cloud on AWS can reduce secondary site costs, simplify DR operations, and help customers meet or improve their recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO). VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR) and VMware Site Recovery Service (VSR), powered by VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM), are offered as part of the DRaaS service with VMware Cloud on AWS.