VMware on AWS: A Fit for Your Customers?

By Jo Peterson and Chuck Price

Jo Peterson

Chuck Price

Many people may not realize that VMware has been a pioneer and leading innovator of “software-defined” technology for almost two decades. It is best known as a market leader in virtualization technology – the basis of software-defined servers, storage and networking – that has been the key enabler of enterprise-class private cloud infrastructure globally.

It’s estimated that more than 500,000 companies are using its software today and it controls more than 75% market share of the server virtualization market. IDC ranked VMware the No. 1 leader globally in cloud systems management software, holding 21.7% market share, with the No. 2 company at only 14%, and ranked it a global leader (18.6% market share in 2017) in enabling faster business outcomes with infrastructure automation.

Today, VMware is increasingly investing in technologies to enable faster enterprise digital transformations with software-defined data centers (SDDC), multicloud networking with HCX, hyperconverged infrastructures, SD-WAN, containers, blockchain, IoT and the rapid adoption and deployment of multicloud architecture.

So, what does all this mean to channel professionals? There’s a very high probability that the majority of your midmarket and enterprise customers are using traditional virtualization technologies today. This presents a major opportunity for trusted advisers to add value for their clients as their world of enterprise IT focus pivots away from traditional workload management increasingly toward leveraging cloud technologies. These customers are looking for expert insight and guidance on how best to leverage public cloud and multicloud architectures, how to automate their infrastructure with code, make lower TCO investments with faster ROI and time-to-market, all while improving security, performance, resilience and infrastructure agility.

Chances are strong that your customers want to put more workloads in the cloud today but they are held back by barriers to cloud adoption such as legacy hardware and software costs, operational complexity and a lack of skilled cloud expertise on staff.

VMware’s research indicates that 15% of global IT workloads are located in the public cloud today, and by 2030 an estimated 50% of all workloads will run in the cloud.

Enter VMware Cloud on AWS. To bridge the gap between on-premise and cloud-based services, many enterprise clients want to find a hybrid approach that plugs into their existing on-premises infrastructure without costly re-architecture efforts and the time-consuming retraining of engineering staff. Today, customers can leverage their investments in engineering skills and VMware technology capabilities they’ve successfully used in their own data centers for many years by migrating existing on-premises VMware workloads to AWS using VMware Cloud (VMC) on AWS.

VMware is even rewarding companies that have invested in VMware infrastructure on-premises by working through certified AWS and VMC partners for assistance in this migration. Rough back-of-the-napkin math shows that customers can save approximately 25% by moving to VMC on AWS.

Just a few high-level use-cases you can bring to your customers are opportunities to …

… leverage VMC on AWS to:

If this sounds like a bridge your client may be interested in crossing, there are more than 30 providers that offer managed VMware on AWS. These include CenturyLink, Effectual, iLand, Rackspace and NTT, to name a few.

Many of these cloud service providers offer professional architecture services as well as migration and management services for VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware has a new VMC on AWS competency and has just raised the bar for these partners by releasing a new Master Services Competency for VMC on AWS — be sure to ask your CSP if they’ve attained this level of competency with VMware. This provides a layer of expertise that your customer may be missing, improving the probability of success from the beginning. There are also several commercial purchasing options available, starting with on-demand pricing with increasing discounts for one-year and three-year upfront commitments. As a result, your customer will get the benefit of protecting their existing VMware software investment while still benefiting from the agility and scalability that the cloud provides.

Jo Peterson is the vice president of cloud services for Clarify360, where her engineering team focuses on cloud enablement and cloud security. She brings more than 25 years of technology consulting, systems engineering and sales experience. An influencer in the space, Jo brings a strong results orientation and focus on the bottom line to client engagements. She is a member of the Channel Partners Advisory Board. Chuck Price is COO at Effectual, a business strategist and an early adopter of cloud, successfully delivering products and services in financial services, supply chain automation, cost management, eProcurement, manufacturing and FED/SLED industries. He attended UCSD’s Computer Science and Physics programs, and is a United States Navy veteran of the first Gulf War. Follow Peterson on LinkedIn or @digitalcloudgal on Twitter. Follow Price on LinkedIn or @effectualinc on Twitter.