Five Public Cloud Considerationsfor VMware vSphere Users

Many agile IT teams running VMware vSphere® workloads have integrated the public cloud into their infrastructure to meet evolving organizational demands – without having to rewrite applications, compromise security and compliance requirements, or learn new management tools and technologies.

Their strategy for success started with careful consideration of the opportunities and obstacles presented by different cloud deployment platforms and cloud providers.

Here’s what to consider when you’re considering public cloud.

1It’s a multi-cloud world, but not all cloud deployment platforms are created equal.

Key ConsiderationWhile many cloud providers consider hybridity to be nothing more than virtual machine migration and a VPN connection between onsite and offsite locations, the true benefit of hybridity is the ability to deploy a common set of applications, tools, and services across a multi-cloud environment.

Common Cloud Providers and Their Uses

A hybrid cloud platform delivers the benefits of the public cloud without sacrificing investments you’ve made in the data center.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IDEAL FOR Cloud-native apps and app development

Proprietary platform NO HYBRIDITY

Microsoft Azure

IDEAL FOR App development for Microsoft shops

Built on the Microsoft stack

LIMITED HYBRIDITY via Microsoft Azure + Hyper-V + Windows + System Center

VMware vCloud Air

IDEAL FOR vSphere-based workloads

Built on the foundation of vSphere

FULL HYBRIDITY with complete portability on-premises to off-premises and back

2Most public clouds are not designed to run all applications.

Key ConsiderationIf your public cloud platform is not compatible with your vSphere applications it will impact how you can move and manage workloads between your onsite and offsite environments.

Existing applications often have to be rewritten for the specific cloud provider platform because the underlying constructs are often completely different. In fact, most public clouds are not designed to run existing vSphere applications on a common platform.

How vCloud Air Can HelpvCloud Air is built on vSphere, a common platform across your data center to the cloud, meaning you can write, deploy, and manage applications in the cloud in exactly the same way that you do today. vCloud Air supports more than 5,000 applications and 90-plus operating systems certified to run on vSphere.

3With some cloud platforms, the burden of ensuring application reliability and availability is placed on the user — that’s you.

Key ConsiderationSome public clouds require users to redesign applications to be resilient on best-effort platforms that often fail.

How vCloud Air Can HelpvCloud Air is built on infrastructure that is architected for high availability, leveraging proven vSphere High Availability (HA), VMware vSphere vMotion®, and the Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS).

Sometimes, when moving applications to the public cloud, performance and availability suffer.

4Scalability, flexibility, and agility are not cloud guarantees.

Key ConsiderationIf you choose a cloud platform that runs on a proprietary architecture, you won’t easily be able to migrate applications without the need to balance IT capacity with demands that may vary drastically.

How vCloud Air Can HelpWith vCloud Air, you can run one or many copies of vSphere workloads in the cloud, for as long or as short a time as needed. Elastic consumption models shift up-front capital expenditures into flexible operating expenditures.

Leveraging the public cloud as a means of scaling resources up or down to meet fluctuating business needs (think seasonal bursts or unpredictable usage patterns) sounds logical, and it is — provided you can extend your data center to the public cloud and back.

5Network performance can change in a cloud platform.

Key ConsiderationUnderstand user access, firewall rules, and other system connection requirements before choosing a public cloud provider.

How vCloud Air Can HelpvCloud Air is built on the trusted vSphere foundation, with a virtualized network topology encompassed in the Edge Gateway. The Edge Gateway provides critical networking capabilities, as well as the ability to customize network settings to support your application and security needs.

Network bandwidth and reliability are often among the top concerns when moving workloads to a public cloud platform.

Now consider the opportunities ahead.

Download the guide, Architecting a VMware Public Cloud to learn more.

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With vCloud Air, the ready-to-run public cloud, you can move to the cloud with confidence for a faster path to success and return on investment, while minimizing risk.

Delve deeper into the opportunities that vCloud Air offers vSphere users — for disaster recovery, data center extension, and data center replacement.