What are the VMware Solutions on Azure?

I was looking forward to share a few new Azure updates and announcement for the last few weeks but was not getting enough time to write an article because of a busy work schedule. Loads of exciting activities keeping me engaged at work like Azure Migrations, #Showcase2019, Azure monthly webinars, and planning an Event at Auckland Microsoft house on 28th May on SQL end of support options on Azure, etc. 

But before I drift off into day to day work, I thought of writing about the new friendship between Microsoft and VMWare!!!

A New Hybrid Cloud Friendship

VMware and Microsoft’s latest announcement called Azure VMware Solutions shows that beyond a doubt that the Microsoft of today, is a totally different company from the Microsoft of 10 years ago!!! New hybrid cloud partnership that will enable VMware customers to extend their VMware infrastructure to the Microsoft Azure cloud.

 This new partnership underscores that Azure is Microsoft’s priority going forward and their new open attitude is all about enabling Microsoft to extend Azure’s reach. Let’s take a closer look at what Microsoft and VMware’s new partnership means for the hybrid cloud.

Azure VMware Solutions on Azure by CloudSimple

There were two major parts to the new Microsoft VMware partnership. First, with Azure VMware Solutions on Azure by CloudSimple, Microsoft will provide a native VMware based cloud infrastructure solution that’s running on Microsoft Azure. 

Seamless vSphere hybrid cloud connectivity with Azure

This is essentially like the arrangement that VMware has had with Amazon for the past couple of years.

Azure VMware Solutions run on the Azure cloud platform but they are built with VMware Cloud Foundation.

This will open a couple of crucial scenarios for our customers:

• Data Center retirement or migration – If you need to retire your datacenter and you need a fast and straightforward way to move your existing VMware workloads, Azure is a great place to host these workloads without rearchitecting them. This will give you time to modernize your applications in the mid and long term
• Expansion on demand – If you are running your VMware environment and you need more capacity on demand, you can extend it to Azure.
• Disaster Recovery – You can use Azure as your recovery site for your on-premises VMware workloads
• Virtual Desktops – If you are running a VDI solution on top of VMware, you are also able to host the infrastructure in Azure.
• Hosting High-Performance Applications – The CloudSimple solution provides a hyper-converged architecture designed to run high-performance workloads
• Hybrid Cloud – It opens up scenarios for companies to run hybrid cloud scenarios, without the need to switch all your tools and to rearchitect your workloads

Extending the Digital Workspace Strategy

In addition, the second part of their new partnership focused on enhancing the digital workplace strategy for joint customers.

The new partnership will enable Microsoft 365 and VMware Workspace ONE customers to manage Office 365 across multiple devices with Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory Premium as part of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security suite. VMware Workspace ONE will integrate with the APIs provided by Intune to deliver device status and health data. In addition, Microsoft will support extending Windows Virtual Desktops with VMware Horizon Cloud on Azure.

Hybrid Cloud Options Continue to Expand

The new Microsoft VMware hybrid cloud partnership is essentially a win for both companies and customers. Satya Nadella described the advantages of the new partnership by saying, “At Microsoft, we’re focused on empowering customers in their digital transformation journey, through partnerships that enable them to take advantage of the Microsoft Cloud, using the technologies they already have.”

For Microsoft, the partnership opens up a new set of customers for its rapidly growing Azure base. For VMware, it gives its customers a new choice of an additional hybrid cloud deployment option. Azure VMware Solutions are services from Microsoft developed in collaboration with VMware Cloud Verified partners Virtustream (a Dell Technologies company) and Cloud Simple. You can learn more about the Microsoft and VMware partnership at Joint Solutions Azure VMware Solutionsand at Dell Technologies and Microsoft expand partnership with new VMware Solutions.

If you want to know more about VMware Solution on Azure by CloudSimple, you can check out the Microsoft docs.

What are your thoughts about these announcements? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks,

Susanth