(2) New VMware Cloud on AWS Technical Whitepapers
Now Available!
If you are interested in learning more about the VMware Cloud on AWS offering, VMware has released two new whitepapers that will help get you up to speed technically. The first whitepaper covers the technical aspects of “Cloud Migration Planning“. The Second one provides technical information on the “Operations Model” for VMware Cloud on AWS.
Cloud Migration Planning – Description:
Once you get your keys to your new VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC and you have configured and verified communications between it and your on-premises environment, you are ready for the next step, Migrating Applications. Of course, there is a lot of preparation work that should be completed prior to starting any migration project and moving your first applications to your SDDC cloud. The primary technological goal of any migration project is to transfer an existing application (or solitary VMs) from your on-premises environment to your SDDC cloud, as quickly, efficiently, and cost effectively as possible. This is especially critical when considering a migration to a public cloud such as VMware Cloud on
AWS; considerations must include application and data dependencies, security controls, latency, subsequent performance, operations practices for backup/recovery and others. Customers will need to assess their environment and focus on generating an effective, actionable migration plan to achieve this goal. Spending the time up front in the plan to reduce the time and increase likelihood of success of any
migration project.
Inadequate prep work before migration can cause different kinds of failures:
– Failure to identify related or “internal” workload dependencies before migration – such as components of a multi-tiered application (e.g. webserver, business logic, database)
– Failure to identify external workload dependencies before migration – such as updating DNS, ensuring access to Active Directory for authentication
– Failure to determine how certain procedures – such as backups and security checks – will be done in the cloud
– Failure to identify applications that are inherently not suitable for the cloud – potentially for licensing or support reasons.
In this document, we will highlight the best practices and methodology that should be followed when planning a migration to VMware Cloud on AWS. We will concentrate on 5 areas of discussion: Migration Data Collection, Data Analysis and Application Weighting, Collection and Analysis Tools, Migration Options and finally VMware Migration Service options.
Cloud Migration Planning:
Operations Model – Description:
VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware’s enterprise-class Software-Defined Data Center software to the AWS Cloud, enabling customers to run production applications across VMware vSphere®-based private, public, and hybrid cloud environments. Delivered, sold, and supported by VMware as an on-demand service, customers can also leverage AWS’s breadth of services, including storage, databases, analytics, and more. IT teams manage their cloud-based resources with familiar VMware tools — all without the hassles of learning new skills or utilizing new tools. VMware Cloud on AWS integrates VMware’s flagship compute, storage, and network virtualization products (vSphere, vSAN, and NSX) along with vCenter management, and optimizes it to run on elastic, bare-metal AWS infrastructure. With the same architecture and operational experience on-premises and in the cloud, IT teams can now quickly derive instant business benefits from use of the AWS and VMware hybrid cloud experience, including:
– IT teams manage their cloud-based resources with familiar VMware tools – without the challenges of learning new skills or utilizing new tools. However, administrative responsibilities for the vSphere cluster deployed as part of the Cloud SoftwareDefined Data Center (SDDC) will be shared between the VMware Cloud on AWS service and the on-premises administrator.
– This paper will describe the differences between running the VMware SDDC software on-premises vs. in VMware Cloud on AWS, and will go over the new operation model that administrators will need to adopt when using this service.
Operations Model: