Support for Both New and Existing Applications
The VMware vCloud Initiative will give enterprises choice and flexibility by enabling any application from legacy Windows NT to modern day Ruby-on-Rails to be deployed on-premise or off-premise — without disruption. Unlike other compute clouds that require applications to be built specifically to a single cloud computing platform and require complete rewrites of existing applications, millions of existing applications currently running on VMware Infrastructure can run in a VMware-based cloud without modification. For any size of organization, this application compatibility will provide the flexibility to run applications where it makes the most sense, on premise or in the cloud.

“We have been using VMware ourselves to provide cloud computing services to other businesses for their Human Capital Management (HCM) needs,” said Michael Gioja, CIO, Workstream. “Our business cycles are just too fast to couple hardware to just a specific business, environment or any spikes in capacity. Instead we have over 100 servers in a cloud that each business uses as a service in a cloud via our Talent Management portal that anyone can use. Our clients are also provisioned with multiple environments so they can migrate from configuration to user acceptance to production per their cycles providing great flexibility for our Fortune 500 clients.”

“The VMware vCloud Initiative will further enable our customers to take advantage of cloud computing,” said Chris Gesell, director of IT Solutions product marketing of Verizon Business. “Through our expansive global IP network, worldwide data center footprint and rich skill set, Verizon Business is uniquely positioned to help customers harness the power of cloud computing, which will make their infrastructure more efficient and agile.”

In addition, the VMware vCloud Initiative can leverage the large range of applications supported by software vendors running on VMware, as well as the growing ecosystem of VMware Ready Virtual Appliances. With more than 850 virtual appliances in the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace, deploying new applications to the cloud or on-premise becomes very simple. ISVs are leveraging VMware Ready Virtual Appliances to enable easy patching, management, and migration of applications in and out of cloud services. Looking forward, vApp brings an enhanced model for describing and managing applications. vApp will be able to leverage the industry standard Open Virtualization Format (OVF) to enable enhanced service levels, management, and migration capabilities across datacenters and to the cloud.

VMware vCloud Initiative Enables Broad Range of Cloud Computing Providers
The VMware vCloud Initiative enables all kinds of customers and use cases to leverage cloud services with an extensive and diverse ecosystem of services. With over 100 partners worldwide, the VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) extends Cloud vServices and creates mobility and interoperability across common services built by VMware, service providers and customers themselves. As part of the VMware vCloud Initiative, the VSPP program continues to be enhanced to more effectively serve this community of partners with licensing, tools, training and support to accelerate their ability to deliver VMware Ready Cloud vServices. Partners can learn more by going to www.vmware.com/go/vspp.

For a list partners in the VMware vCloud Initiative, please visit www.vmware.com/go/vcloud.

“Utility computing was the forerunner for what evolved into the enterprise cloud computing solutions we are seeing today,” said Bryan Doerr, CTO, SAVVIS, Inc. “SAVVIS pioneered a virtualized IT services delivery platform and now offers VMware-based virtualized services that will enable enterprises to design new systems, optimize security, performance, and reliability attributes along with the scalability of cloud solutions, and meet a range of enterprise requirements.”

Cloud Computing for the Virtual Datacenter OS
A highly elastic, self-managing, and self-healing platform is critical to enabling cloud computing both in the enterprise and on the public internet. The Virtual Datacenter OS from VMware comprises Cloud vServices with unique capabilities that enable optimal delivery of cloud computing:

• Best-in-class hypervisor that provides highest single server efficiency: VMware ESX and ESXi enable optimal use of every type of server resource while minimizing overhead. VMware has a patented approach to efficient memory, CPU and i/o virtualization that allows for the highest consolidation ratios and linear scaling, which allows increasing numbers of virtual machines to run on a single host without performance degradation.
• The ability to aggregate cost-effective x86 servers, storage and network into a single platform to achieve the highest cluster efficiency: VMware aggregates compute resources from farms of physical servers, storage and network, and transforms them into logical resource pools. These pools of virtualized resources are allocated to applications based on business priorities and enable levels of resource efficiency previously not possible in the physical world.
• Highly scalable infrastructure management via fully automated datacenter: vCenter will include a powerful orchestration engine, vCenter Orchestrator, which will enable the development of customized workflows that automate operational tasks through a simple drag and drop interface, providing a far more extensible and robust automation framework than scripting.
• Utility, pay-for-what-you-use infrastructure: VMware’s goal is to enable IT to act as a true utility by continuously managing capacity and to automate tracking and chargeback of the costs associated with those cloud computing services. vCenter Chargeback will enable automated tracking and chargeback of costs, thus enabling the datacenter to function as a utility.

“As a global provider of converged IT and telecommunication (ICT) services, we at T-Systems continue to leverage industry-leading products and technologies from VMware in order to provide flexible, high-quality utility and cloud computing enterprise application services for our business customers,” said Dr. Gregory O. Smith, vice president technical deal solution design, T-Systems North America.

 

• VMware's vCloud Initiative