VMware Cloud on AWS is an integrated cloud offering jointly developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and VMware. You can deliver a highly scalable and secure service by migrating and extending your on-premises VMware vSphere-based environments to the AWS Cloud running on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

VMware Cloud on AWS in an enterprise-class Software-defined datacenter software deployed on AWS infrastructure with optimized access to AWS services. It is powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud on AWS integrates VMware’s compute (ESXi), Storage (vSAN) and Network (NSX-T) virtualization products along with VMware vCenter Management and is optimized to run on dedicated, elastic and bare-metal AWS infrastructure.

VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC is running on AWS elastic bare-metal infrastructure, which provides high bandwidth, low latency connectivity to AWS services.

VMware and AWS offer organizations a faster, secure path to the cloud. Use your current skills, processes, and governance to deliver secure virtual apps and desktops with our Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions to enable employees to work securely from any location. With VMware Cloud on AWS, you can migrate datacenters to the cloud for rapid datacenter evacuation, disaster recovery, and application modernization.

Key Benefits of  VMware Cloud on AWS

Simplify the cloud adoption process

• Centralize support of your entire virtual desktop infrastructure using VMware Cloud on AWS
• Extend your on-premises VDI environment to the cloud to help smooth the overall cloud adoption process for your entire organization
• Use the same desktops on-premises and on the cloud, meaning no further changes have to be made once they have been migrated to VMware Cloud on AWS

Modernize your VDI environment

• Accelerate adoption of current and future technologies and solutions using the high-performance, open architecture
• Increase automation and reduce the need for administrators to tend to manual tasks by updating your VDI workloads on VMware Cloud on AWS
• Quickly update the familiar components in the existing VMware Software-Defined Data Center

Migrate to the cloud on your terms

• Rapidly migrate to VMware Cloud on AWS by employing VMware HCX to deliver secure desktop and application mobility across all your environments, if your organization already uses VMware vSphere
• Run HCX on AWS Direct Connect to directly migrate your workloads using the advanced connectivity that is provided by AWS
• Easily add or remove contract or contingent employees—as well as those working remotely—depending on need

Seamless transition

• Use the same local tool stack and the same images as your on-premises environment—so there is no need to convert to a new image technology once you migrate to VMware Cloud on AWS
• Immediately gain access to native AWS services (such as Amazon Relational Database Service), and reduce your on-premises infrastructure needs since you will no longer have to build those in-house
• Move workloads to the innovative VMware Cloud on AWS platform to better suit both your current and future technology needs

Flexible deployment options

• Rapidly scale your VDI environment up or down on-demand across multiple pods and sites
• Stretch Cloud Pod Architecture across both your on-premises data centers and VMware Cloud on AWS
• Eliminate the need to purchase new hardware to support growing or changing virtual desktop needs

Cloud-scale agility

• Continue to leverage the enterprise capabilities of the VMware SDDC, including compute, storage, and networking, delivered as a service on AWS
• Easily add and extend desktop services without having to invest in additional data center resources
• Optimize latency-sensitive applications with on-demand capacity and business continuity between your on-premises and VMware Cloud on AWS environments

Why to Use VMware Cloud On AWS?

• Rapid and easy migration of  On-premises VMware vSphere workloads to the cloud. Less risk and cost of cloud migrations compared to alternatives that require conversions or re-architecture.
• Leverage familiar VMware tools and skillsets to accelerate cloud migrations. Once in the cloud, you can leverage VMware and AWS services to modernize your applications at your pace.
• Extend the vSphere footprint into the cloud and get VMware vSphere consistent environments in the AWS cloud in a cost-effective.
• Archive business continuity with VMware Site Recovery, on-demand disaster recovery as a service (DRAAS)
• Seamless access to the AWS native services
• No more Hardware dependency
• Without having to purchase custom hardware, rewrite applications, or modify their operating model, customers can preserve existing investments while taking advantage of AWS’s advanced capabilities, scale, and global footprint
• No need to worry about the maintenance such as upgrade, patching of VMware core components

Key capabilities of  VMware Cloud on AWS

Enterprise-grade capabilities

• Leverage predictable, high-performance computing, storage, and networking delivered by VMware vSphere, vSAN™, and NSX running on modern Nitro system-based Amazon EC2 elastic, bare-metal infrastructure.
  • Ensure application uptime through capabilities built directly in the service, such as vSphere HA, DRS, auto host remediation, and stretched clusters for zero-RPO infrastructure availability.
  • Prevent the lateral spread of threats with dynamic policy-driven NSX micro-segmentation and distributed firewalls.
  • Secure all data at rest with vSAN software-based encryption.
  • Enable automatic scaling and load balancing of environments with Elastic DRS.
  • Extend the value of existing enterprise apps with high-bandwidth, low-latency access to AWS services.
  • Enable DR in a day with cloud economics with VMware Site Recovery.

Simple and consistent operations

• Reduce operational overhead and achieve your cloud strategy faster, whether it is migration, extension, or protection, by leveraging existing skills, tools, processes, and familiar VMware technologies.
  • Get a single inventory view of on-premises and VMware Cloud on AWS resources using vCenter® Server® technology.
  • Leverage the in-product, unified support experience that brings together intelligent search, chat support, service request management, service health, and community help available at your fingertips.

Flexible consumption

• Align costs to business needs with flexible consumption options and investment protection.
  • Consume on-demand hourly or take advantage of one-year and three-year reserved models for deeper discounts.
  • Get started rapidly and provide an entire VMware SDDC environment in 2 hours.
  • Add or remove hosts in minutes or let Elastic DRS do it automatically based on optimal utilization.

Familiar and seamless

• Continue using familiar VMware technologies – plus a broad range of third-party technology solution providers that are validated to work with VMware Cloud on AWS.
• Leverage a single point of contact for all your support issues.
• Focus on your apps while VMware and its partners take care of infrastructure patches and upgrades.
• Empower infrastructure teams to run the most resource-intensive apps with all the performance, availability, and scale requirements they need, while your development teams focus on your business requirements.