Adopting the Cloud Service Model in the Data Center
Cloud computing defines the way we listen to music, commute, run applications and collaborate at work. Next, the cloud is redefining how we run data centers.
On-premises infrastructure influenced much of the initial innovation in the public and private cloud. Now, cloud models shape innovation happening in the data center, says Kit Colbert, chief technology officer of VMware’s Cloud Platform Business Unit.
Colbert: The cloud really has come a long way. It’s no longer just a place. It’s a model. As a model, there’s an opportunity to bring all the benefits of the public cloud to the on-premises data center or wherever workloads exist.
We’ve seen businesses drive tremendous agility in the cloud, but due to a variety of reasons, some workloads still need to stay on premises (either in the data center or at the edge). Now, it’s possible to get the best of both worlds: the agility, the cost efficiency and the simplicity of the cloud in addition to the control, security and compliance of on-premises infrastructure.
Colbert: Traditionally, organizations, and even managed service providers, operate the on-premises data center with human-based interactions, like ticketing systems. What if IT could programmatically interact with and manage their on-premises infrastructure, instead, like the cloud?
For example, with our new VMware C loud on Dell EMC cloud service, our customers will be able to programmatically manage their on-premises infrastructure through a cloud portal and APIs. VMware Cloud on Dell EMC consists of the full VMware SDDC with Dell EMC VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure. The key difference from previous products from us is that we’re not delivering this as a true cloud service. It’s still very early, but I think that we’re going to see this model used more and more.
Colbert: VMware Cloud on Dell EMC requires a much deeper integration between software and hardware, which we haven’t seen before in the data center. Of course, software is always developed and tested to be compatible with the underlying hardware, but we’re talking about is a much tighter integration.
We want to make sure that we can understand what’s happening at the hardware layer so we can correlate with issues happening at the software layer. With that end-to-end picture, out of the box, in many cases VMware Cloud on Dell EMC will be able to proactively identify and correct issues without the customer taking any action.
This unprecedented integration is a testament to the strength of the partnership between VMware and Dell EMC. But it’s only the beginning of what we introduced as Project Dimension during VMworld 2018.
