- Related: VMware-AWS Hybrid Cloud Solution goes Live
On Monday, VMware launched its annual VMworld conference with a series of announcements aimed to highlight its multicloud plans. However, it’s clear that the most talked about announcement was its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). VMware Cloud on AWS, a hybrid-cloud solution that has been in development for nearly a year, was released on Monday. This offering is part the new VMware Cloud platform, which can be described as VMware’s portfolio public and private cloud services. Other VMworld announcements include a new portfolio, called VMware Cloud Services. It includes six offerings. The most notable of these are the new NSX Cloud which provides cloud-based microsegmentation; as well as the AppSense security platform which provides app-layer protection in the vSphere hypervisor linked to the NSX software defined networking platform. The new AWS solution was deemed the most popular by customers by VMware. Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware Cloud on AWS, made a delicate balance between showing excitement over the launch of VMware Cloud and positioning the company to be a provider of cross cloud services. Gelsinger stated, with Andy Jassy, AWS CEO, beside him on stage. “Customers are really excited.” Gelsinger was asked by analysts and press to reconcile the focus on AWS with VMware’s support for Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and its close ties to IBM. All of these topics seemed overshadowed during the keynote. Gelsinger stated that the relationship with Amazon is very different. He also said that customers have shown greater interest in the AWS-VMware joint offering than in other components of the new VMware Cloud. Gelsinger cited last week’s extended support of Google Chromebooks and the fact VMware’s Horizon Cloud is now available on Azure as examples of these components. Gelsinger was joined by Michael Dell, chairman of VMware and CEO at parent company Dell Technologies, who defended the multicloud focus. Dell stated, “It’s definitely multicloud world.” The company also launched the VMware Cloud Foundation as part of its multicloud focus. This foundation allows organizations to run cloud-native apps on-premises, and then burst onto multiple public cloud providers. Rackspace, Fujitsu, CenturyLink and Fujitsu are the initial partners of VMware’s new offering. The hardware side of VMware Cloud Foundation includes the Dell EMC VxRack, Fujitsu, Rackspace, and new releases from Hitachi Data Systems UCP RS, Fujitsu PRIMEFLEX, and QCT’s QxStack. New servers have been certified by VMware Cloud Foundation by Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Cisco. The company also launched VMware Cloud Services, which is a collection six SaaS offerings that offer various functions, including monitoring, costing, discovery, and network analysis. NSX Cloud, which offers security and networking via NSX based micro-segmentation network services, was the main focus of Monday’s event. VMware AppDefense, a platform offering threat detection and response, will also be embedded within the vSphere hypervisor. AppDefense uses all the key components of VMware SDDC to create a library with incident-response procedures and respond accordingly. Tom Corn, VMware’s senior vice-president for security products, stated that AppDefense is protecting applications that run on top of virtualized or cloud environments. “We believe it’s going be an incredibly strong model.”