VMware's Vision: Connected Global Clouds

vmware-cloud-conector

A screen shot of the VMware vCloud Service Provider Locator on the vCloud web site.

To open VMworld 2011 in Las Vegas VMware launched several new vCloud offerings and a new extension of its Cloud Application Platform strategy, vFabric Data Director.

Global Connect for vCloud

VMware (VMW) announced several new vCloud offerings to help enterprises connect and manage cloud services from the large network of service providers. VMware announced Global Connect, an optional feature of the vCloud Data center service announced in 2010, that will let customers use cloud services from multiple providers across geographies as if they are a single, virtual cloud. First to the table for service providers are Bluelock, SingTel and Softbank Telecom. The network of service providers is expected to span 25 data centers in 13 countries by the end of 2011.

“We have standardized on a hybrid cloud model because it is the only approach that provides the flexibility we need and meets strict data location requirements,” said Dr. Stuart Lee, Head of IT for the University of Oxford, UK. “Proven VMware vCloud technology at the University and at VMware vCloud service providers enables us to not only meet changing demands, but also reduce costs and improve data governance.”

New Connector, Gateway, DR services and Toolkit

VMware announced  vCloud Connector 1.5 with a new faster, highly reliable data transfer architecture that will reduce the time it takes to transfer workloads, while automatically retrying and resuming transfers interrupted by network problems. A new online destination was launched where enterprises can find vCloud service providers -- vcloud.vmware.com.

Four partners announced plans to introduce cloud-based disaster recovery services built on the recently announced vCenter Site Recovery Manager 5 - FusionStorm, Hosting.com, iland and VeriStor. Sold as a pay-per-use model they will present a simple and cost-effective way to protect corporate data and applications, while reducing or eliminating costs associated with building dedicated failover sites.

VMware announced an updated version of its vCloud Architecture Toolkit, which serves as a repository for documentation, design guides and best practices for building cloud environments. Additions in the updated version include examples of vCloud and hybrid cloud environments as well as updates to reflect new vSphere 5 and vCloud Director 1.5 releases.

vFabric - Database as a Service

Vmware announced a new database provisioning and operations solution designed to deliver a database as a service model for the enterprise. The vFabric Data Director will manage a set of heterogeneous database through policy-based automation, while streaming application development via a self-service provisioning model for developers to rapidly access the database services needed for modern applications. Building a cloud platform for applications VMware has leveraged the Spring community of Java developers and enabled access to VMware infrastructure services, third parties and an Open Platform as a Service (PaaS) framework through Cloud Foundry.

"Making it easier for Tier 3’s Enterprise Cloud customers to manage the complexities of their data is core to our Database as a Service strategy," said Jared Wray, Founder and CTO, Tier 3. "VMware vFabric Data Director overcomes many of the challenges our customers face in moving to self-service databases in the cloud and represents a real step forward in technology that empowers Database as a Service."

 Postgres support

vFabric Postgres will be the first edition of vFabric Data Director, supporting the PostgreSQL database. Future plans will include extending the common provisioning and operations model to a broad range of commercial and open source databases. vFabric Data Director will be available for download in the third quarter of 2011 at a list price of $600 per virtual machine for databases managed by vFabric Data Director.