Disclamer:
The VMC-E product was announced at VMware Explore, it isn’t yet a product, so all features and functionality are still in development and may or may not come to pass. This blog is based on my personal title and assumptions. No rights can be derived from this blog.
VMware recently announced VMC-E at VMware Explore, a new VMware Solution for a Distributed Cloud.
There are already several public Cloud Solutions available that seamlessly integrate with the VMware infrastructure like AWS (VMCA), Azure (AVS) , Oracle (OCVM) and Google (GCVE).
The VMC-E solution is primarily focused on the future (CO-LO Providers).
VMC-E in a nutshell.
Probably the picture below speaks for itself!
VMware SDDS + Equinix Metal= VMC-E.
VMCE-E Global Solution overview.
VMware CloudTM on Equinix brings VMware’s enterprise class Software-Defined Data Center software to Equinix Metal. SDDC managed, operated and supported by VMware as an on-demand service, enables IT teams to manage their cloud-based resources with familiar VMware tools
What makes VMC-E a so interessting?
VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal distinguishes itself by 2 unique aspects.
First of all the infrastructure has a reliable network connectivity (Equinix Fabric) which means that network latency is generally extremely low.
Use case:
This stable connectivity introduces new possibilities and makes it possible to migrate critical workload with low latency requirements, from an On-Premises Datacenter to a Public Cloud (VMC-E).
Equinix Metal is currently available in 22 ‘Metro’ locations around the world and addressing latency and data residency business needs.
Data Center-Out Use Cases
•Distributed Cloud enables Distributed Apps
•Core Data in neutral Equinix locations
•Core App in neutral VMCE
•Updates come via hyper-scaler native services (e.g. AI, ML, etc.) out-of-band
•Leverage massive investment in native services by hyper-scalers
Secondly, this service will be available at scale, including Amsterdam.
This allows customers to locate their workload / data ‘locality’ on a secure, compliant national cloud that meets the business requirements.
Data Center Edge Locations.
IT might also be interesting to deploy workload to an Edge location nearby. By reducing the distance, the network latency also decreases.
Edge-In Use Cases
•High-performance VDI
•Video Analytics
•Online gaming
•High-frequency trading
•Streaming video
•Sports applications
•Data locality/
residency
Equinix Co location Use Case:
An interesting use case could be to move only applications to VMC-E but keep the data and database at the co Equinix-Colocation.
Data Center-Out Use Case:
Combine data center resources with hyperscaler native services
•Distributed Cloud enables Distributed Apps
•Core Data in neutral Equinix locations
•Core App in neutral VMCE
•Updates come via hyper-scaler native services (e.g. AI, ML, etc.) out-of-band
•Leverage massive investment in native services by hyper-scalers
Recap:
By introducing VMC-E, Equinix and VMware can address all cloud challenges within a single solution.
- Global footprint with 240+ neutral locations
- On-demand capacity and flexible consumption
- Built-in connections to all hyperscalers
- Seamless, large-scale workload portabilityand hybrid operationsCloud at Edge
- Locations in prime real estate areas
- < 20 ms latency for performance-criticalapplicationsCloud with Assurance
- Operational consistency with on-premises
- Data residency and single-tenant instances for security and compliance
- Re-use of existing networking/security policy in Equinix co-lo deployments
- VMware and Equinix Partner Ecosystems