Hello again! This is part 3 of a series of blogs I am writing about hybrid cloud and systems management. In the previous part, I talked about how hybrid cloud was clearly underdefined in the industry and I laid out three specific types of hybrid cloud. Those types were:
- Common Platform – Where the base infrastructure and virtualization platform are the same, allowing the common use of existing management tools and processes.
- Common Applications/APIs – Where the end applications or application APIs are the same, allowing common applications to be developed across different platforms.
- Common Management – Where the management tools have the capability to manage all the different environments, with a common interface and process.
In this part of the series, I’m going to be focusing on common platform hybrid cloud. Common platform is where the base infrastructure platform is shared between the disparate clouds. While these clouds can be in different locations or from different providers, by having a common platform, IT can leverage a common tool set, most often an existing one, as well as the entire knowledge base of their staff and the existing ecosystem to help support it.
VMware Cloud on AWS: What Is It?
A great example of common platform hybrid cloud is the new VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware Cloud on AWS is a new service from VMware, in beta now and expected to be generally available in mid-2017. VMware Cloud on AWS offers compute, storage, and networking based on the existing VMware offerings with vSphere, Virtual SAN, and NSX, all while running on AWS infrastructure. Customers that use this service will essentially get a public cloud service, both running on and being able to leverage AWS services, while still being compatible with their existing VMware investment. As I noted before, it’s not just the software compatibility that is important but also the ability to leverage the existing VMware ecosystem that most companies have built up. That means the existing systems management framework, from personnel to software, instantly becomes hybrid-cloud-enabled.
The most important part of common platform hybrid cloud is that it greatly lowers the barrier of entry of hybrid cloud (especially hyper scale public cloud) and it allows IT to focus on the operational aspects of hybrid cloud, not the architectural or migrational aspects of it. Common platform hybrid cloud transforms existing IT systems management into hybrid cloud, whether it is advertised as hybrid cloud compatible or not. Common platform hybrid cloud makes for an easy transition for most companies as they look to take advantage of the power and agility of cloud.
Looking Ahead, And Looking Back
In my next blog, we’ll cover the idea of common application hybrid cloud, and examples of that, including Microsoft Azure Stack and HPE Eucalyptus.
This is Part 3 of a blog series about hybrid cloud. Check out the other parts in the series:
Edwin Yuen is an analyst covering cloud systems management, including automation and orchestration technologies for ESG. Read more ESG blogs here.
