VMware Cloud on AWS provides dedicated, single-tenant cloud infrastructure with support multiple SDDC per organization, with up to 16 hosts per cluster, delivered on the next-generation bare metal AWS infrastructure based on the latest Amazon EC2 Storage Optimized high I/O instances and featuring low-latency Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) based SSDs.
You can quickly create new VMware SDDC clusters on AWS Cloud through a web-based console or by utilizing a RESTful API. VMware manages and operates the service including VMware SDDC software components and the modern web-based console. VMware delivers service status with notifications, enterprise-grade 24×7 service support & site reliability operations, and support center with FAQs, forums & chat support. VMware delivers scheduled SDDC software updates and emergency software patches with notifications, and auto-remediation of hardware failures.
AWS Native Services Integration
Use private access to 200+ AWS services such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon FSx, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon Redshift, AWS Backup, AWS Direct Connect, Amazon DynamoDB, AWS WAF, and Elastic Load Balancing to enrich architectures and augment applications and services.
Bare Metal Cloud Infrastructure
VMware Cloud on AWS provides the VMware SDDC software stack to the highly scalable AWS Cloud, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and vCenter Server. Configuration for production environment can range in size for the SDDC cluster depending on the host type that is selected. View the current host types on the VMware Cloud on AWS Pricing page. You can deploy a fully configured VMware SDDC Cluster in under a few hours, and scale host capacity up and down in minutes.
Dedicated High Performance Networking
VMware Cloud on AWS provides separate, dedicated high performance networks for management and application traffic, connected through the VMware NSX networking platform, and provides support for networking multicasting. ESXi hosts are connected to an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) through Elastic Networking Adapter (ENA), which supports throughput up to 25 Gbps.
- NSX and AWS Direct Connect Integration: Now generally available, NSX integrates with AWS Direct Connect for end-to-end private networking. This enables private and consistent connectivity between VMware workloads running on AWS and those running on-premises and also accelerates migration to cloud and enables multi-tier hybrid applications. Customers can now use AWS Direct Connect for all of their hybrid connectivity requirements.
Flexible Storage Options
Each SDDC cluster utilizes an “all flash” vSAN storage solution built on NVMe instance storage. Each ESXi host has NVMe storage. You can manage your storage SLAs on a per-application basis through your existing Storage Policy-Based Management provided by vSphere.
Integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
Customers now have the flexibility to add datastores to their existing SDDCs over NFS protocol using VMware Cloud on AWS integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. This provides a high-performance, full managed storage solution to support growing workload needs. This solution also brings familiar NetApp features such as snapshots, cloning and replication to help further reduce costs and improve data protection.
Migrating Virtual Machines
Migrate your virtual machines between your on-premises data center and another in your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. VMware Cloud on AWS supports different vSphere installations as well as a variety of tools and methods for hybrid migration including:
Hybrid Migration with VMware HCX
VMware HCX, a multi-cloud app mobility solution, is provided free to all SDDCs and facilitates migration of workload VMs from your on-premises data center to your SDDC.
Hybrid Migration with vMotion
Migration with vMotion, also known as hot migration or live migration, moves a powered-on VM from one host or datastore to another. Migration with vMotion is the best option for migrating small numbers of VMs without incurring any downtime.
Hybrid Cold Migration
Cold migration moves powered-off VMs from one host or datastore to another. Cold migration is a good option when you can tolerate some VM downtime during the migration process.
Security and Compliance
VMware Cloud on AWS lets you benefit from the AWS security-first approach, including IPSec VPN connectivity between your on-premises environment and VMware Cloud on AWS. You can utilize Network Address Translation (NAT) to establish connectivity for workloads running in your private subnet with VMware Cloud on AWS, and leverage network ACLs to control traffic to and from the subnet.
- Micro-segmentation with NSX: Offers granular protection for each application workload, preventing the lateral spread of threats in cloud environments. This feature enables granular control over East-West traffic between application workloads running in the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. Security policies are dynamically enforced at the VM-level, preventing security threats from spreading across network.
- vSAN encryption with AWS Key Management System (KMS):This enables encryption of data at rest with AWS’s managed service for creating and controlling the encryption keys. All data in VMware Cloud on AWS is encrypted at no additional cost.
What is VMware Cloud on AWS?
VMware Cloud on AWS is the preferred service for AWS for all vSphere-based workloads. VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware’s enterprise-class SDDC software to the AWS Cloud with optimized access to native AWS services. Powered by VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Cloud on AWS integrates VMware’s compute, storage, and network virtualization products (VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, and VMware NSX) along with VMware vCenter Server management, optimized to run on dedicated, elastic, bare-metal AWS infrastructure.
Why should I use VMware Cloud on AWS?
AWS is VMware’s preferred public cloud partner for all vSphere-based workloads. VMware Cloud on AWS provides you consistent and interoperable infrastructure and services between VMware-based datacenters and the AWS cloud, which minimizes the complexity and associated risks of managing diverse environments. VMware Cloud on AWS offers native access to AWS services and innovation that extends the value of enterprise applications over their lifecycle.
Can workloads running in a VMware Cloud on AWS instance integrate with AWS services?
Yes. VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC is directly connected to customer’s VPC using Elastic Network Interface (ENI) and therefore has access to AWS services. Virtual machine workloads can access public API endpoints for AWS services such as AWS Lambda, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon S3 and Elastic Load Balancing, as well as private resources in the customer’s Amazon VPC such as Amazon EC2, and data and analytics services such as Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Kinesis and Amazon Redshift. Customers can also now enjoy Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) for fully managed file service to scale the file-based storage automatically to petabyte scale with high availability and durability across multiple Availability Zones (AZs).
How do I manage resources on VMware Cloud on AWS?
You can use the same management tools you use today. A vCenter Server instance is deployed as part of every VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. You may connect to this vCenter Server instance to manage their VMware Cloud on AWS clusters. A VMware Cloud Web Console is provided which allows for common tasks such as the add/remove hosts, configure firewalls and other basic networking settings.
Can I migrate existing vSphere VMs to my VMware Cloud on AWS deployment?
Yes. There are multiple ways to migrate existing vSphere VMs to VMware Cloud on AWS. You can perform of a live migration of vSphere VMs via a vMotion or by leveraging VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX).