IBM and VMware have jointly designed an architecture and cloud offering that will enable customers that are currently using VMware virtualisation in their data centres to use IBM’s cloud resources to meet additional demand for infrastructure when required.
The joint offering can also be deployed effectively to manage workload migrations and data centre consolidation, provide disaster recovery capability, and provide an extended platform for other SDDC-focused projects. In all scenarios it helps customers to make use of proven, software-defined solutions while preserving and extending investments, scaling their capabilities and reducing risks and security concerns.
As a leading distributor and aggregator partner for both VMware and IBM SoftLayer cloud solutions, Azlan is well-placed to enable partners for the new proposition, said Andrew Brown, Director of Cloud Services UK and Ireland for Tech Data.
“The strategic partnership between IBM and VMware is a good opportunity for partners of both companies. It is ideally suited for the very substantial proportion of enterprises that have on-premises deployments of VMware within their data centres and would like the capability to expand their capacity, as and when they need to, utilising IBM SoftLayer cloud services. It will enable organisations to embrace the cloud while preserving their existing investments and taking their business plans forward.
“Azlan will be contacting partners of both companies to articulate the benefits and the many real-world scenarios in which this innovative combination of technologies can be deployed. We’ll be offering end-to-end support and access to our extensive training, enablement and professional services teams to our partners that want to take advantage of the potential that this collaboration between IBM and VMware delivers.”
The jointly-designed offering will automate the provisioning of pre-configured VMware SDDC environments, consisting of VMware vSphere and Operations Management, NSX and Virtual SAN on the IBM Cloud. The use of common security and networking models will enable customers to deploy workloads in this hybrid cloud environment without modification.
IBM will utilise its extensive CloudBuilder tools and automation capabilities to provision workloads to the cloud, validated by VMware's design patterns for SDDC architectures. In addition, VMware has extended its vRealize Automation and vCenter management tools to deploy and manage environments on the IBM Cloud, as if they are part of a customer’s local data centre.
Azlan, with the support of IBM and VMware, will provide the expertise and support to help partners manage and scale IT resources for customers and quickly provision new or scale existing workloads to the IBM Cloud. It will also provide monthly-based consumption billing options through its StreamOne aggregation portal.