VMware Cloud on AWS | Features

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.

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.

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 is ideal for customers with traffic-heavy workloads. 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.

Disaster Recovery uses familiar VMware vSPhere and Site Recovery Manager technologies while leveraging cloud economics. You can replicate to VMware Cloud on AWS using VMware Site Recovery Manager to one or multiple Software-Defined Data Centers. VMware Site Recovery Manager can help you automate disaster recovery, meet your recovery point objectives (RPOs), and recovery time objectives (RTOs), as well as reduce operational errors. Disaster Recovery sites can be right-sized or scaled up when you need it and down when it is no longer required.

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. You can also take advantage of advanced data services, including Quality of Service, snapshots, erasure coding, and VMware APIs for third-party data protection (VADP).

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.

The integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP provides the only, jointly-engineered fully managed external network file system (NFS) datastore for VMware Cloud on AWS. With this capability, you can attach high-performance storage built on NetApp’s popular ONTAP file system to your VMware Cloud on AWS Software Defined Data Center (SDDC). You can scale storage and compute independently to help reduce cost and accelerate your VMware vSphere-based workload migration to AWS. View the effective storage cost for your deployment on the Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP pricing page.

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.

VMware Cloud on AWS supports custom-sized VMs, runs any OS supported by VMware, and makes use of single-tenant bare metal AWS infrastructure.

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.

In addtiion to many security capabilities, VMware Cloud on AWS also has been independently verified to comply with ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, SOC 1 (type 1 and 2), SOC 2 (type 1 and 2), SOC 3, and HIPAA. Furthermore, VMware Cloud on AWS complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Single Host SDDC is our low-cost gateway into the VMware Cloud on AWS hybrid cloud solution. Typically purchased as a 3+ host service, it is the perfect way to test your first workload and leverage the additional capability and flexibility of VMware Cloud on AWS for 30 days.  Try it now.

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