VMware Cloud on AWS Flex (VMC Flex) is a transformative solution for businesses looking to migrate their workloads to the public cloud. With diverse driving factors such as cost savings, enhanced security, improved availability, flexibility, sustainability, and agility, VMC Flex offers a seamless transition of VMs from on-premises or private cloud environments directly into a VMware environment hosted in AWS data centers.

This integration benefits both business and IT teams. IT professionals will find familiarity in operating within a VMware environment, coupled with access to new services like AI and advanced database offerings. For businesses, this means traditional applications can easily integrate new frontends or leverage AI services, all through simple network connections within the AWS ecosystem.

VMC Flex comprises three layers:

1. Physical Layer: This base layer consists of physical servers and networks provided by AWS and located within AWS data centers.
2. Virtualization Layer: Above the physical layer, VMware offers a unique virtualization layer different from AWS EC2 instances. This includes vSphere, VSAN, and NSX.
3. Cloud Layer: To enable multitenancy, VMC Flex incorporates the VMware Cloud Director service. Managed and operated by VMware and configured by T-Systems, this layer unifies the three layers into a cohesive service.

VMC Flex recommends using the VMware Cloud Director Availability (VCDA) for efficient workload migration from private or on-premises data centers. It also enables linkage of legacy VMware environments with AWS native services for a diverse range of applications, including AI, S3 storage, and advanced security features.

Key advantages of VMC Flex include:

• No Pre-ordered Hardware: Deploy VMs as needed, ensuring rapid deployment and utilization for the required duration.
• Pay-Per-Hour Billing: Customers are billed per hour, per VM, based on runtime, promoting cost-efficiency and flexibility.
• Resource Optimization: With no pre-allocated resources, customers pay only for what they use, with options to power down systems when not in use.
• Portability and Disaster Recovery: Migrate VMs from on-premises locations using VCDA, which also supports disaster recovery planning.
• Network Preparation: VCDA allows for network setup (like routing and firewall rules) in advance, facilitating a smooth transition of production VMs to pre-configured networks.
• Elastic DRS (eDRS): Rapid provisioning of new hosts within minutes, ensuring cluster capacity is never overcommitted, even during peak periods like Black Friday or Christmas.
• Terraform Integration: For developers, the infrastructure-as-code approach integrates infrastructure deployment within the coding process.
• Global Availability: Leveraging AWS's global data center network and VMware's VMC, VMC Flex is available in up to 24 AWS regions globally.
• User Interface: The Cloud Director portal provides a user-friendly interface for managing services.
• Pre-Defined VM Types: VMC Flex uses pre-defined T-shirt size VM types, available through a built-in catalog.

Use Case: VMC Flex serves as an ideal temporary station for migrating VMware-based VMs to AWS, particularly for complex applications requiring more time for AWS-native migration.

As a VMC Flex customer, you gain:

• Complete departure from traditional data centers.
• Elimination of infrastructure maintenance costs and personnel requirements.
• Payment flexibility, only for resources used, with the ability to control VM power states.
• Freedom to migrate to AWS native services at your own pace, facilitating application refactoring and development.
• Stability and reliability with an SLA of 99.9%.

VMC Flex stands out as a versatile, efficient, and scalable solution, catering to the evolving needs of businesses transitioning to the public cloud.