VMware sends over 1,400 client environments to the IBM Cloud
VMware and IBM have announced a partnership that will see the former send over 1,400 of its client VMware environments to the IBM Cloud, with Honeywell International and Vodafone among those heralding the transition.
Making the announcement at VMworld Europe 2017 in Barcelona on Tuesday, the tech heavyweights touted the partnership as tackling the challenge of extending existing VMware workloads from on-premises environments to the cloud without having to re-tool operations, re-architect applications, and redesign security policies.
According to the companies, organisations are able to run their VMware workloads in the cloud and leverage IBM's AI and analytics services as an extension of their VMware deployment.
"Enterprises in nearly every industry want to use the cloud to modernise and create new business opportunities," added Faiyaz Shahpurwala, general manager of IBM Cloud. "IBM's partnership with VMware has enabled more than 1,400 enterprises to quickly and easily transition to the cloud to securely scale, and enhance their workloads with full access to a rich catalogue of IBM Cloud services including AI, data and analytics, IoT, serverless, and more."
The Performance Materials and Technology Division of Honeywell International said it selected IBM Cloud as the foundation for its Open Virtual Engineering Platform, which enables users to build and test engineering processes in big blue's cloud-based environment.
By moving to the IBM Cloud, Vimal Kapur, president of Honeywell Process Solutions, said Honeywell is able to take advantage of existing tools, technologies, and operational processes in the cloud, while also leveraging data protection and security capabilities from HyTrust and Intel.
"Honeywell is developing the technologies of tomorrow so that manufacturing and plant operators can better address challenges such as efficiency, productivity, reliability, safety, and security," Kapur explained.
"The partnership between IBM and VMware is enabling Honeywell to deliver new industrial automation technologies like the Open Virtual Engineering Platform for our customers around the world."
Additionally, Vodafone and IBM announced a new service enabling enterprises to move their VMware-based workloads from the Vodafone Hosted Private Cloud to the IBM Cloud.
VMware and IBM have also partnered with F5 Networks and Fortinet to offer customers further network control to enhance security in the public cloud.
In Q4 2017, IBM will make F5 Networks' BIG-IP virtual suite of products available in the IBM Cloud for VMware solutions portal. At the same time, IBM will make Fortinet's FortiGate-NGFW virtual appliance and bundled services available in the IBM Cloud for VMware solutions portal.
Also announced on Tuesday was the adoption of VMware HCX Technologies by IBM to enable large-scale application migration and ongoing portability between both cloud environments.
Come Q4 2017, the VMware Horizon Cloud service will also be offered by IBM Cloud and will be delivered as a fully cloud-hosted service managed end to end by IBM, or as a hybrid solution using on-premises hyperconverged infrastructure to enable new use cases for desktops-as-a-service (DaaS), the companies explained.
The new offering comes as IBM Cloud received VMware Cloud Verified status.
IBM used its presence at VMworld Europe 2017 to also announce, alongside Dell EMC, that the companies had partnered to offer VMware Solutions on the IBM Cloud.
SAP-Certified Solutions for VMware on IBM Cloud, and also new SAP-Certified Bare Metal Servers in the IBM Cloud, were unveiled in Barcelona on Tuesday.