VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail provides the simplest path to the hybrid cloud through a fully integrated platform that leverages native VxRail hardware and software capabilities and other VxRail unique integrations.
Dell enables organizational IT transformation and hybrid cloud adoption by providing flexible modern cloud infrastructure solutions that can transform IT at the pace our customers are ready for. Cloud transformation is a journey. It does not happen overnight. Dell Technologies is looking to be our customers’ strategic partner to help them on their journey.
IT and cloud transformation can be accomplished using a phased approach that aligns with where our customers are in their journey. First, customers can modernize their infrastructure by taking advantage of scale-out, software-defined, and cloud-enabled technologies across servers, storage, and core HCI systems, and full-stack HCI private-cloud-ready infrastructure. This helps break down infrastructure management silos to enable a more streamlined IT operations experience.
Second, customers can begin to automate their services and create a self-service experience for the business to interface with IT. This activity could happen in parallel with the third phase, which is when customers transform the way they operate and recognize the need for new roles, skills, and organizational structures to best use and optimize these new technology capabilities.
Businesses that can successfully navigate through these phases are poised for success in the new digital era.
Adoption phases
Customers who are just getting started can look to modernize their traditional three-tiered infrastructure by adopting HCI to help simplify compute and storage operations. No longer do they have to manage compute and storage in silos, and use hardware-based infrastructure to provide compute and storage services. They can simplify their operations by consolidating compute and storage management using native VMware tools. They can leverage the power of automation and compute and storage virtualization to provide IT with more agility in provisioning infrastructure and life cycle management.
Instead of taking days or weeks to provision compute and storage infrastructure, they can now do the provision in minutes to hours by deploying VxRail HCI. VxRail includes vSphere for Compute Virtualization, vSAN for Storage Virtualization, and VxRail HCI System Software, which includes Manager software for HCI Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Automation. If needed, VxRail can be augmented with a customer’s existing external storage infrastructure so the customer can maintain investment protection for those existing assets or leverage them for specific workloads as needed.
Some customers might plan to implement hybrid or multicloud in the future for their core data centers and the edge but want to start with just the foundational pieces needed to get there over time. Those customers can start by implementing a standardized VMware full-stack HCI private-cloud-ready infrastructure architecture with VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail that includes NSX for network security and optional network virtualization and SDDC Manager for full-stack HCI LCM and automation. Here, a customer deploys a VMware full-stack HCI private-cloud-ready SDDC infrastructure on-premises with the benefit of automated full-stack HCI life cycle management and automation while still maintaining IT control over resource provisioning and infrastructure management.
By incorporating technologies that allow for virtualizing all their infrastructure, customers can take advantage of what a fully virtualized infrastructure can provide, such as resource utilization, workload and infrastructure configuration agility, and advanced security. With SDDC software life cycle automation provided by VMware Cloud Foundation (specifically SDDC Manager which is a part of VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail), customers can streamline the life cycle management experience for the full-stack HCI software and hardware stack. Customers no longer need to worry about performing updates and upgrades manually using multiple tools for all the SDDC SW and HW components of the stack. These processes are streamlined through a common and integrated management toolset in SDDC Manager along with VxRail Manager.
Also at this stage, customers can begin to leverage the advanced network security that software-based networking tooling can deliver. This security goes beyond what core HCI includes without requiring a full transition to a full virtualized network implementation. For example, customers can take advantage of NSX microsegmentation and distributed firewalling, which was nearly impossible to implement using physical networking tools.
When they are ready, customers can then begin to leverage the data services benefits that a fully virtualized infrastructure can offer along with SDDC infrastructure LCM automation. For example, customers use the software-defined networking features from NSX, such as logical overlay network virtualization. Another important aspect is the introduction of VMware Cloud Foundation for deployment of these SDDC components. With this standardized design incorporated as part of the platform, customers are guaranteed that these components have been certified with each other and are backed by Dell Technologies. Customers can then be assured of an automated and validated path forward to get from one Continuously Validated State to the next across the end-to-end stack.
Also during this phase, customers can look to consolidate multiple application workloads to run on a common infrastructure platform. To help accelerate modern application transformation, customers can also optionally leverage native modern application platform runtime and control plane services. They can also take advantage of additional developer services using VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu and other Tanzu portfolio offerings.
As their cloud readiness grows, customers might have needs for better operational management of their newly virtualized full-stack HCI private-cloud-ready infrastructure. Here they can incorporate additional cloud infrastructure operations management capabilities into the environment—SDDC operations management capabilities provided by Aria Operations, Aria Log Insight, and Aria Network Insight. These capabilities can be added seamlessly in alignment with best practices standardized architecture guarantees. In this stage, customers can begin transforming how they operate to better manage and monitor a fully virtualized full-stack HCI private-cloud-ready infrastructure. Customers now can gain more insight into the SDDC abstractions across compute, network, and storage and their associated costs. They can use the power of integrated analytics to become smarter and more efficient when performing capacity planning or troubleshooting. These cloud infrastructure operations management tools can be automatically deployed. They can then be life cycle managed using vRSLCM, which has been natively integrated into VMware Cloud Foundation to easily extend cloud infrastructure operations management capabilities and prepare IT teams for full cloud operating model transformation.
After attaining a comfort level in managing, operating, and automating the infrastructure, a customer might then be ready to transform how the infrastructure is delivered to the business by adopting a cloud operating model. Adoption of this model provides the business with services such as Infrastructure as a Service using IT-governed self-service portals and catalogs to business users. This stage in the cloud transformation journey would involve a combination of people and process changes within an IT organization as well as the technology to support it. Here, customers can introduce cloud management, automation, and governance with Aria Automation. At this stage, a customer would have a full private cloud with self-service catalogs.
For many customers, the target destination is a hybrid cloud and multicloud. In this stage, customers extend on the capabilities that they have built with their private cloud. They begin to incorporate public cloud and edge cloud services to enable workload mobility, portability, and location independence for deciding where workloads should run, all while leveraging a common operating model across both private and public cloud resources. Here they can leverage public cloud services such as VMware Cloud on AWS services and HCX workload mobility solutions. With these services and solutions, they can align to business priorities—whether for cost purposes or governance requirements—and build out hybrid cloud use cases. They can extend this to other VCPP powered or native public cloud providers and leverage cloud-based multicloud security with Carbon Black. Thus, they can take advantage of SaaS-based Tanzu Mission Control for multicloud K8s cluster management and Aria SaaS services to incorporate cloud native infrastructure services and applications into their strategy. All this allows IT to be a strategic business enabler for new digital transformation initiatives.
VMware Cloud Foundation on VxRail makes data center operations simpler by bringing the ease and automation of the public cloud in-house. It deploys a standardized and validated flexible network architecture with integrated life cycle automation for the entire cloud infrastructure stack including hardware. It enables a true hybrid cloud based on a common and compatible VMware Cloud Foundation platform that stretches from on-premises to off-premises. The platform combines the speed and flexibility of a public cloud with the security and control of on-premises infrastructure. It provides simplicity, consistency, and peace-of-mind to customers and empowers organizations to deliver business innovation and differentiation.
