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 modern cloud infrastructure solutions that can seamlessly and transform at scale.
Dell helps businesses undergo IT Transformation through adopting a MAT strategy, which takes advantage of the benefits that a hybrid can deliver. MAT enables businesses to do the following:
- Modernize their infrastructure by taking advantage of scale-out, software-defined, and cloud-enabled technologies across servers, storage, and converged systems.
- Automate their services and create a self-service experience for the business to interface with IT.
- Transform the way they operate by identifying the need for new roles, skills, and organizational structures to leverage and optimize these new technology capabilities.
The MAT strategy sets businesses up for success. Customers can modernize their traditional 3-tiered infrastructure by adopting hyperconverged infrastructure to help simplify compute and storage operations. Instead of managing compute and storage in silos through using hardware-based infrastructure to provide compute and storage services, customers can simplify their operations by consolidating compute and storage management using native VMware tools. It allows to leverage the power of automation and compute and storage virtualization to provide IT with more agility in provisioning infrastructure and life cycle management. Compute and storage infrastructure that may have previously taken several days to complete can now be completed in minutes to hours. These capabilities can be introduced by deploying VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure. 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. This stage can address the Modernize portion of the MAT strategy.
Customers who have a desire to virtualize all of their infrastructure and deploy a full VMware SDDC with the benefit of automated SDDC Lifecycle Management and Automation, can start with implementing a standardized VMware SDDC architecture on VxRail with Cloud Foundation that additionally includes NSX for Network Virtualization and Security and SDDC Manager for SDDC LCM and Automation. By virtualizing all of their infrastructure, customers can take advantage of the benefits that virtualized infrastructure can provide such as resource utilization, workload and infrastructure configuration agility, and advanced security.
SDDC software Lifecycle Automation, provided by Cloud Foundation (specifically SDDC Manager which is a part of Cloud Foundation on top of VxRail) allows customers to streamline the life cycle management experience for the full SDDC software and hardware stack. This means customers no longer have to worry about performing updates and upgrades manually. The SDDC software streamlines these processes using a common management toolset in SDDC Manager with VxRail Manager. At this stage, customers can leverage the data services benefits that a full virtualized infrastructure can offer, along with SDDC infrastructure automated life cycle management.
An example of some of the data services would be using Software Defined Networking features from NSX like micro-segmentation, which before software defined networking tools, would be nearly impossible to implement using physical networking tools. A standardized architecture is essential for these SDDC components to be deployed together by the Cloud Foundation, which is an integrated cloud software platform. A standardized design guaruntees customers that the software components have been certified with each other and is verified Dell Technologies. This ensures customers that there is an automated and validated path forward to get from one Continuously Validated State to the next across the end-to-end stack.
Customers also have the optional flexibility to incorporate Virtual Desktop workloads to run on top of this fully virtualized infrastructure with VMware Horizon. To assist in accelerating Modern App transformation, customers also have the option to leverage natively integrated modern app platform runtime and control plane services as well as additional developer services using VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu and other Tanzu portfolio offerings respectively. This stage can address the Modernize and Automate portion of the MAT strategy and can also become the foundation for a customer to be able to seamlessly implement a full-blown hybrid cloud/multi-cloud in the future.
As IT’s readiness grows, they may have needs for better operational management of this newly virtualized infrastructure. Here they can incorporate additional SDDC operations management capabilities into their SDDC. SDDC Operations Management capabilities, provided by vRealize Operations, vRealize Log Insight, and vRealize Network Insight, 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 infrastructure. Customers can now gain more insight into the SDDC abstractions and costs that exist across compute, network, and storage. Customers can leverage the power of integrated analytics to become more efficient when performing capacity planning or troubleshooting. These Cloud Operations management tools can be automatically deployed and life cycle managed using vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, which has been natively integrated into Cloud Foundation to easily extend your SDDC operations management capabilities and prepare your team for full cloud operating model transformation. This stage addresses the Modernize and Automate portion of the MAT strategy.
Once IT can manage, operate, and automate a fully virtualized SDDC infrastructure, they may be ready to transform how they deliver this infrastructure to the business by adopting a Cloud Operating Model which provides the business with services such as Infrastructure as a Service and Desktop as a Service using IT provided self service portals and catalogs to business users. This stage in the MAT strategy involves a combination of people and process changes within an IT organization and technology to support it. Customers can then introduce cloud management and automation with vRealize Automation. At this stage, a customer would have a full private cloud and could address the Transform stage of the MAT strategy.
The goal for many customers is a hybrid and multi-cloud. In this stage, customers can extend the capabilities they have built up with their private cloud and begin to incorporate public cloud and edge cloud services to enable workload mobility and location independence for workloads, while also leveraging a common operating model across both private and public cloud resources. Customers can leverage public cloud services such as VMware Cloud on AWS or for Edge use cases, VMware Cloud on Dell services along with HCX workload mobility solutions to align to their business priorities, whether that be for cost purposes or governance requirements. Customers can also extend out to other VCPP powered, or native public cloud providers and leverage cloud based multi-cloud security with Carbon Black and take advantage of Tanzu Management and Observability services to incorporate cloud native infrastructure services and applications into their strategy.
All of this enables 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 by deploying a standardized and validated network flexible architecture with built in 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. This functionality provides simplicity, consistency, and peace-of-mind to customers and empowers organizations to deliver business innovation and differentiation.
