Multi-cloud is set to be the default digital business model as industries reinvent themselves. Case in point: the average organisation is already running approximately 500 applications distributed across clouds to drive their business today.
Sumit Dhawan, president of VMware, explains at a virtual media briefing today that organisations are leveraging multi-cloud to “build cloud-native apps, modernise traditional or core applications, and/or develop edge-native apps”.
However, adopting multi-cloud can introduce complexity that often forces trade-offs between moving fast and managing risk, resulting in slower execution while increasing costs.
This calls for organisations to be ‘cloud-smart’, wherein they have “the freedom to choose the right cloud based on their strategic business goals,” says Raghu Raghuram, chief executive officer of VMware.
VMware has therefore launched VMware Cross-Cloud services, a group of integrated services that will help organisations be cloud-smart and manage their multi-cloud environment more easily.
With VMware Cross-Cloud Services, organisations can accelerate their journey to the cloud as well as gain cost efficiency, flexibility and control across any cloud.
It comprises five core building blocks:
- A state-of-the-art platform for building and deploying cloud-native apps
- Cloud infrastructure for operating and running enterprise apps
- Cloud management for monitoring and managing the performance and cost of apps across different clouds
- Security and networking that spans across entire multi-cloud operations to connect and better secure all apps
- A digital workspace to empower the distributed workforce along with edge solutions to deploy and manage edge-native apps.
According to Richard Villars, group vice president of IDC, the new offerings will help “enterprises take full advantage of multiple clouds and their resources in their own data centres to improve resiliency and the trusted use of technology for delivery of better experiences and business outcomes”.
Helping organisations realise opportunities at the edge
VMware Edge is among the new innovations that fall under VMware Cross-Cloud Services.
Raghuram shares at the same media briefing that more organisations will adopt edge computing to better address the needs of their remote workforce and support some new initiatives to blend the physical and digital world. One example of the latter is retailers building out cashierless stores, which require edge AI tools.
See also: Over half of Southeast Asian consumers willing to share their data with retailers: VMware
According to VMware, edge-native apps require a multi-cloud edge. One that stitches together underlay services running on a service provider network (e.g., private connectivity, carrier 5G, network slicing) with overlay services delivered on top and a compute services abstraction for the edge applications. All orchestrated by a management plane that provides consistent observability, installation, configuration, operations and management across all edge locations.
With VMware Edge, organisations can gain the above capabilities so that they can run and manage edge-native apps across multiple clouds, anywhere.
“Many transformational technologies like 5G are converging at the edge. Now is the time for organisations to establish a digital foundation for their edge infrastructure,” says Dave McCarthy, research vice president for cloud and edge infrastructure services at IDC.
He continues: “With its leadership in multi-cloud and modern apps, VMware is uniquely positioned to deliver a comprehensive set of solutions that help its customers drive business continuity, agility and create competitive differentiation at the edge.”
Photo: VMware
