Today at VMworld® 2014 Europe, VMware, Inc. announced that it plans to bring VMware vCloud® Air™(previously VMware vCloud® Hybrid Service™), hybrid cloud platform to Germany. Complementing VMware’s UK location and vCloud Air® Network™of service provider options, the new VMware-operated data center will provide customers with a Central European location that addresses German and EU compliance and data sovereignty regulations. General availability is planned in the first quarter of 2015.
In addition, VMware announced its plans for an Early Access Program for VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand™ with an expanded footprint in North America and Europe. VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud will provide customers with on-demand access to vCloud Air with the swipe of a credit card.
“Since introducing VMware vCloud Air a year ago, VMware has made significant strides to provide customers with a hybrid cloud platform they know and trust,” said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. “As we continue to expand VMware vCloud Air into new markets, with more services than ever before, we are only just scratching the surface of what the service will become the industry’s leading hybrid cloud platform for delivering innovation as a service from the data center to the desktop and mobile applications.”
Data Sovereignty and the Hybrid Cloud
Data privacy, security and sovereignty continue to remain high on the list of customer concerns, even as IT organizations increasingly turn to public cloud to enable their business. The new vCloud Air location in Germany will help VMware’s European customers address local data privacy, security and sovereignty issues, while enabling them to take advantage of a public cloud from a global leader.
A recent survey of more than 225 senior IT administrators in Germany (commissioned by VMware and conducted by Ilkin Borg) revealed that 93 percent of respondents believe that the location of their cloud provider is important and that it becomes the central criterion in the selection of a suitable provider. In addition, the survey found that 71 percent of respondents want a solution that makes managing the public cloud as easy as managing their own infrastructure.
Instant, On-demand Access to vCloud Air
VMware also announced today an expanded early access program for VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand – providing customers with on-demand access to vCloud Air with the swipe of a credit card. First introduced as a beta service at VMworld US 2014, VMware Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand will provide billing in arrears only for the services consumed. The early access program is expected to be available in North America and Europe in November 2014. Customers interested in participating can sign up for an early access Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand account here.
In addition, VMware is giving European customers more options on how to connect to and leverage the cloud with VMware vCloud® Air™ Direct Connect™. This allows customers to seamlessly expand their infrastructure directly to vCloud Air for increased resources and scale as needed over private dedicated networks, enabling secure, consistent, high bandwidth connectivity.
VMware vCloud Air – A Hybrid Platform for Existing and New Applications
A little more than a year after introducing vCloud Air, VMware’s hybrid cloud platform has rapidly expanded its global footprint to provide businesses of all sizes with the fastest path to the hybrid cloud. Now with data centers in North America, Europe and Asia, VMware recently announced its hybrid cloud expansion in the Asia-Pacific region via a joint venture with SoftBank Telecom Corp. and SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. (SoftBank C&S) that brought vCloud Air to Japan. In addition, VMware has announced a strategic partnership with China Telecom to build a world-class hybrid cloud service in Beijing.
Unlike other public cloud services, vCloud Air enables organizations to extend their private on-premises IT infrastructure seamlessly to the public cloud. The resulting hybrid cloud is compatible with customers’ existing applications and allows them to build new cloud-native applications, delivering agility and efficiency to the business in a secure, reliable and compliant manner. IT departments can view, manage and operate this “best of both worlds” cloud environment in a unified way using the VMware vSphere® platform they already know and trust.
VMware’s Hybrid Cloud Provides Opportunities for Partners
With vCloud Air, channel partners play a key role integrating private data centers and public clouds and delivering hybrid solutions to customers. VMware vCloud Air was designed specifically with the channel community in mind. VMware distributors, solution providers and OEM partners sell vCloud Air the same way as any other VMware product.
In addition, VMware has an existing ecosystem of more than 2,100 vCloud Air Network Service Provider Partners in Europe that operate clouds based on VMware’s technology. Included within this ecosystem are over 160 VMware Hybrid Cloud Powered Service Providers offering true workload portability between the customer site and the cloud.
“VMware vCloud® Air™ offers a secure and flexible public cloud environment and addresses important sovereignty issues for our customers,” saidRoland Koenig, GM and head of virtualization practice, Bechtle GmbH & Co. KG. “Many of our customers tell us they need a locally-based solution and want to know that their data is hosted in Germany. We can give them that piece of mind. Working closely with our customers, we will be able to assess their existing environments and advise them on which parts of their infrastructure would be suitable for VMware vCloud Air.”
Avnet Technology Solutions, an operative division of Avnet, Inc. had its Germany team trained and fully certified on the technical, sales and operational components of VMware vCloud Air. We enable our resellers and customers to take advantage of the public cloud while keeping management and control over their data. “With VMware vCloud® Air™ resellers benefit from a flexible sales and service model allowing them to transfer services to a VMware data center and providing the freedom of choice and speed they need for future market success,” said Thomas Kleinkuhnen, Director Sales Solutions at Avnet Technology Solutions GmbH (Germany).
Pricing and Availability
- VMware will offer general availability of vCloud Air in Germany in the first quarter of 2015.
- VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand is available today through a qualified beta program in the US. An expanded Early Access program will be available on November 17, 2014 in North America and Europe, with general service availability expected in the first quarter of 2015. Developers and IT organizations interested in a trial of Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand can learn more about participating here.
