Cross-Cloud Architecture: the Answer to the Obstacles of the Digital Transformation

VMware’s Upcoming Solution for Managing and Securing Applications Across Diverse Cloud Platforms

Delivering the Means for Digital Transformation

We mentioned it in our earlier blog, IT at Lightspeed: Impacts of the Digital Transformation—digitalization has become a pretty loaded topic, and it’s easy to forget the technological implications independent of all of the buzzwords. In the software-reliant world we live in, applications are born, live, and breathe in and across diverse cloud platforms, and without the right solution set, it can be a scattered, stressful scenario for businesses to manage.

IT has more power to deliver services and capabilities using a much faster, more agile, and integrative methodology, which is great. But taking advantages of the possibilities that digital transformation brings to information technology today requires a way to enable security and connection, and manage resources, across multiple clouds, VMware explained.

Here’s what IT professionals, engineers, and developers are facing in a diverse, cloud-forward environment:

• Traditionally, IT is run on premise, but developers want to operate in various environments between private and public clouds. Flexibility and the right capabilities for the right projects are highly preferred.
• To accommodate for developers, IT has to secure various environments with inconsistent processes and tools, which is complicated and time consuming.
• Ultimately, cloud silos and sprawl are created, which cost money and make it harder to see everything that needs to be managed and secured.

Here’s where VMware’s upcoming solution, Cross-Cloud Architecture, comes in.

“No one really runs traditional IT anymore. Businesses don’t have a single data center, or a single product suite. IT is all about hybrid. These are factors that are pushing people into the public cloud. But the real problem is, we used to manage all of this IT and now we’re pushing it out to the cloud, but at the end of the day, who is responsible for compliance? Still us. Security? Still us, too. IT has given up a certain amount of power by moving to the cloud, although gained greater flexibility in solving IT problems. Cross-Cloud Architecture is the way to regain that power.”

-Trey Ransbotham, Consulting Engineer – VMware at August Schell

Exploring Cross-Cloud Architecture  

Cross-Cloud Architecture is a combination of software and services that will be delivered by VMware to give organizations freedom and control of private and public clouds. First tech-previewed at VMworld 2016, Cross-Cloud Architecture is designed to deliver consistent deployment models, full visibility, governance, and security for all applications, whether on-premise or off-premise, regardless of the hardware platform, hypervisor, or underlying cloud.

Here’s what Cross-Cloud Architecture is made up of…

• VMware Cloud Foundation: A unified SDDC platform comprised of VMware vSphere, vSAN, and NSX as a locally integrated stack, built to deliver enterprise cloud infrastructure for private and public clouds.
• vRealize Suite: The enterprise cloud management platform for managing a diverse hybrid cloud.
• Cross-Cloud Services: Cross-Cloud Services are currently being finalized. They’ll extend visibility of workloads, security, and governance to public cloud apps. Customers will be able to manage, secure, and govern applications in public clouds, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.

…and here’s what it will deliver:

• Freedom and control.
• The ability for developers to use the different clouds they prefer while providing IT the ability to manage and see environments.
• Consistent deployment, security, visibility and governance practices.
• A robust hybrid architecture that runs, manages, connects, and secures a common operating environment.

"Customers are increasingly relying on multiple public and private clouds to run their applications, but are daunted by the challenge of managing and securing applications across diverse cloud platforms. When customers combine a best-in-class private cloud with leading public clouds, all enabled by VMware, they have the strongest, most flexible hybrid cloud strategy. VMware is delivering cloud freedom and control by providing a common operating environment for all clouds with our unique Cross-Cloud Architecture."

-Raghu Raghuram, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Software-Defined Data Center Division, VMware

August Schell and Cross-Cloud Architecture 

Needless to say, we’re pretty excited about the swiftly approaching release of VMware’s Cross-Cloud Architecture. Since Cross-Cloud Architecture isn’t available yet, we’ll be releasing a variety of helpful content in the meantime for organizations who are interested in adopting a Cross-Cloud strategy.

As a Premiere Partner of VMware, August Schell has a full team of VMware engineers on staff. We’ve been following the Cross-Cloud Architecture story since it began, and our expert engineers will be prepared to assist customers immediately upon availability. In the meantime, if your IT organization has questions about what Cross-Cloud means for you, contact an August Schell specialist, or call us at (301)-838-9470.