Judging from what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, it’s becoming more and more apparent that VMware wishes to be friends with Amazon Web Services in a manner similar to the way it did with IBM a while back.The two IT firms has shared a word with each other- VMware did its deal with Big Blue after deciding its own cloud-building ambitions were a bit far-fetched if left to itself.
It therefore stopped building new data centres and positioned its own vCloud Air as the virtualization connoisseur’s cloud, complete with tales of DOS applications humming along inside for some ‘off-the-beaten-path’ clients.Big Blue got the job of giving VMware global scale and also the chance to be the one holding vSphere users hands and re-assuring them that the cloud won’t be too scary after all.
The thousands and thousands of other vCloud Air partners got the chance to build their own smaller clouds and to explain that vSphere everywhere makes for easier hybrids. VMware is going through realizations as it has realized that it can’t keep its users on-premises forever and has admitted its flagship vSphere private cloud product is in long-term decline.
So it’s now searching for various methods to keep its vSphere users happy for long period of time often with a hybrid cloud but also with new lines of business. AWS offers plenty of the things VMware needs. Its cloud is bigger than IBM’s which helps VMware’s cause by giving its users an option they probably want.AWS also has a lousy hybrid cloud story. While it has plug-ins for vCenter and System Center that let them hook into its cloud and isn’t opposed to hybrid cloud, it hardly mentions hybrids to anyone. Also, VMware’s other weakness is in developers who are not charging towards its container vision. AWS could help there a bit.Teaming with AWS could also give VMware more credibility for its Cross Cloud architecture vision, articulated at VMworld, which promises abstraction of resources across clouds.
A formal relationship would surely be a better launchpad for the new Cross Cloud business.
