VMware on AWS? That’s like having your cake and eating it too, right?
How you got to VMware on AWS
Think back a bit. You spent years building and refining your on-premises virtual infrastructure around vSphere, vSAN, NSX and vCenter Server.
“Way to software-define our data center,” said your boss. “Here’s your raise.”
Then cloud compute and storage became a thing.
“Sure would be nice if we could start moving our VMs to the cloud,” said your boss. “Look into that, will you?”
So you did. In 2017 when VMware and Amazon Web Services announced VMware Cloud on AWS, you got a glimmer in your eye. And felt another raise coming on.
You started out small, easing your organization into the hybrid cloud. You extended your on-premises vSphere environment to the AWS Cloud by migrating a few applications for development and test. You moved those applications into the cloud, where they can take advantage of AWS offerings like compute, databases, analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), security and mobile.
“Good job,” said your boss. “It’s all so seamless. And you did it without purchasing new hardware, rewriting applications or making our users work differently. Here’s your raise.”
You had your cake and are eating it, too. Plus, your salary went up.
So far, so good.
Now, how will you monitor VMs both on premises and in AWS?
The deeper you get into application migration, the more you realize that you have to run VMware monitoring at not one, but two points in the process.
First, keep in mind that VMware Cloud on AWS may not be the perfect environment for every one of your applications and workloads. Knowing how your virtual machines consume memory, compute, storage, networking and data protection resources will guide you in making decisions about your hybrid cloud. With the right VMware performance monitoring tool, you can model and justify the expense of migrating the virtual machines in your on-premises infrastructure before you move them.
Second, as you build up your hybrid data center of on-premises servers and VMware Cloud on AWS, you’ll want to find performance bottlenecks, add capacity, track cloud billing data and eliminate cost-inefficient VMs. That means you’ll want to monitor both in your data center and in VMware Cloud on AWS, so having a tool that brings both environments into a unified view is a big advantage.
Enter Foglight for Virtualization
Foglight for Virtualization is a tool for monitoring VMware performance both on premises and in the cloud. With identical dashboards in a single tool you can monitor vCenter and VMware Cloud on AWS vCenter. Foglight for Virtualization requires no additional purchase or integration to track virtual infrastructure across your entire hybrid data center.
Are you planning VMware migration of workloads or applications? Foglight for Virtualization turns workload monitoring data into migration analytics that quantify risk so you can place your workloads where the cost-performance trade-off is optimal. With Foglight for Virtualization you can associate compute and storage price plans with all virtual machines and make data-driven decisions about where to run your workloads.
Mark Bai wrote a post to show you how easy it is to configure support of VMware Cloud on AWS. And have a look at the Foglight for Virtualization datasheet for more on getting the cost data you need through all six phases of cloud migration: identification, discovery, placement selection, analysis, test and commission.
VMware Cloud on AWS is like having your cake and eating it, too. The only thing better is optimizing it with Foglight.
Get ready for your boss to say, “Great work planning our application migration. Here’s your raise.”
Tell me more about Foglight for Virtualization and VMware Cloud on AWS>>
