11th October 2018

Data Centre Hybridity VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension

Earlier on this year VMware announced Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX). The release and subsequent detail about the service has been a cause of excitement.

Why?

Traditionally the most complex element of any service migration, is understanding the interdependence between elements. If you are migrating from an environment dependent upon legacy infrastructure, most of the early focus is going to be trying to answer a simple question. What do I do with the network? Can I change services IP addressing? Is everything configured to make use of FQDNs? How do I maintain the same network whilst upgrading the infrastructure?

What about the legacy elements in the service map? What can I do with those unsupported Windows server 2003 workloads? that Netware server? Black box – that does something but nobody can remember how? Can a forensic analysis of the service be conducted to enable a re-architecting of the service, within project timescales?

VMware HCX can help in these scenarios. Whether you are looking to extend DC services, accelerate the evacuation of a DC facility or provide an off premises DR via a VMware cloud provider.

Providing secure, high throughput, WAN-optimized, hybrid interconnect that tethers cloud to on-premises. enabling workloads to be extended to the cloud, seamlessly and securely without any re-architecting, changing of IP addresses or complicated upgrades. Utilizing best of breed VMware technologies to facilitate the migration of 1000s of VMs to cloud without requiring reboot or service interruption.

If you are interested in learning more about how this functions, Hands on Labs are available via http://labs.hol.vmware.com. Specifically, HOL-1981-01-HBD – VMware HCX – Getting Started with Cross-Cloud Mobility. Where you can learn about how VMware HCX is able to create hybrid architectures and enable wan-optimized workload mobility over a Suite-B encrypted IPSec tunnel, that leverages high throughput Layer-2 network extension, all without any changes to existing infrastructure.

Thanks

Simon