Infotech Lead America: VMware has unveiled the VMware vCloud Hybrid Service which will enable customers to use the Web to access information and programs stored in its data centers.
The vCloud Hybrid Service based on the foundation of VMware vSphere is offered as an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud service operated by VMware. It is likely to be made more widely available in the third quarter.
The new product marks VMWare’s expansion into the cloud computing market. According to Gartner estimates, the sales of infrastructure-as-a-service will soar by an average 38 percent annually to $30.6 billion by 2017 from $6.17 billion last year.
The VMware vCloud Hybrid Service combines the value of VMware virtualization and software-defined data center technologies with the speed and simplicity of a public cloud service. Customers will now be able to extend the same skills, tools, networking and security models across both on-premise and off-premise environments.
vCloud Hybrid Service can support thousands of applications and over 90 operating systems that are certified to run on vSphere. Customers can use virtual networking to securely extend existing Layer 2 or Layer 3 networks from their data center to the vCloud Hybrid Service.
vCloud Hybrid Service also offers automated replication, monitoring and high availability for business-critical applications. It adopts a simplified approach to management enabling customers to use the same tools and processes they use today to manage both on-premise and off-premise environments. vSphere administrators can view, manage and migrate VMs from the vSphere client using the free vCloud Connector plug-in.
VMware vCloud Hybrid Service will be delivered by partners and is compatible with other VMware-based cloud services. Cloud service providers have the opportunity to provide value-added services or add vCloud Hybrid Service to their portfolio.
VMware vCloud Hybrid Service will be available in June through an Early Access program. The service will be made generally available in the US in Q3 2013.
vCloud Hybrid Service Dedicated Cloud will be sold on an annual term with pricing starting at 13 cents an hour for a fully protected, fully redundant 1 GB virtual machine with 1 processor. vCloud Hybrid Service Virtual Private Cloud will be sold on a monthly term with pricing starting at 4.5 cents an hour for a fully protected, fully redundant 1GB virtual machine with 1 processor.
Meanwhile, competitor Microsoft rolled out an infrastructure-as-a-service product last month, aiming to match Amazon’s prices on certain offerings.
