Realizing Multi-Cloud Consistency with F5 and VMware Cloud on AWS

Consistency is the key to conquering multi-cloud challenges with confidence.

In the beginning (back in 2007 or so), there was cloud. And it was mostly SaaS, as organizations eagerly consumed business-ready offerings that replaced previously rented line of business apps with those in the cloud.

While there were certainly a lot of early adopters of other cloud models like IaaS, migration of enterprise apps didn’t begin in earnest until there were few apps commodified enough to replace with a SaaS offering. 

That trend is just beginning to really ramp up. An enterprise’s portfolio of applications has traditionally hovered around 300. That was before digital transformation became a “must do” to compete in the application economy. There are certainly more now, with a backlog the length of Valley rush-hour traffic on the 101. That means more cloud is not only likely, it’s a near-sure bet.

But that also means more challenges, because as more apps move to more clouds – private and public, on-premises and off – consistency becomes more difficult to maintain. No two clouds are completely alike. Each has their own unique APIs and management consoles as well as their increasingly important ecosystems. They require specific skills and knowledge and tooling. The result is a growing set of operational siloes inside organizations that matches their investment in various clouds. Each silo has its own strategy, process, and tools. Which is challenging enough. Making it more complex are the cloud-specific services and thus policies that are the (unintended) consequence.

Enterprises are not going to be stopped by the challenge, of course. They’re going to charge ahead, regardless, because the benefits make the growing pains worth it.

Some good news for enterprises embarking on a path to multi-cloud is the announcement of availability for VMware Cloud on AWS.

Consistency with VMware Cloud on AWS and F5

As you may recall, VMware Cloud on AWS is designed to accelerate that path with the ability to fire up production-ready VMware SDDC clusters in the AWS global infrastructure. The release this month focuses on enabling customers to execute on new application development and support application migration efforts.

But enabling enterprises to seamlessly get apps into the cloud faster is just the first step. The bulk of challenges with multi-cloud come after the app is happily humming along somewhere in the cloud. Operational consistency, management, and meeting those pesky SLAs jump to the fore. VMware Cloud on AWS addresses these by enabling organizations to use existing skill sets and tools, resulting in the operational consistency across environments necessary to reduce stress (and costs) in multi-cloud environments.

Support for its partner ecosystem – including F5 – means customers can address consistency concerns with security, identity, and performance with the same services they use on-premises in VMware cloud on AWS. That means extending investments in skill sets and policy-creation – and tooling – out into the cloud.

Being able to consistently manage and secure apps migrating to the cloud affords organizations the breathing (and budget) room to focus on that backlog of applications business needs to succeed in the digital economy. That’s important, given an early 2017 report from OutSystems in which over 3200 IT professionals noted that 44% will develop more than 10 applications and nearly 1 in 7 plan to develop more than 100 apps this year. That means more work, too, for those deploying, securing, and managing the performance of those apps – many of which will no doubt be pushed into public clouds by design. With the availability of VMware Cloud on AWS, VMware and its partners aim to make that process as painless and successful as possible.

You can learn more about VMware Cloud on AWS here, and more on F5 and VMware here.