VMware announces VCloud Hybrid Service

At a live web-event VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger unveiled VMware vCloud Hybrid Service, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud operated by VMware.

Built on the trusted foundation of VMware vSphere, giving customers a common platform to seamlessly extend their data center to the cloud.

"VMware's mission is to radically simplify IT and help customers transform their IT operations," said Pat Gelsinger, CEO, VMware.

"Today, with the introduction of the VMware vCloud Hybrid Service, we take a big step forward by coupling all the value of VMware virtualization and software-defined data center technologies with the speed and simplicity of a public cloud service that our customers desire," added Gelsinger.

vCloud Hybrid Service will seamlessly extend VMware software used by hundreds of thousands of customers into the public cloud. This means customers will be able to extend the same skills, tools, networking and security models across both on-premise and off-premise environments.

"As a source of competitive advantage for our International business, our Operations & IT department needs the agility and efficiency the public cloud promises," said Julio Sobral, senior vice president, Business Operations, Fox.

"However, we don't have the luxury of starting from scratch, we see in the vCloud Hybrid Service a potential solution to enable Fox International to have a more elastic platform that will support future deployments around the world. Working with technology partners like VMware gives us the best of both worlds by extending our existing infrastructure to realize the benefits of public cloud," added Sobral.

VMware vCloud Hybrid Service will allow customers to extend their data centers to the cloud with: application neutrality, seamless Networking and Security, business-critical reliability, and simplified management.

"Our new VMware vCloud Hybrid Service delivers a public cloud that is completely interoperable with existing VMware virtualized infrastructure," said Bill Fathers, senior vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware.

VMware vCloud Hybrid Service will be delivered by partners and compatible with other VMware-based cloud services. vCloud Hybrid Service can be sold the same way as on-premise VMware licenses with a standard SKU, and partners can retain the billing relationship with customers. In addition, cloud service providers will 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, with general service availability in the US expected in Q3, 2013.