Organizations running on-premises vSphere workloads looking to modernize their workloads and migrate to the cloud use VMware Cloud on AWS to migrate applications into the cloud in a fast and seamless manner, without having to refactor or change any application code or logic.
While most vSphere workloads are a good fit for VMC on AWS, there are still specific workloads that need to stay on-premises or at the edge to ensure low latency, meet local data processing requirements, or maintain compliance with data sovereignty regulations. To address these requirements, VMware and Amazon Web Services (AWS) introduced VMC on AWS Outposts, which enables organizations to deploy a fully managed VMware Cloud on AWS service on-premises, enabling them to run their vSphere workloads locally while benefiting from the features of the VMC on AWS platform.
The following are the main topics that will be covered in this chapter:
- VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts architecture
- VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts connectivity
- VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts rack components
- Underlying network connectivity for single-rack and multi-rack
- Service connectivity options – public and private
- Scalability and available configurations
- VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts support
What is VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts?
VMC on AWS Outposts is a jointly engineered and fully managed service that runs VMware’s enterprise-grade Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) software on next-generation dedicated Amazon Nitro-based EC2 bare-metal instances provisioned in an AWS Outposts instance that resides in a organization’s on-premises location. VMC on AWS Outposts provides a deeply integrated hybrid cloud environment that can access regional native services in the AWS Region. This enables organizations to seamlessly migrate their workloads to VMC on AWS without re-platforming their virtual machines. The following diagram shows an overview of VMC on AWS Outposts:
Figure 10.1 – VMC on AWS Outposts overview
Both VMC on AWS and VMC on AWS Outposts share the same infrastructure architecture and operational models, providing a unified hybrid experience. This enables organizations to accelerate their innovation by being able to deploy their workloads in any AWS Region, on-premises facilities, co-location spaces, or organization’s data centers.
VMC on AWS Outposts is optimized for VMware workloads with low latency, data residency, or local data processing requirements. AWS delivers and installs the Outposts infrastructure at a organization’s on-premises location, along with monitoring, patching, updating, and performing maintenance and replacement of the hardware. VMware provides continuous Life Cycle Management (LCM) of VMware SDDC software. Organizations always contact VMware for primary support.