VMware Cloud Foundation

During the first day of VMworld 2016, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) was announced.  Some of us who are following what VMware has in its portfolio might be really confused.  I am just one of the few.

So what is VMware Cloud Foundation?  Basically remember we used to have a platform known as EVO?  EVO Rail and EVO Rack.  EVO Rail has been deprecated and was only leaving the EVO Rack which was later rebrand as EVO SDDC.  VMware Cloud Foundation is the replacement for EVO SDDC.

As of 1st Sept today, EVO SDDC is no longer available as stated here.  You can read more of VMware Cloud Foundation here.  The FAQ that clearly describe here.

In a simple summary, EVO SDDC is been replaced by VMware Cloud Foundation and VCF is no longer limited to the few (actual 4) vendors exclusively, in fact customer can choose to use even a VSAN Ready Nodes with VCF and use the supported switches from Cisco or Arista making sure TOR and Spine are from the same vendor.

On a personal view, VMware has just created another ecosystem for VCF just like how it has done for vSphere and VSAN but with a complete solution which consist of vSphere, NSX and VSAN.  Vendors will leverage VCF and build their lifecycle management into VCF to support their hardware all together.

As for the support, licenses can be bundled with OEM licenses in such, total support comes from the specific vendor.  However customer can choose to purchase the license direct from VMware to have VMware direct support instead.  Though this comparing to build your own system it is still more simplified but customer will still need to contact two vendors for support.

VCF does not stop there, all summarized above are for on premises.  However, VCF can also be leverage by public cloud vendors e.g. vCloud Air Network Partners (VCAN) and for the first partner this will be IBM Softlayer as announced.

This way, it creates a better solution to create a SDDC platform on and across cloud.  Allowing vendors to build a unified SDDC platform while customer enjoying the benefits of a unified SDDC Platform.  This remove the complexity to ensure compatibility and reduce interoperability between versions of software on premies and off premises where customer will have when moving workload between hybrid clouds.

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