Native Google Cloud VMware Engine Due This Summer

'As we look at many enterprises, they have a fairly sizable VMware on-premise environment to power their various type of applications, from ERP to CRM to databases, etc.,' says June Yang, general manager of Google Cloud’s compute business. 'We want to make this really easy for customers to be able to migrate these workloads...to the cloud with really minimal change, so that they can focus on running their applications without managing their overall infrastructure.”

Google Cloud VMware Engine, an integrated, first-party solution for customers to extend, migrate and run their VMware environments in Google Cloud, is slated for general release this summer, adding to the No. 3 cloud provider’s enterprise momentum under CEO Thomas Kurian.

The new service provides a fully managed VMware Cloud Foundation stack, including vSphere, vCenter, vSAN, NSX-T and HCX, in a dedicated environment on Google Cloud’s infrastructure for enterprise production workloads. Now in a limited early access program with customers including capital markets infrastructure provider Deutsche Börse Group and enterprise resource planning software provider QAD, it’s expected to be generally available toward the end of June or in July, according to June Yang (pictured above), general manager of Google Cloud’s compute business.

Google Cloud VMware Engine allows customers to provision a VMware software-defined data center (SDDC) with “just a few clicks” and, 30 minutes later, have an entirely fully functional SDDC that's come directly from the Google Cloud Console, Yang told CRN.

“As we look at many enterprises, they have a fairly sizable VMware on-premise environment to power their various type of applications, from ERP to CRM (customer relationship management) to databases, etc.,” Yang said. “We want to make this really easy for customers to be able to migrate these workloads…to the cloud with really minimal change, so that they can focus on running their applications without managing their overall infrastructure.”

Last July, Google Cloud announced early customer access to Google Cloud VMware Solution by CloudSimple, a startup focused on helping VMware customers to easily migrate workloads to the cloud. The VMware-as-a-service offering leveraged VMware Cloud Foundation running on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and was listed on the GCP Marketplace late last year. Google Cloud then acquired CloudSimple in November for an undisclosed sum.

“Essentially we have taken the CloudSimple technology and enhanced it, and made it native to Google Cloud, so now it's a first-party service offering that's really operated and run by Google,” said Yang, who spent about 10 years at VMware, where she ran vSphere product management and later was also part of the VMware Cloud on AWS (Amazon Web Services) effort.

The integrated offering gives customers access to Google Cloud services including its hybrid and multi-cloud Anthos platform, BigQuery, Cloud AI, its operations suite and Google Cloud Storage.

“It’s really about enjoying the cloud infrastructure benefits while leveraging the existing assets and existing tooling and training they've already had,” Yang said. “A customer can take the application, and if they so choose to, they can modernize in place with Google and also…extend to additional services that really allow them to drive more value and insights out of the application.”

Google Cloud said it’s closely partnering with storage, backup and disaster recovery providers, including NetApp, Veeam, Zerto, Cohesity and Dell Technologies, to ensure support for third-party solutions, ease migrations and allow for business continuity.

Google Cloud VMware Engine is part of Google Cloud’s enterprise focus.

“We have worked very closely to really enable a customer to move their SAP, Oracle and Microsoft workloads onto (Google Cloud), and VMware environments really are one additional significant piece of this particular puzzle,” Yang said, noting there’s approximately 70 million virtual machines running on VMware, and the majority are sitting on premises. “A number of them is going to move onto the cloud, and we expect a good chunk of those will land on Google Cloud.”

Yang said Google Cloud’s systems integrator partners including Atos, Deloitte Consulting and World Wide Technology (WWT) will be instrumental in the rollout of Google Cloud VMware Engine.

“We’re seeing more and more organizations require a cloud strategy that enables them to accelerate their journey while minimizing risk and operational change,” said Bob Black, Deloitte Consulting’s Dell Technologies global lead alliance principal. “VMware Cloud has addressed that need and is now available on Google Cloud. With Google’s engineering strength, VMware’s technologies across environments, and Deloitte’s ability to guide clients through their cloud journey, we're uniquely positioned to help organizations simplify transformations.”

Hybrid cloud strategies continue to be a focal point for WWT customers, and Google Cloud VMware Engine “substantially accelerates the time frame for organizations to move their workloads to the cloud and modernize their infrastructure,” said Michael Taylor, WWT’s chief technology officer.