However, according to a recent survey, hybrid cloud is the key imperative for infrastructure transformation among Australian enterprises in 2021.1
Customers have a range of motivations for this desired transition to cloud. Businesses may be seeking more scalability and flexibility with their VMware, or simply looking to save money through greater efficiency and ease of management. They may wish to migrate away from or augment an existing data centre, or from on-premises server infrastructure that’s reached its end of life.
Regardless of the reasons for wanting to migrate, in today’s increasingly digital world, VMware delivered as a cloud service can certainly deliver a range of important benefits.
It’s why Microsoft and VMware joined forces to launch their Azure VMware Solution, or AVS. This innovative solution enables you to run VMware workloads natively in Azure. Essentially, it’s VMware as a Service, on dedicated infrastructure which is run, operated but importantly also supported by Microsoft.
Here are six reasons why migrating your VMware to the Azure VMware solution with Data#3 is a smart choice.
Many businesses believe they can move their VMware into a native cloud environment quite rapidly and without issue. However, 29% of customers report the process being disruptive to their business due to network changes, application cut-over requirements, and changes to the existing operating model and processes.
By contrast, an AVS solution from Data#3 accelerates the journey to cloud, eliminating the requirement to re-factor applications in order to get cloud native. This is because AVS is cloud native.
Data#3’s Azure experts deliver funded AVS workshops to accelerate the move to the cloud. This means a migration to AVS can take just a few weeks or, potentially, only a few days, minimising the risk of business disruption. Native cloud migrations, by contrast, can take a much longer period.
Re-factoring or modernising applications during migration can be a huge drain on time and resources. In fact, 43% of businesses say they have experienced ‘re-factoring complexity’ during a cloud migration, which has affected their budget and timeline.
By comparison, AVS allows customers to take a ‘migrate to modernise’ approach: migrate first to realise the economic savings that can help fund their application modernisation. Then, once they’re in Azure, they can access a host of Azure services to enable more rapid application development and/or application modernisation.
Another key challenge for businesses in migrating their VMware to the cloud can be the need to up-skill internal staff, who may not have the necessary depth of knowledge to handle the migration internally.
In fact, according to a recent survey, 28% of businesses say they need to fill a cloud skill gap to support their new network operations.
A major benefit of AVS is that there is no need to re-skill employees or provide them with new tools. Instead, businesses can leverage the same skills and people that they use now, to manage their on-premises VMware environment.
IT administrators access familiar tools for management and configuration of their new environment, which eliminates the learning curve associated with migrating to public cloud, and provides the level of control that customers expect with VMware.
Updating infrastructure licensing as part of a cloud migration can also be a major headache, and a drain on IT resources.
With AVS, however, there’s no need to update. From a Microsoft licensing standpoint, a business can bring its own licenses into AVS, whether Windows Server or SQL Server. There is also free extended security support for legacy workloads such as SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008.
In addition, there are costs savings due to Reserved Instances licensing and the Azure Hybrid Benefit which can deliver savings of 50 to 80% when compared with pay-as-you-go licensing.
Security can be a major risk when migrating any workloads to the cloud, and it’s essential that businesses put solid disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place.
However, experience indicates that security is often compromised as part of a cloud migration, as businesses often fail to apply the same security controls and tooling as with their on-premises infrastructure.
The AVS integration with Azure simplifies security management, and enables quick and easy security logging and tracking via a central interface. VMware’s philosophy is intrinsic security across any app, cloud or devices with sophisticated security offerings are also available, including gateway firewall services, advanced load balancing, advanced login and VPN gateway.
Of course, with Data#3 as your migration partner, you can rest assured that your data and VMware assets will be protected at every step.
When you migrate your VMware with AVS, Microsoft is a single point of contact for all issues and concerns, with VMware fully supporting the service. If VMware needs to be engaged for any reason, Microsoft will manage this all on your behalf.
Data#3 can also work with you at every step – helping you determine your initial requirements; migrate your VMware infrastructure; and then provide ongoing support as part of a managed services program.
Need help understanding your VMware requirements and whether Azure VMware is right for your business?
*Funded workshop
If you’re interested in learning more about AVS and how it can help simplify the migration of your VMware assets to the cloud, get in touch with the team at Data#3 today.
1 IDC, 2021, Australian Enterprise Infrastructure Market in Growth Mode