The Distributed, Multi-Cloud Era Has Arrived – VMware Cloud Community

Over the last 10 years, cloud has had an impact that’s almost immeasurable. We take for granted now our ability to move at a speed and scale that were unthinkable just a few years earlier. And it’s increasingly the norm to see businesses and even entire industries reinvent themselves and the way they connect with customers and communities through incredible digital services.  

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last year as I saw the well-understood concept of digital transformation take on increased focus. COVID may not have created digital transformation. But it certainly made it more urgent. It’s easy to dismiss Digital Transformation as a marketing term. But this is now a boardroom discussion, touching on existential topics that will drive a new wave of modern apps and multi-cloud services for nearly every business.  

Today we see incredible demand for digital–first services, from telemedicine to distance learning to touchless systems in retail and financial services. Nearly three-fourths of businesses we surveyed are expanding their investment in new services that engage customers or support what is now a long-term remote workforce with the tools to be productivei. It’s one of the reasons why we see cloud adoption accelerating faster than ever, with cloud deployments expected to grow by 26%ii. And even more interesting, why businesses are investing so heavily in app modernization. In fact, of the organizations we’ve studied this year, 90% of executives are prioritizing migration and modernization of their legacy apps1. The message is clear, the apps and services powering businesses today simply must evolve to meet the needs of the business in the future.  

But the reality is much more complex, with countless roadblocks slowing transformation. The pace of business-wide transformation is stalled as customers contend with applications in different environments and different stages of modernization. Most organizations are already using multiple clouds depending upon application type, cloud capabilities and organizational preferences. Factors such as M&A make this even more common. And as companies rethink how to engage customers and retool their factories and supply chains, the edge is becoming a new and even more attractive environment for delivering the next generation of applications while better supporting security and data protection.  

So this new IT world CIOs are forced to grapple with is one of heterogeneity. Incompatible architectures between clouds, diverse management and operations, and inconsistent security policies combine to bring a level of complexity and risk that challenge the inherent benefits of multi-cloud. And the result is a growing tension for CIOs. They see where they need to go and know precisely how challenging it is to get there.    

We see a model for cloud that is both increasingly distributed and diverse – with apps deployed across a range of public clouds, within the data center and at the edge – but unified with centralized management and operations, centralized governance and security. This distributed multi-cloud model delivers the flexibility to build and run any application in the best environment, and access to the vast array of innovation from cloud providers, along with a unified model for security and operations at the level every enterprise demands.  

This is the vision behind VMware Cloud. 

Introducing VMware Cloud: Multi-Cloud Services for Any App  

VMware Cloud is the only cloud solution built specifically for this distributed, multi-cloud environment. This is the result of years of innovation. A unique cloud solution that reaches from the data center to the edge to every major cloud provider in the world. The optimal environment for all applications, traditional and modern. Accelerating app modernization for developers while giving operators centralized management and governance of their entire estate. Giving you a seamless path to any cloud through rapid migration. The cloud solution that has powered 85 million workloads for the most demanding businesses is also making more than five million developers more productive as they build new digital services for the future. All while reducing the cost of operations. This is a powerful solution that will unlock innovation and help to drive digital business in an unprecedented time.   

We’ve built VMware Cloud to be modular, to select the best services for your individual goals. To match cloud services to the needs of each application. To combine cloud services built on VMware Cloud Foundation as an extension of the model you’ve trusted for more than 20 years along with those of any native cloud. And to evolve over time at your pace. This is not a one size fits all cloud solution.  

If you haven’t already watched our launch of VMware Cloud, join me and leaders from AWS, Dell Technologies and some of our best customers at Leading Change: Accelerating Your App and Cloud Transformation. You’ll also have access to a broad set of demos and labs to get hands on with the technology. And you’ll find new resources and services to help you accelerate your app modernization strategies. 

This is just a look at the unique benefits you’ll find in VMware Cloud. I invite you to explore in more detail the ways that VMware Cloud can help you accelerate app modernization on any cloud and take advantage of this new, distributed multi-cloud environment.  

Check out today’s news announcement about the launch of VMware Cloud.  

Research Methodology 

VMware FY22 Q1 Executive Pulse, January 2021  

The VMware FY Q1 Executive Pulse study was fielded on behalf of VMware by Qualtrics between December 2020 and January 2021.  

Custom research was conducted in the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, U.S.), Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, U.K., Spain, Sweden, Russia) and Asia Pacific (Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore) using web-based surveys.  

Responses were collected from 456 C-suite and senior technology decision-maker respondents involved in app and infrastructure platform decisions. The sample targeted 49% commercial (1,000-4,999 employees), and 51% enterprise (5,000+ employees). 

VMware FY22 H1 Benchmark, Cloud and Applications, March 2021  

The VMware H1 Benchmark, Cloud and Applications study was fielded on behalf of VMware by Management Insight Technologies between January and March 2021.  

The custom research was conducted in North America (U.S. and Canada), Western Europe (U.K., Germany and France) and APAC (Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and China) using a combination of web and telephone interviews.  

Responses were collected from 1,200 IT leaders, IT decision-makers, and developers who are knowledgeable about and involved in decision making for cloud platforms. The sample targeted 13% SMB (2-999 employees), 33% commercial (1,000-4,999 employees), and 54% enterprise (5,000+ employees).