VMware Cloud on AWS: A Year in Review – 2023 Recap

As we eagerly approach the festive season, I would like to extend my warmest wishes to you and invite you to take a moment and explore the exciting innovations that have shaped our journey throughout 2023. In this blog, I have highlighted some of the key features we released throughout 2023, showcasing our commitment to innovation. And as we enter the new year, Broadcom and AWS will continue this joint investment into VMware Cloud on AWS and as always, we will try to bring more exciting innovations to you that will help you accelerate your digital transformation journey.

Before we dig deeper into recap of 2023, please take a look at some recorded sessions on VMware Cloud on AWS from VMware Explore 2023 as listed below. So don’t wait further! Set up a cozy space with your favorite snacks and beverages, create a relaxing environment and binge-watch these sessions to get well-versed about the latest updates and explore them further in the new year-

Now, let’s looks at the Top 5 highlights of VMware Cloud on AWS that got released in 2023:

1. Expanded regional availability: VMware Cloud on AWS expanded its regional availability in 5 more regions in 2023- Zurich, Melbourne, Cape Town, Bahrain and Hyderabad, making it globally available across 26 regions and we are expanding the service availability every quarter.
2. VMware Cloud on AWS now comes with advanced cloud management capabilities available out of the box:  At VMware Explore 2023, we announced that going forward, all customers will get the advanced cloud management capabilities out of the box with the purchase of VMware Cloud on AWS host. It helps customers make cloud management more efficient with enterprise cloud management capabilities of VMware Aria products. Learn more
3. M7i.metal instance type (Going to be available soon): Recently at AWS re:Invent 2023, we announced a groundbreaking architectural innovation for next gen workloads- a disaggregated infrastructure option that gives customers more flexibility and choice to choose their compute and storage options as per their business needs. And M7i.metal instance type is just the first step in providing this disaggregated architecture. An Amazon EC2 M7i.metal-24xl instance is powered by custom 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code named Sapphire Rapids) with an all-core turbo frequency up to 3.9 GHz. With Advanced Matrix Extensions accelerator, it accelerates matrix multiplication operations for deep learning (DL) inference and training workloads. This new instance type offers customers more flexibility, scalability, cost efficiency and improved performance and is suitable for CPU intensive workloads, AI/ML workloads or workloads with limited resource requirements. Learn more
4. vSAN Express Storage Architecture: VMware Cloud on AWS introduced vSAN Express Storage Architecture that delivers enterprise-grade performance without tradeoff and optimizes storage to reduce cost per capacity. With the launch of vSAN Express Storage Architecture, VMware Cloud on AWS offers the industry’s first single-tier HCI storage solution, that delivers optimized performance, supreme efficiency, high resiliency, and agile operations with next-generation storage devices. Learn more
5. VMware Cloud on AWS Free Trial: Now, customers can test drive the service with the free trial of VMware Cloud on AWS. As part of this free trial, a customer can create one Single Host SDDC with i3.metal/i4i.metal host for free during the 30-day trial period. You can sign up for the trial program here.

Now let’s look at some the other key capabilities that got released in 2023 in different categories:

Enhancements in Pricing and Packaging:

• VMware Cloud Sizer enhancements: We added lots of new features to VMware Cloud Sizer such as support for cluster conversion estimation, vSAN Express Storage Architecture sizing, support for external storage sizing and more. Please check out VMware Cloud Sizer and explore all latest enhancements.
• I3en.metal hosts are now 20% cheaper: Now all customers can purchase i3en.metal hosts at 20% reduced price. This reduced pricing is available to all VMware Cloud on AWS customers across all regions. Check VMware Cloud on AWS pricing

Enhancements in compute

• Expanding regional availability of I4i.metal instance type: During 2023, we expanded the regional availability of i4i.metal instance type making it available across all 26 regions.
• Automated firmware updates: Now customers get expedited delivery of firmware updates within existing SDDC deployments with a non-disruptive workflow that provides automated firmware updates in a timely manner. Learn more
• Elastic DRS enhancements: With enhancements such as Customer managed Elastic DRS policies and some UI related improvements, now customers have more visibility, better control, and management of Elastic DRS policies.

Enhancements in storage:

VMware Cloud on AWS supports different storage options- VMware vSAN, Extended storage options such as VMware Cloud Flex Storage or Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. And in 2023, we added lot of enhancements in these storage options as below:

• Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP:
  • VPC Peering for external storage: With this capability, customers can route traffic between two Virtual Private Clouds (VPC). VPC Peering allows a direct connection between two VPCs to allow traffic to pass without the need to traverse a routed connection like Transit Gateway. With the release of VPC Peering support, customers can take full advantage of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP without incurring the additional cost of Transit Gateway data processing fees. This in turn will allow customers to reduce costs further. Learn more
  • nConnect support to NFSv3: This capability supports two parallel sessions to each NFS data stores. With this enhancement, customers will now benefit from increased throughput (up to 1 GB/s) per host per datastore. Thus, this support of multiple connections doubles the available throughput to each datastore.
  • Single AZ support for Integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP: With this enhancement, single AZ deployment is supported for VMware Cloud on AWS integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.
• VMware Cloud Flex Storage– This is another extended storage option for VMware Cloud on AWS that became Generally Available in 2023. It is a scalable, elastic, and natively integrated storage service for VMware Cloud on AWS that is fully managed by VMware and delivered with predictable cloud economics. Customers can purchase this add-on service directly from VMware or via AWS Resell Route to market. It is available across 17 different regions. We added few enhancements to this service as follows:
  • Expanded File Systems per Region: VMware Cloud Flex Storage now supports up to 6 file systems across up to 6 SDDCs per region (limit 1 VMware Cloud Flex Storage datastore per SDDC). Therefore, now customers can implement up to 2.4 petabytes of storage capacity per region.
  • Compatibility improvements with VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery: VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery and VMware Cloud Flex Storage are now compatible. Customers who wish to protect their VMware workloads can do so with VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery while also scaling their storage capacity using VMware Cloud Flex Storage.

Enhancements in Networking

• IPv6 workload communication over Direct Connect and Transit Connect: VMware Cloud on AWS now supports North-South networking traffic using IPv6. Selected customers can now utilize IPv6 for their workloads to communicate over Direct Connect and VMware Transit Connect.
• Certificate Based Authentication for VPN Configurations: Customers can now import and associate public and private Certificate Authority-signed certificates with VPN configurations. So, now customers are enabled to use either private or public certificates for VPN authentication.
• Alarms Dashboard on NSX Manager UI: Alarms dashboard on NSX Manager UI on VMware Cloud Console gives customers the visibility to monitor, manage and troubleshoot alarms which are generated due to networking and security related system events.

Learn more about all these networking enhancements in this deep-dive blog.

Enhancements in availability and resiliency:

There are bunch of enhancements released in our DRaaS product portfolio as follows:

• VMware Site Recovery:
  • Expanding regional availability: VMware Site Recovery is now available in 26 Global AWS Regions.
  • 1 Minute RPO: With a change in replication architecture, VMware Site Recovery now supports RPOs (Recovery Point Objectives) as low as 1 minute.
  • Auto-scaling and Load Balancing: VMware Site Recovery now supports automated load balancing that automatically distributes replicated VMs across target site hosts. Additionally, VMware Site Recovery now automatically scales out recovery site resources as required to support the required replication capacity.
  • REST APIs for VMware Site Recovery: Customers can use public RESTFUL APIs to monitor DR operations, set up protection and recover workloads using VMware Site Recovery. With a comprehensive set of APIs, customers will be able to build end to end automation to configure and manage DR at scale.
• VMware Cloud DR and Ransomware Recovery as a Service:
  • Expanded regional availability: VMware Cloud DR and Ransomware Recovery as a Service is now available across 25 regions globally.
  • Multi-VM Ransomware Recovery in VMware Ransomware Recovery: With this new capability, customers can inspect, curate and recover up to 50 VMs concurrently for faster recovery and minimized downtime.
  • Protect Google Cloud VMware Engine and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts workloads (source): VMware Cloud DR now protects Google Cloud VMware Engine  and VMware Cloud on AWS Outposts workloads.
  • Cybersecure storage: Integration of VMware Ransomware Recovery workflow with native vSAN snapshots delivers accelerated recovery through delta-based transfer optimizations.
  • Run production VMs in the Cloud: Now, customers can run production VMs in the recovery SDDC until on-premises site is fortified and forensics are completed.
  • Run Recovered VMs on Cloud Filesystem:  With this option, the VMs can continue to run in the DR SDDC in this manner with their disks residing in the Cloud Filesystem, avoiding storage vMotion and thus speeding up the failover.
  • Bulk VM Processing for VMware Ransomware Recovery: With this new feature, users benefit from streamlined and automated recovery of up to 50 VMs at a time, speeding up time to recovery and optimizing IT resources.

For all other latest innovations on VMware Ransomware Recovery and VMware Cloud DR, please check out this blog.

Compliance support:

We made big leaps on compliance side of the house as well. VMware Cloud on AWS is now PCI compliant in 24 commercial regions. Also, VMware Cloud on AWS achieved C5 and TISAX certification for our customers in Germany. For customers in India navigating the local financial regulations, we published RBI Master Direction on Outsourcing Whitepaper and to provide clarity and guidance to customers around data sovereignty and compliance, we recently published a CLOUD Act whitepaper. So far, VMware Cloud on AWS has achieved 24+ key global and regional compliance certifications and we will continue to expand our regional compliance next year as well. You can learn more about the compliance certifications at VMware Cloud Trust Center

Enhancements in customer Experience

• Single sign-on across VMware Cloud Console and vCenter based on user role/access permissions: We introduced a new feature that enhances the user experience and simplifies identity management by providing a unified Single Sign-On (SSO) mechanism between VMware Cloud Services and the VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC vCenter Server.
• VMware Lab Platform with VMware Cloud on AWS: VMware Lab Platform delivered with VMware Cloud on AWS provides a global reach for your lab training and demo needs while providing dynamic control on how and where you deliver the lab content. Learn more
• Networking and Security dashboard view in VMware Cloud Console: This feature provides a single-page view of SDDC networking and security status with links to NSX Manager network management functions. Learn more about this new update.

Improvements in migration capabilities

• vCenter Converter 6.4: With the release of vCenter Converter 6.4, customers can now migrate AWS EC2 instances to VMs on VMware Cloud on AWS SDDCs. vCenter Converter 6.4 supports a new cloud source (AWS EC2 instances) and a cloud target (VMware Cloud on AWS). Release Notes, Techzone

Enhancements in VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud(US)

• Single Host SDDC: The new Single Host SDDC is now available for VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud(US). It offers a low-cost entry point for customers to jump-start their hybrid cloud experience and prove the value of VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US).
• Introduction of vSphere 8.0 and VMware NSX 4.0: With VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud (US) SDDC version 1.20+, all SDDCs will be deployed with vSphere 8.0 version which will have a new look and feel for vSphere client along with some new features.  
• Enhancements in networking: Some of the key networking enhancements in VMware Cloud on AWS GovCloud(US) are: SDDC Groups and VMware Transit Connect support, Multiple Compute Gateway (Multi-CGW), Route Aggregation for Advertisement Over Direct Connect & Transit Connect, Active Directory over LDAP/LDAPS, or OpenLDAP, DNS FQDN Zones for Management Network, NSX Manager and DHCP UI enhancements, Live Traffic Analysis, NAT Support for Policy-Based VPNs on Tier-1 and more.

Apart from the key features listed above, there are tons of other enhancements we released throughout 2023. If you would like to deep dive into all the new features that got released in 2023, please check out my what’s new blogs below:

And meanwhile if you would like to learn more about VMware Cloud on AWS, please check out the resources below:

Resources: