Microsoft‘s Azure blog has posted an announcement (Transforming your VMware environment with Microsoft Azure) about how they are managing VMware elements with Azure tools, as well as a full VMware stack deployment on bare-metal servers in the Azure environment.
Microsoft is announcing Azure Migrate, a service to cluster VMware based applications, and understand the group-level dependancies that a migration entails. They claim it does this without change to the VMware environment. (But as Heisenberg showed, observing things changes them.) The Azure Migrate process is merely a discovery of the current situation, allowing migration at a later date. The tool also offers the ability to ‘right-size’ the environment to help save money during the migration by selecting the right size environments.
The migration process is the responsibility of the Azure Site Recovery toolset. This tool allows you to backup the on-premises environment and restore it to the Azure platform. Additionally, the Azure Database Migration Service can take on-site SQL databases, moving them to the managed Azure SQL Database platform. For those that need more rapid migration of large volumes of data, you can use the Azure Data Box platform.
Following migration to Azure, the old Cloudyn environment (now Azure Cost Management) can provide to monitor, allocate, and optimise your cloud costs. Microsoft is claiming 84% TCO reduction compared to a VMware environment.
Microsoft is also keen on you using their Azure services with on-premises VMware environments. This will increase their Azure revenue at the expense of a declining VMware vRealize revenue. It’s all about who has control of managing your data and ensuring they hold your data centre of gravity.
Also, an unnamed VMware premier partner, worked with Microsoft to support VMware on a bare metal environment co-located with Azure. This VMware platform is a preview service, with general availability next year. Speak with your Microsoft account team if you want to participate. But be aware that this will be a temporary step. The expectation is that you will move to the Azure platform in the medium to long-term. Pricing differentials will aid the move, along with having all parts serviced in the Azure platform. Expect some pushback from VMware on this, as it is in direct competition to their VMware on AWS partnership with Amazon.
Microsoft is also reminding you that a hybrid cloud can be built with their Azure Stack on your premises. The on-site Azure Stack will link to the Azure environment in the cloud.
There is a webcast on the 28 November 2017, where Corey Sanders, Director of Compute, Microsoft Azure will provide more details about the announcement on the blog.
