“Lift and Shift” Existing VMware Workloads to the Public Cloud

Whatever your opinion is of IBM Cloud, the company has made tangible strides to provide a compelling hybrid cloud strategy for the enterprise. Several analysts even recently acknowledged IBM leadership in this area. Based on the recent announcement with VMware, you’ll understand why existing VMware clients are pretty excited about IBM Cloud’s hybrid strategy.

The announcement notes that SoftLayer provides the capability to create secure and flexible VMware environments on top of IBM’s public cloud—now with expanded (and cost-effective) capabilities. These capabilities allow existing VMware customers to:

• “Lift and shift” (read: extend) existing VMware workloads to the public cloud with the associated benefits (secure, compliant, global, OPEX, and so on)
• Take advantage of existing VMware skills, assets, and processes (scripts, VMware admins, virtual machine templates, and so on)
• Transition to the public cloud and flexible hybrid environments with minimal disruption

IBM Cloud encompasses a much larger scope that includes native SoftLayer and open source options, Bluemix/PaaS, as well as extensive cloud solutions and services.

The following are VMware-related FAQs, in addition to the ones you can find on KnowledgeLayer:

Why can’t I do “lift and shift” on other cloud platforms, e.g., AWS or Microsoft Azure?

In simple terms, you’ll need access to the virtualization host in order to “fully” operate your VMware environment (as you’d be used to it from your own data center). Neither AWS nor Azure allows you this level of control; they also run different hypervisors. SoftLayer allows you to deploy and manage physical hosts in addition to standard virtual servers.

Why would I do “lift and shift” on SoftLayer and not on VMware’s own public cloud?

Performing the extension on SoftLayer lets you:

• Choose from 28 data centers in 14 countries
• Take advantage of SoftLayer’s unmetered private network
• Have “full control” beyond what is specifically exposed as a “service” in vCloud (there is no access to the physical ESX hosts).

Source :http://blog.softlayer.com/2016/%E2%80%9Clift-and-shift%E2%80%9D-existing-vmware-workloads-public-cloud