VMware launches services to help customers navigate the multi-cloud era

VMware has announced its strategy to help customers navigate the multi-cloud era with the launch of VMware Cross-Cloud services.

The group of integrated services is designed to deliver a faster and smarter path to the cloud for digital businesses, providing customers with the ability to build, run and better secure apps across any cloud with flexibility.

According to VMware, the average organisation runs roughly 500 applications to drive their business, and those apps are distributed across clouds. The company says 75% of its customers rely on two or more public clouds, and 40% use three or more.

This multi-cloud approach increases app velocity and innovation and allows organisations to be much more agile and resilient. However, a multi-cloud environment is far more diverse, complex, and distributed than anything organisations have managed in the past. VMware says this complexity often forces trade-offs between moving fast and managing risk, resulting in slower execution while increasing costs.

"Multi-cloud is the digital business model for the next 20 years, as entire industries reinvent themselves," says VMware CEO, Raghu Raghuram.

"It's no longer about a cloud-first approach - it's about being cloud smart. Organisations should have the freedom to choose the' right' cloud, based on their strategic business goals. With our cloud-agnostic approach, we are positioned to meet our customers where they are and take them where they want to go."

He says they can give organisations the power to accelerate innovation and control their destiny in the multi-cloud era.

IDC group vice president, Richard Villars, says organisations fully embraced digital transformation during the past year as they were forced to respond to many dramatic changes, accelerating their innovation timelines at record paces.

"Organisations rely heavily on cloud technologies to evolve and scale as they pivot to competing in a digital-first economy," says Villars.

"VMware's multi-cloud-focused strategy puts it in a strong position to help enterprises take full advantage of multiple clouds and resources in their own data centers to improve resiliency."

VMware says its Cross-Cloud services will deliver three key advantages, an accelerated journey to the cloud, cost efficiency, flexibility and control across any cloud. VMware Cross-Cloud services expand the capabilities of VMware's product portfolio for a multi-cloud world and allow customers to pick and choose the services needed.

VMware Cross-Cloud services are comprised of five core building blocks:

• A platform for building and deploying cloud-native apps.
• Cloud infrastructure for operating and running enterprise apps.
• Cloud management for monitoring and managing the performance and cost of apps across different clouds.
• Security and networking that span across entire multi-cloud operations to connect and better secure all apps.
• A digital workspace to empower the distributed workforce, along with edge solutions to deploy and manage edge-native apps.