The service combines VMware-managed cloud services with Equinix’s Bare Metal as a Service
Equinix and VMware announced this week VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal, a new cloud service that sees VMware-managed cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) available on Equinix’s Bare Metal as a Service offering. The companies predict the new offering as ideal for distributed cloud use cases like smart cities, video analytics, IoT and Machine Language (ML) inference.
For mission-critical cloud workloads that demand low latency and high-performance network bandwidth, most enterprises have kept workloads on-premises, or do real-time data processing at branch office or metro locations, said VMware. This offering makes it easier and more cost-effective for companies to deploy cloud services without heavy capital investments in hardware infrastructure, the companies noted, taking advantage of VMware’s broad array of services and Equinix’s global network and server infrastructure.
The new service provides a pathway for enterprises to deploy a VMware Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) on Equinix’s Bare Metal as a Service. VMware SDDCs leverage virtualized infrastructure, governed by central cloud management. VMware SDDCs can be deployed on private and public clouds, but in this case, the company is leveraging Equinix’s worldwide data center network. Equinix owns and operates a network of more than 240 data centers in 71 major metro areas around the world and serves as a transit hub, enabling secure network connections across private and public clouds.
For now, the new solution from VMware and Equinix can be deployed in more than 30 of Equinix’s data centers located in major metropolitan centers around the world, the companies indicated. Additional markets are being added regularly. “This is essential for applications requiring proximity to data, ML/Inference, video analytics and high performance VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure),” said VMware.
In an interview with RCR Wireless News earlier this year, Smith described Equinix’s offering as “a highly automated bare-metal platform for automating hardware, as well as our network edge platform for access to networking and our fabric for virtual connections and interconnection.”
At the time, Equinix introduced a collaboration with international telco Orange to deploy that company’s New Generation International Network – eNGINe – on Equinix Bare Metal as a Service. Equinix said that Orange could instantiate new points of presence (PoPs) in a matter of weeks, versus months or years. Smith indicated that Equinix had worked for more than a year to bring the project to fruition. Equinix had spent that time “industrializing Equinix Metal from core cloud-native applications into high performance production-grade networking infrastructure,” according to Smith, ostensibly laying the groundwork for future collaborations like the new VMware announcement.
“The real business unlock is for customers to move services to an expanded geographic footprint faster, and bring that kind of edge connectivity and intelligence, whether it’s for business networks or consumer, closer to their end users,” Smith said.
“VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal is a great option for enterprises that want the flexibility and performance of the Public Cloud, where business requirements prevent moving data or applications to the public cloud. It offers full compatibility and consistency with on-premises and VMware Cloud operational models and policies and zero downtime migration,” said the duo in the blog post.
The news was one of several announcements punctuating this week’s VMware Explore Europe event in Barcelona, Spain. Other announcements include a new RIC testbed as a service VMware is offering with Viavi Solutions, and updates to VMware’s cloud services portfolio with data sovereignty in mind.
