For many organisations, the path to cloud adoption has been a careful balancing act. You want the agility, scalability, and innovation that the cloud offers, but you also have significant investments in your existing VMware-based applications and the operational expertise to manage them. Up until now, VMware on AWS has often meant a complex and costly re-platforming exercise.
But what if you could run your VMware environment in the cloud, with full control, and seamlessly integrate it with a vast ecosystem of cloud-native services?
Enter Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS).
What is Amazon EVS?
Amazon EVS is a new AWS service that allows you to deploy and run a VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment directly on Amazon EC2 bare metal instances within your own Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). This means you can run your vSphere workloads on AWS, keeping your familiar VCF software and tools, without the need to re-architect your applications or change existing operational runbooks.
Crucially, EVS operates on a “bring your own subscription” (BYOS) model. This allows you to leverage your existing VCF licenses, which helps to maximise your investment in your on-premises infrastructure as you transition to the cloud.
Who is EVS Designed For?
Amazon EVS is a game-changer for organisations that want to accelerate their cloud migration and digital transformation without the disruption of a full re-platforming project. It is particularly well-suited to:
- Organisations with existing VMware footprints: Those with substantial investments in VMware workloads and a team skilled in managing them can migrate to AWS while maintaining operational continuity and using the tools they already know and trust.
- Businesses seeking to migrate with speed and control: The service is ideal for those looking to quickly move workloads to the cloud to eliminate aging infrastructure, reduce operational costs, or meet strict data centre exit timelines.
- Enterprises exploring hybrid cloud strategies: EVS provides a deep integration between your VMware environment and AWS, enabling you to extend your on-premises data centre to the cloud for disaster recovery, capacity extension, or application modernisation.
Key Features
Amazon EVS is not just a hosting platform; it’s a tool for modernisation and a flexible on-ramp to the AWS cloud. Here are some of its key features:
- Self-Managed or Partner-Managed: You have the choice and flexibility to either self-manage your VCF environment or work with an AWS Partner to handle the management and operations for you. This is an area where a specialist cloud consultancy like Mobilise can provide significant value.
- Direct Access to AWS Services: As the EVS environment is deployed directly within your own VPC, you gain seamless access to over 200 AWS services. This allows you to modernise your applications at your own pace by integrating them with services for databases, analytics, machine learning, and generative AI.
- Full Administrative Control: You retain complete administrative control over your VCF environment, including vSphere, NSX Manager, and SDDC Manager. This control allows you to optimise your virtualisation stack and integrate third-party solutions for storage, backup, and more.
- Simplified, Automated Deployment: Amazon EVS provides a guided workflow in the AWS console or through the AWS CLI to provision a fully functional VCF environment in just hours. This automation removes manual steps and potential configuration errors.
- Flexible Storage Options: While EVS uses vSAN for local instance storage, it also supports using external storage solutions like Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP as either an NFS or iSCSI datastore.
The Benefits
The benefits of adopting Amazon EVS extend beyond simple migration, enabling a strategic approach to cloud transformation:
- Accelerated Time to Value: By rapidly deploying a VCF environment in the cloud, you can quickly migrate workloads and begin to realise the benefits of AWS infrastructure, such as scalability and resilience.
- Reduced Migration Complexity: You can extend your on-premises networks and move workloads without changing IP addresses or re-writing operational runbooks, which significantly reduces the risk and complexity traditionally associated with large-scale migrations.
- Operational Continuity: By using your existing VMware skills and tools, your team can maintain operational familiarity, minimising the need for extensive retraining and allowing them to focus on delivering value instead of managing infrastructure.
- Access to Innovation: EVS acts as a bridge to a world of innovation, enabling you to pragmatically modernise your applications by integrating them with AWS’s comprehensive suite of cloud services.
- Optimised Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): By capitalising on your existing investments in VMware licenses and skills, you can achieve a compelling TCO compared to on-premises solutions and other cloud alternatives. While pricing can be complex, options like a 3-year Instance Savings Plan can dramatically reduce the monthly cost of the underlying EC2 instances.
Ready to Make the Move?
As an AWS Advanced Partner and a specialist in cloud and DevOps, Mobilise is perfectly placed to guide you through your EVS adoption journey.
Partner with Mobilise today to leverage AWS Migration Acceleration Partner funding to receive significant discounts on migration costs.
