IBM & VMware partnership brings applications to hybrid cloud 'within hours'

IBM and VMware's partnership to provide hybrid cloud to organisations around the world has seen tremendous uptake, with August figures putting more than 500 new clients on the books.

The two companies formed an agreement to host VMware Cloud Foundation on IBM cloud, which is helping to move existing enterprise applications to the cloud 'within hours', compared to time-consuming weeks or months.

"IBM and VMware share a common vision for providing customers with an easy path from the data center to the cloud. This collaboration has been so successful that we're investing more deeply so our customers can quickly deploy software-defined solutions in just hours to IBM Cloud with all the sophisticated workload automation they have within their own data centers," says Pat Gelsinger, VMware CEO.

IBM and VMWare are also training more than 4000 service professionals who will help clients with VMware cloud solutions.

"Enterprises need fast and easy ways to deploy and move workloads between on-premises and public cloud environments. Our collaboration with VMware is becoming the glue for many organizations to scale and create new business opportunities while making the most of their existing IT investments in a hybrid cloud environment," says Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud.

Earlier this year the two companies banded together to solve a challenge plaguing the industry: How to move workloads to cloud without the cost and risk of rearchitecting applications and redesigning security policies.

The VMware Cloud Foundation brings the company's storage, compute and network virtualization solutions into an integrated platform, allowing VMware Software Define Data Center (SDDC) environments within hours.

The platform brings together VMware vSphere, Vmware Virtual SAN, VMware NSX and VMware SDDC Manager as well as a 'broad' choice in infrastructure decisions.

Melanie Posey, IDC vice president of Research, Hosting and Managed Network Services, says the companies are progressing well with hybrid cloud adoption via automation.

"The IBM-VMware partnership offers enterprises the ability to extend existing on-premises workloads to the cloud seamlessly without the need for a major IT operations overhaul, thus greatly simplifying the entire migration process," Posey says.

IBM and VMware state that since they launched their solution, it has been well-received by customers. Those customers include Marriott International.

"It's more than just keeping our guests happy, it's about helping them create a memory by exceeding their expectations. From reserving and booking rooms, planning their next family vacation or facilitating an important business event, the process of consuming our services and products needs to be seamless and integrated into our guest's style of working and transacting. Marriott has been able to keep innovating by rapidly launching new customizable applications that support these experiences," explains Alan Rosa, senior vice president of Technology Delivery and IT Security at Marriott International.

"The partnership between IBM and VMware gives us an advantage in that Marriott can continue to do what we do best but expands our reach on a global scale with trusted partners whom consistently deliver," Rosa continues.

VMware has nearly 50 data centers across the globe. Almost 100% of Fortune 100 customers use VMware technologies.