SINGAPORE - Digital infrastructure software company VMware announced this week that it will be launching in Singapore its hybrid cloud service, VMware Cloud on AWS (Amazon Web Services), in the first quarter of 2019.
An on-demand service, VMware Cloud on AWS enables enterprise customers to migrate their applications to the cloud by delivering infrastructure and operations that are consistent with those deployed within customer data centres, and in a way that reduces both cost and effort, said VMware.
VMware Cloud on AWS brings VMware's Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) software to the AWS cloud, which allows customers to run production applications across VMware's hybrid cloud environments with optimised access to the breadth and depth of AWS services and robust disaster protection, VMware added.
The service was made available in Sydney on Sunday, and will roll out in Tokyo in the fourth quarter of 2018. Come first quarter 2019, Singapore will become the third city in the Asia-Pacific region to land VMware Cloud on AWS.
This hybrid cloud service is among VMware's "most relevant" solutions today, said Sanjay Deshmukh, vice-president and managing director for South-east Asia and Korea at VMware.
According to VMware, hybrid cloud refers to the use of private and public cloud platforms, along with on-premises IT infrastructure. Companies can use hybrid cloud to "quickly and cost-effectively enhance their existing resources", said the company. For instance, they can keep sensitive data secure within a private cloud and also quickly add more computing, network bandwidth or storage in a third-party public cloud to address temporary surges in demand.
Mr Deshmukh added: "In speaking with our customers, we found that the ultimate goal of many organisations is to improve employee and customer experience."
Singapore customers of VMware include media company Singapore Press Holdings (which owns The Business Times) and data centre operator Telin Singapore. According to Mr Deshmukh, other customers here include government agencies, retail companies and banks, names of which he could not disclose.
When asked if start-ups (such as Grab) are customers of VMware, Adrian Hia, country manager of VMware Singapore, said that such companies are typically "born in the cloud" and do not use legacy systems. VMmare solutions may therefore be more relevant to them in their later stages, he noted.
On VMware's plans for Singapore, Mr Hia said: "It's an exciting time, powered by the digital transformation that is happening across organisations. The areas of growth for Singapore are hybrid cloud, workplace transformation and security."
Both executives were speaking to reporters at the sidelines of VMworld, the annual digital infrastructure conference organised by VMware that is being held at Las Vegas from Aug 26-30.
At VMworld, VMware also unveiled the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) on VMware (that will help customers set up, operate and scale databases in VMware-based SDDCs and hybrid environments and migrate them to AWS or VMware Cloud on AWS), as well as its acquisition of cloud management platform CloudHealth, among several other announcements.
