VMware Cloud On AWS Accelerator Service Launched By 2nd Watch
Aiming to ride the services tidal wave on its growing VMware Cloud on AWS pipeline and net new customer wins, solution provider 2nd Watch launched a program on Thursday designed to help large enterprises transition smoothly to VMware Cloud on AWS.
As momentum builds in the channel around the one-year-old VMware and AWS offering, the Seattle-based MSP created a four-week 2nd Watch Solution Accelerator program where it will analyze a company's current VMware environment, outline a plan for running their infrastructure on VMware Cloud on AWS and execute a pilot of that implementation.
"We're now seeing net new customer wins where clients may have been on the bench a little while ago and not aggressively moving to the cloud as some of the early adopters," said Jeff Aden, founder and executive vice president of 2nd Watch, who made CRN's 2018 Tech Elite 250. "We see a different persona and customer base to crack into now. Customers are using this as an ability to burst capacity when needed and for things like disaster recovery. It also fits a unique use case with Oracle RAC (Real Application Clusters) that's running within their VMware environment."
[Related: VMware's Pat Gelsinger: 'I Want To Disrupt Everything About The Security Market']
In an interview with CRN at the 2018 Best of Breed (BoB) Conference this month, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said its partnership with "juggernaut" Amazon will have a global footprint by the end of next year.
"We have hundreds of engineers working on this. [AWS] has hundreds of engineers. This is at-scale engineering that we're doing with each other," said Gelsinger. "Amazon is not an easy company to work with. We've really cracked the code on how to make that partnership work in both directions. Now the engineering pace is picking up."
Aden said the pace of innovation inside VMware Cloud on AWS and the demand for hybrid and multi-cloud solutions is skyrocketing, which is why it's the perfect time to launch the 2nd Watch Solution Accelerator program.
At VMworld 2018, the virtualization leader launched new capabilities for the cloud service including high-capacity storage option, instant data center evacuation with live migration of thousands of virtual machines and licensing optimization for enterprise applications. Additionally, VMware created a smaller three-host minimum configuration as a starting point for production workloads to make VMware Cloud on AWS more appealing to customers down market.
In addition to helping customers understand, map and budget a move to VMware Cloud on AWS, 2nd Watch's program provides a cost estimate for moving into production and shares best practices regarding the design and operation for future VMware-based infrastructure and applications.
"We see a solid pipeline developing," said Aden. "As we move into 2019, we expect to see the VMware Cloud on AWS growth just to take off."
Founded in 2010, 2nd Watch has over 200,000 cloud instances under management and supports customers such as Coca-Cola, Covanta Energy and Yamaha. The cloud-native MSP, who received $19 million in funding last year, is a Premier AWS and VMware partner focused on providing services to enterprises. The company's proprietary tools automate everyday workload management processes for big data analytics, digital marketing, line-of-business and cloud native workloads.
"There's a lot of different use cases in hybrid cloud, multi-cloud that are going to continue to develop and we want to make sure we position ourselves appropriately for that with this program," said Aden. "We're making it really easy for customers to consume VMware Cloud on AWS and streamline the sales and implementation process."