VMware launches Cloud Foundation software bundle, coming to IBM first

VMware today is announcing the launch of Cloud Foundation, a package of existing VMware software that’s becoming available for use on public clouds. The idea is to let admins use familiar tools to control server, storage, and networking resources in public clouds, not just in private clouds in on-premises data centers.

The package — which includes vSphere, Virtual SAN, NSX, and SDDC Manager — is becoming generally available later this quarter. It will initially come to IBM’s public cloud and will roll out to other public clouds later. Previously, VMware’s own vCloud Air public cloud integrated with VMware’s existing on-premises software. Now VMware is making it more widely available.

Cloud Foundation should be attractive to VMware customers that have wanted to start using the IBM cloud more heavily but haven’t been ready to yet, Mark Lohmeyer, vice president of products for cloud platform at VMware, told VentureBeat in an interview.

The move comes as the biggest public clouds — like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and the Google Cloud Platform — continue to gain ground, leaving smaller providers to figure out other strategies. Rackspace, for example, recently chose to go private.

The vCloud Air service has not emerged as a top contender in the years since VMware introduced it in 2013, initially under the name vCloud Hybrid Service. VMware looked to Google to bolster the portfolio and also introduced new services to enhance its portfolio. VMware parent company EMC also bought public cloud infrastructure provider Virtustream.

Now VMware is taking another step to get bigger in cloud. The strategy is reminiscent of how Microsoft has been working to make its cloud services available for companies to use on premises through the Azure Stack, but VMware is going in the opposite direction.

Also today, VMware is introducing a technology preview of cloud-based Cross-Cloud services for managing applications in multiple public and private clouds, including those that are not vSphere-based. VMware is not saying when they will become generally available.

A statement on the news is here.