VMworld 2017: IBM & Vodafone Team Up To Ease Hybrid Cloud Migration

Vodafone and IBM claim their new service will make it easier and quicker to move VMware workloads from private clouds to public infrastructure, eliminating many of the pain points associated with such migrations.

The new service, announced at VMWorld Europe in Barcelona, creates a single virtualised data centre on VMware to create a bridge between Vodafone’s hosted cloud and the IBM Cloud.

Customers can choose to locate their workloads and data in one of 19 countries, reducing latency by bringing applications closer to users while also ensuring compliance with any data residency requirements.

Vodafone IBM

The deal is the latest in a series of partnerships designed to make it easier for enterprises to adopt hybrid cloud services by eliminating many of the pain points, such as having to reprogram software or change policies, with a migration.

The two companies claim customers will benefit not only from the efficiencies of hybrid cloud, but also gain access to IBM services such as Watson and Vodafone’s Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities.

“IBM is an excellent partner for Vodafone,” declared Greg Gyttenrauch, Vodafone’s director of cloud services. “The combination of our network and our Hosted Private Cloud with the global reach of IBM’s capabilities gives customers more flexibility, more choice and the possibility of a true hybrid cloud. There is no doubt in my mind that we are starting out on a long and fruitful relationship.”

“The IBM Cloud is bringing expanded capabilities to Vodafone by providing its customers with quick and easy access to a variety of higher value services across a broader geographical footprint than ever before,” added Sebastian Krause, general manager of IBM Cloud Europe. “Through this collaboration, we are further helping enterprises take advantage of the opportunity and value of hybrid cloud.”

IBM has also used announced new services to speed up cloud adoption using VMware, as well as more support for SAP HANA. VMworld Europe is a sister show to the one in the US, where more details were shared about VMware’s surprising tie-up with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“VMware is pleased to see Vodafone and IBM partner to empower our mutual customers to innovate across clouds using VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture,” commented Ajay Patal, head of cloud product development at VMware. “This new offering from Vodafone and IBM will enable businesses to utilize a globally consistent, common operating model for running, managing and securing their workloads across clouds.”

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