VMware and Amazon Web Services (AWS) today confirmed rumors they will deliver a joint service that lets customers run their vSphere private clouds from VMware alongside their applications in AWS’s public cloud.

They’ve jointly architected their new service named VMware Cloud on AWS.

“Because AWS and VMware didn’t provide a seamless experience to run [applications] on-premises and in AWS, customers had to make a binary decision: If they used AWS in the public cloud, they had to leave behind VMware,” said AWS CEO Andy Jassy in a joint press conference today.

“This is a result of our customers telling us they needed a hybrid environment,” added VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger. “There’s a range of hybrid requirements. We saw we could bring together the best of both worlds; the best of public cloud with the best of private cloud.”

“It will bring VMware’s software-defined data center (SDDC) technology to the AWS cloud and will enable customers to run any application across vSphere-based private, public, and hybrid cloud environments,” writes Mark Lohmeyer, VP of products for VMware’s Cloud Platform Business, in a company blog posting.

The service will be operated, managed, and sold by VMware. Customers can either order it on-demand or via 1-year or 3-year contracts. And they can scale it to suit their needs.

The service will run on dedicated AWS infrastructure purpose-built for it. AWS and VMware say it represents a significant investment in engineering, operations, support, and sales resources from both companies.

 

It leverages VMware’s SDDC infrastructure across compute, network, and storage (with vSphere, NSX, and VSAN), while providing access to advanced AWS services. And the VMware Cloud on AWS will be backed by integrated customer support from both companies.

Stressing the significance of their relationship, the companies said in their joint statement that VMware will be AWS' primary private cloud partner; and AWS will be VMware's primary public cloud partner.

Invite-only beta tests of VMware Cloud on AWS will begin in early 2017 with availability expected in mid-2017.