News

VMware Offers On-Demand Cloud with a Credit Card

The company provides $300 in free credits to test out the new service.

• By Keith Ward
• 01/21/2015

One potential barrier to cloud computing is the hassle of setting it up and incurring yet another monthly subscription bill. VMware Inc. says it's aware of that pain point, and is offering its cloud platform, vCloud Air, in a new way to help reduce the pain.

Called vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand, VMware claims that it allows customers to get up and running in the cloud within 15 minutes of signing up. All that's needed is a credit card, although subscription pricing is available. To further entice customers, VMware is offering a $300 credit for new sign-ups.

Scott Collison, VMware vice president of vCloud Air, believes the new service is a no-brainer. "You get the best of both worlds: instant access through self-service, but you have all the manageability with vCloud Air. [It's] a common management interface across those two environments, even the on-demand environment," he says.

One thing that VMware believes sets Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand apart is the ability to add or expand CPU, memory or storage in any ratio, at any time, as needed by applications. That includes adjusting virtual machines (VMs) that are in a powered-on state. "That's real cloud behavior, unlike other services where you need to choose your VM sizes up front from a limited number of pre-defined options and then migrate or convert your VMs to make any changes," according to the blog posting.  

Pricing, Collison says, starts at $0.17/hour for a VM with 8GB RAM and 2 virtual CPUs. You get a lot for your money, he says, including pay-as-you-go charges and the ability to create and manage multiple virtual datacenters within your on-demand instance. This allows companies to start doing better cost control for specific business units.

He also emphasizes the ease of payment: Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand enables "Two-step provisioning of standards-based resources; very easy and fast provisioning; bi-directional workload portability and resizable compute resources. And all you need is a credit card," Collison says.