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VMware Dangles $1,000 Carrot for vCloud Air
The company rolls out a "grand" strategy to draw customers to its hybrid cloud platform.
If you've been interested in exploring private cloud computing, but haven't yet taken the plunge, VMware Inc. wants to entice you with $1,000.
That's the amount of credit the virtualization giant is providing users of its "Early Access Program" for the ungainly named VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand. The idea, according to a blog post, is to provide "self-provision on-demand access to vCloud Air with nothing more than a browser and a credit card."
vCloud Air is the new name for what was formerly called vCloud Hybrid Service, or vCHS (some called it "v-cheese"). Private Cloud OnDemand was introduced in beta at VMworld in San Francisco last August. vCloud Air allows a business to extend its private on-premises infrastructure to the public cloud, using vSphere as the plumbing. VMware says the new hybrid environment "… is compatible with customers' existing applications and allows them to build new cloud-native applications, delivering agility and efficiency to the business in a secure, reliable and compliant manner."
VMware executives have said that they don't see vCloud Air as a direct competitor with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the leader in public cloud computing. The chief role of AWS is serving as a public platform for new cloud-enabled apps; it's not regularly used for legacy applications. vCloud Air, on the other hand, can be a bridge between existing, on-premises apps and infrastructure and the public cloud.
VMware trails significantly in public cloud usage, but hopes its new program, with a $1,000 inducement, will close that gap, even if just a bit.
About the Author
Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.