Friday 13 November 2020

The Multi Cloud and how VMware can help

 

Whenever I teach my various on-premises courses and even when I teach my Cloud based courses, I always get reminded by my Cloud trainer colleagues that in the future “everyone will be running all of their services in the cloud”.

I then ask my delegates and attendees the questions:

“In the future will you run all of your IT services purely from a public cloud?” Usually the answer is “No, we won’t”

“Are any of you running services in just one cloud solution?” These answers vary from “No, Yes, and we actually use multiple clouds”.

As we move forward and more of our services move towards modernisation, questions are being asked, obstacles are appearing, and as different departments perhaps decide to take their services into their own hands, we find that silos are created, and eventually it will come back into the IT departments hands.

The challenge becomes managing these multi-cloud environments in a cohesive and transparent (for the user) way.

Some of the questions that I get asked:

What is the difference between a hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud scenario?

I always think of hybrid cloud as a mix between a private on-premises cloud and a public cloud solution, I have to focus on a management method that allows consistency of management across a common infrastructure layer. Such as having VMware on-premises and then running VMware via VMC on AWS for my public cloud offering.

Mult-Cloud for me is a bit more complex, I may have VMware on-premises, AWS running my website, and web interfacing services, and then running perhaps Azure with Office 365 for productivity, and Intune for my device management, they all have their own management tools, and potentially 100s of separate accounts that I need to now coordinate and manage consistently.

The challenges for organisations starting or continuing their journey to the multi-cloud

·         Multiple systems that require management

·         Unpredictable costs, due to pay as you go models.

·         Not knowing 100% which clouds are in use, as developers and departments create their own workloads, leading to inconsistency and perhaps duplication of solutions.

·         Protection of workloads from a high availability, scalability, and business continuity view.

·         Backing up workloads.

·         Governance.

·         Automation.

·         Prioritisation.

·         Service Level agreements

·         Delivering applications, on any cloud, on any device, and making this transparent to the end user

 Why use a multi-cloud strategy for your Organisation

·        Unique Services: Organizations have the freedom to choose from different cloud providers to best fit specific application and computation requirements to their own unique business needs.

·        Scalable: An organisation can quickly scale up to use more resources during peak periods and then scale down when demand lessens, or fewer virtual data centres, depending on demand.

·        Speed: Global organizations can get services faster in multiple regions by choosing local public cloud vendors at all of their office locations. The closer the data centre, the lower the latency. Using a local public cloud computing provider also decreases response time for higher priority tasks.

·        Compliance with governmental regulation: Some organizations may need to use multiple cloud storage providers to adhere to government regulations and data sovereignty laws that require certain types of data to reside within the company’s country.

·        Saving time, money and physical space: Most organizations that employ multi-cloud capabilities use the public cloud for IaaS, avoiding the need to build and maintain their own datacentre. The advantage of using public cloud for IaaS is that users can build a virtual data centre in the cloud without needing a physical piece of hardware. This saves money and physical space, because the company does not have to invest in or store their own hardware. It also saves time, because the public cloud service provider manages, maintains and updates the data centre.

·         Future-proof and flexible: Opting for multiple cloud services provides benefits beyond spreading the risk of failure across several vendors. By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, businesses can get everything they want, or might want tomorrow, without being limited to the services that one vendor provides.

There has to be a way to better manage all of these clouds, whether they be on-premises, hybrid, or public clouds

As I work with VMware products and have done for 20 years, my focus will be on how VMware can help me manage the diversity in solutions and clouds that I may have in use now and in the future.

Can VMware help manage operations when I have applications and services on AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, Oracle, and so on?

The simple answer is YES. VMware multi-cloud solutions are designed to help manage workloads that run on the native infrastructure of public clouds. Not only that VMware can help me to manage a multi-cloud and hybrid scenarios that include, consistent infrastructure based on VMware technologies that run alongside workloads that run natively in the cloud.

VMware solutions for the multi-cloud

VMware’s building block for cloud solutions is VMware Cloud Foundation, this product suite contains a number of solutions. It consists of:

·         VMware vSphere

·         VMware NSX-T

·         VMware vSAN

·         VMware vRealize suite

VMware also have solutions to help analyse and manage your cloud solutions such as CloudHealth by VMware, that allows companies to Analyse and manage cloud cost, usage, security and governance in one place with a cloud management platform.

Also, VMware have Cloud Health Secure State that allows companies to Gain real-time visibility across clouds. Build a unified security monitoring approach for AWS, Azure, and Google Clouds to understand how a minor configuration change can elevate risk across all connected objects. Monitor ephemeral cloud resources and detect security events within minutes without excessive API calls to cloud. Visualize cloud resource relationships and associated misconfigurations, threats, metadata, and change activity. Explore inventory with typeahead search and investigate risks with powerful visualization capabilities for navigating cloud topology. Audit configuration changes and track progress developers are making in resolving security violations.

VMware Cloud Partners and solutions

VMware’s original partnership started with AWS and as such, my first foray into hybrid cloud was VMware Cloud on AWS

But VMware has expanded and also provide:

·         Azure VMware Solution

·         Google Cloud VMware Engine

·         IBM Cloud VMware Solutions

·         Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

As we move forward, I am sure that most companies will embrace some form of multi-cloud solution, and this area will grow rapidly, what’s important is that all companies research and then select the service that works best for them.

 

Thursday 12 November 2020

The many certifications available from VMware

 

When I started working with VMware nearly 20 years ago there was only one certification and that was the VMware Certified Professional, moving forward and over 25 VMware certifications to my name, the range of certification have increased massively.

 

VMware Certified Technical Associate - VCTA

For Operators

This entry-level technical certification is for anyone new to the industry or advancing their careers who perform operational tasks typically delegated by administrators of virtualized environments.

VMware Certified Professional - VCP

For Administrators and Engineers

This level is designed for IT professionals who install, configure, manage, and optimize VMware solutions.

VMware Certified Advanced Professional - VCAP

For Administrators, Architects and Engineers

The advanced level certifications are for those who design and build VMware Solutions (VCAP Design), manage and optimize (VCAP Deployment) VMware solutions.

VMware Certified Design Expert – VCDX

For Architects

The highest level of VMware certification, VCDX recognizes IT professionals who design, build, and manage VMware solutions and systems.

The Areas of Specialisation

Data Centre Virtualisation route

VMware Data Centre Virtualisation certifications are designed to gauge your level of skill designing, installing, and managing VMware vSphere environments in a real-world environment.

Cloud Management and Automation Route

VMware Cloud Management and Automation certifications are designed to gauge your level of skill installing, configuring, and optimizing VMware vRealize for your cloud solution.

Digital Workspace route consists of the following:

Digital Workspace

VMware Digital Workspace certification is designed to gauge your skill configuring, deploying, managing, maintaining, optimizing, and troubleshooting VMware Workspace ONE and related solutions.

Desktop and Mobility

VMware Desktop and Mobility certifications are designed to gauge your level of skill designing, installing, and managing a VMware Horizon with View environment deployed on a VMware.

Network Virtualisation route

VMware Network Virtualization certifications are designed to gauge your level of skill designing, implementing, and managing a VMware NSX environment.

Security route

This certification validates a candidate's understanding of VMware's security solutions and the candidate's ability to provide entry level support for the security features of VMware products, including NSX-T Data Centre, Workspace ONE and VMware Carbon Black Cloud.

Application Modernisation route

VMware Application Modernisation certifications are designed to gauge your level of skill validated by passing specialists exams. Whether it’s developer knowledge of specialized frameworks, or administrator knowledge of emerging technologies like Kubernetes and containers, VMware can help you build an effective team with proven skills.

 

For more information visit VMware Certification tracks diagram

 

 


Wednesday 11 November 2020

VMware Certified Technical Associate an ideal place to start your VMware certification journey

 

Whilst teaching this week I was asked about starting level certifications in VMware and we introduced the well-known VMware Certified Professional.

However, VMware have also introduced the VMware Certified Technical Associate certification.



The VCTA is for anyone new to the industry or to VMware solutions, whether as a newly graduating student, someone changing careers, or someone already working in the industry and looking for opportunities to advance.

The VCTA is designed for those performing an operator job role.

This is an ideal starting point.

The VCTA is not a prerequisite for the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certification, which is a higher-level certification; experienced candidates can start directly at the VCP level.

However, for anyone wanting to get that first step into the technical credentials and prove their operational skills across VMware solutions, the VCTA is a perfect starting point.

Training is available online through VMware Customer Connect Learning. You can take the VCTA exam at either a Pearson VUE test centre or at a home, office, or work location using the Pearson OnVue remote proctored solution. When registering for the exam, you will have the option of selecting your preference.

A good place to start would be the VMware Certified Technical Associate – Data Centre Virtualisation 2020

The VCTA-DCV certification holder has a basic understanding of virtualization and vSphere concepts. The certification holder also demonstrates knowledge of data centre technology and basic troubleshooting concepts. A VCTA-DCV holder also has a working knowledge of managing cloud resources and basic networking concepts.