Amazon.com Inc is teaming up with VMware Inc to let customers combine VMware’s software for corporate networks with Amazon’s Internet-based cloud-computing services, a bid by Amazon to better compete with rival Microsoft Corp in hybrid cloud solutions.
VMware will deliver, sell and support a product that lets customers use their existing VMware software with access to Amazon’s cloud-based storage, database and analytic software, the companies said in a statement on Thursday.
Hybrid solutions allow customers to run applications on their own servers and through various remote cloud-based applications simultaneously.
Called VMware Cloud on AWS, the product is to be available in the middle of next year.
It will appeal to companies that want the flexibility and capacity of managing data via the cloud, the companies said.
Amazon is trying to maintain its lead in the cloud-computing market over rivals Microsoft, Alphabet Inc’s Google and IBM Corp as more companies transition from using their servers to renting computing power and data space hosted remotely, which they access via the Internet.
Movie-service Netflix Inc is a prominent example of a Web company powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
VMware is shifting its cloud strategy to focus on selling products that work with existing leaders, rather than trying to establish itself as an alternative to the Amazons of the world.
As more companies run applications on rented servers over the Internet, providing services that link the different technologies customers use is a growing opportunity for VMware.
The alliance is a “very powerful collaboration” that gives companies flexibility in deciding whether to transition their data to the public cloud while maintaining investments they’ve made in on-premise data centers, Morningstar Inc analyst Tim Feeney said.
“Essentially, the process of managing the hybrid cloud environment is significantly less of a hassle now,” Feeney said. “This is a very powerful move for Vmware, because IT managers are more likely to retain VMware’s services for longer.”
VMware chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger said he sees hybrid solutions providing business opportunities for decades into the future while the on-premise data business slows.
The Amazon partnership could be a blow to IBM, which has its own deal with Vmware.
IBM said in a statement that 1,000 clients are already using the IBM cloud with software from VMware and the partnership has created “significant momentum.”
Microsoft, responding to the Amazon-VMware agreement, said AWS is behind in offering hybrid cloud solutions.
“Microsoft Azure has always been hybrid by design, based on our decades of enterprise experience,” the company said in the statement. “True hybrid cloud isn’t just connectivity, it’s consistency across development, management and security.”
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