Originally reported by Light Reading (July 2019).
Overview
VMware and Google announced a partnership to run VMware workloads natively on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The agreement builds on both companies’ hybrid cloud ambitions and mirrors similar arrangements VMware already has with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. For enterprise IT and DevOps teams managing VMware estates, this opens a credible path to GCP without re-platforming workloads.
What the Partnership Delivers
Under the arrangement, organizations can run core VMware stack components on GCP, including:
- VMware vSphere — server virtualization
- VMware NSX — software-defined networking
- VMware vSAN — hyper-converged storage
These components run as part of VMware Cloud Foundation on a platform operated by CloudSimple, a VMware partner that provides dedicated, bare-metal VMware environments inside GCP. CloudSimple handles the provisioning and administration layer, so teams interact with familiar VMware tooling rather than raw GCP primitives.
Broader Google–VMware Integration Points
This workload-portability deal is one layer of a wider integration between the two companies. Other active collaboration areas at the time of the announcement included:
- NSX and SD-WAN on GCP — an earlier partnership to support Google Cloud networking with VMware NSX and SD-WAN capabilities.
- Google Cloud Anthos — a joint effort enabling applications to run across on-premises environments and multiple clouds, with VMware providing the on-prem virtualization layer.
- vRealize Automation plug-in — a Google Cloud plug-in for VMware vRealize Automation, allowing teams to provision and manage GCP resources from within the familiar vRealize interface.
- Kubernetes (2017) — VMware and Google partnered on Kubernetes support in 2017, with Pivotal also involved. Both VMware and Pivotal were under Dell’s ownership at the time.
How This Fits VMware’s Multi-Cloud Strategy
The Google Cloud expansion completes a three-hyperscaler picture for VMware:
| Cloud Provider | Key Integration |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | VMware Cloud on AWS; AWS Outposts for on-premises AWS infrastructure |
| Microsoft Azure | Azure VMware Solution — VMware workloads running natively on Azure |
| Google Cloud Platform | VMware Cloud Foundation on GCP via CloudSimple; Anthos; vRealize plug-in |
For DevOps and infrastructure teams, this multi-cloud consistency is significant. It means a VMware-based operating model — familiar tooling, consistent networking policies via NSX, and unified storage — can in principle extend across all three major public clouds without requiring workload re-architecture.
Implications for Telco and Network Virtualization
While the partnership was framed as an enterprise story, it carries meaningful implications for telecommunications operators. Telcos were actively evaluating hybrid cloud architectures to host network functions virtualization (NFV) workloads at the time. VMware had already established telco network virtualization as a strategic priority, and the combination of VMware’s NFV capabilities with GCP’s global infrastructure and Anthos’ multi-cloud management layer made the joint offering attractive for carriers exploring hybrid cloud-native network deployments.
Key Takeaways for DevOps and Infrastructure Teams
- If your organization runs VMware on-premises and evaluates GCP, the CloudSimple-based VMware Cloud Foundation on GCP reduces migration friction by preserving existing operational tooling.
- Google Cloud Anthos, reinforced by VMware’s on-prem virtualization layer, provides a common control plane for hybrid and multi-cloud application management.
- vRealize Automation’s GCP plug-in means infrastructure-as-code and self-service portal workflows can span on-premises VMware and GCP from a single tool.
- VMware’s consistent presence across AWS, Azure, and GCP gives enterprises genuine flexibility to choose or distribute workloads across hyperscalers without abandoning their VMware investment.
This article summarizes reporting and announcements from July 2019. Product names, partnership structures, and service availability may have changed since then. Verify current offerings with VMware and Google Cloud documentation.