This article is based on reporting originally published by SDxCentral (May 2020).
Overview: Azure VMware Solution Gets a Significant Refresh
In May 2020, Microsoft quietly made a significant change to its Azure VMware Solution (AVS), repositioning it as a genuine first-party Azure service. The key benefit for operations and infrastructure teams: existing on-premises VMware workloads can now be migrated to Azure without needing to re-architect applications first — a classic lift-and-shift capability, but delivered inside the Azure ecosystem.
What Azure VMware Solution Offers
The service provisions a full VMware Cloud Foundation environment on Azure infrastructure, giving customers a familiar VMware operational experience within a public cloud. Core components included at the time of this announcement were:
- VMware vSphere — the core hypervisor and virtualization platform
- VMware NSX-T — software-defined networking and security for the data center
- VMware vSAN — hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) for software-defined storage
- VMware HCX — application mobility and workload migration platform
Customers can also add VMware HCX Enterprise, which extends compatibility so that older versions of vSphere running on-premises can interoperate with newer vSphere versions running on the Azure VMware Solution platform. This is particularly valuable for organisations with heterogeneous VMware estates that cannot easily standardise on a single vSphere version before migrating.
A First-Party Microsoft Service: What That Means Operationally
Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft’s commercial CMO at the time, described AVS as a “first-party service from Microsoft” — meaning it is directly owned, operated, and supported by Microsoft rather than delivered through a third-party or partner arrangement. For DevOps and platform engineering teams, this distinction matters for several practical reasons:
- Single support contact: Teams deal with Microsoft for both Azure infrastructure and VMware layer issues, rather than managing split accountability between vendors.
- Integrated billing: The service appears on the standard Azure invoice.
- SLA alignment: Microsoft owns the full stack commitment, not just the underlying hardware.
- Single-tenant architecture: Microsoft explicitly noted it rearchitected the preview to focus on a “single-tenant user experience”, which has security and performance isolation implications for enterprise workloads.
Regional Availability at Launch
At the time of this announcement (May 2020), Azure VMware Solution was available as a preview in two regions: Azure US East and West Europe. General availability and broader geographic expansion were planned for later in 2020. Teams evaluating the service today should consult the current Azure VMware Solution product page for up-to-date regional coverage, as availability has expanded significantly since the original preview.
History: How AVS Evolved from the 2019 Announcement
Microsoft first unveiled an Azure VMware service in 2019 as part of a broader partnership involving VMware and its parent company Dell Technologies. That initial arrangement bundled several integrations:
- Joint management of Microsoft 365 and VMware Workspace ONE across devices via Microsoft Intune and Azure Active Directory
- Extended Windows Virtual Desktop capabilities through VMware Horizon Cloud on Microsoft Azure
At the time, Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell described the intent as providing “a single view from edge to core to cloud — an integrated platform for our customers’ digital future.”
The 2020 refresh was more than an incremental update. According to a Microsoft spokesperson quoted by SDxCentral: “It is an entirely new service. Since the launch of Azure VMware Solutions in May 2019, we have rearchitected the preview to focus on a single-tenant user experience and our first-party technology.”
Competitive Context: AVS vs. VMware Cloud on AWS
Azure VMware Solution competes directly with VMware Cloud on AWS, a partnership that VMware and AWS initiated in 2017. VMware’s CEO Pat Gelsinger characterised that AWS offering as “the ultimate hybrid solution” — a claim that reflects how seriously VMware treated its AWS relationship.
For infrastructure and platform teams evaluating multi-cloud or hybrid VMware strategies, the choice between AVS and VMware Cloud on AWS typically comes down to:
- Existing cloud contracts and commitments — Azure vs. AWS enterprise agreements
- Integration requirements — whether workloads are tightly coupled to Azure-native services (Active Directory, Azure Monitor, ExpressRoute) or AWS-native services
- Support model preferences — Microsoft owning the full stack on AVS vs. the joint VMware/AWS model
- Regional availability at the time of deployment
Key Takeaways for DevOps and Infrastructure Teams
- AVS enables genuine lift-and-shift of VMware workloads to Azure, preserving existing VMware tooling and operational processes.
- The single-tenant architecture and first-party support model reduce vendor ambiguity for enterprise teams.
- HCX Enterprise support for older vSphere versions lowers the barrier for organisations with legacy VMware infrastructure.
- Organisations already invested in Azure identity, networking, and monitoring tooling will find native integration with AVS smoother than a competing cloud alternative.
- This announcement dates from May 2020; current pricing, region availability, and feature set have evolved. Always validate against current Microsoft documentation before committing to architecture decisions.