Google Cloud is to launch VMware Engine in its Sydney cloud region in a move that will ease customer’s migration of VMware-based applications into the cloud.

The engine provides a hyper-converged architecture that allows organisations to run and scale their infrastructure, while managing workloads traditionally kept on-premise.

It enables self-service provisioning of VMware private clouds with integrated connectivity to Google Cloud services such as BigQuery, Cloud Operations, Cloud Storage, Kubernetes and Cloud AI.

According to Google Cloud, the engine allows migration without any major changes to application policies, tools or processes.

“With today’s announcement, businesses in the region can deploy Google Cloud VMware Engine closer to their operations and unlock new growth opportunities,” Google Cloud said in a statement.

Google Cloud VMware Engine’s worldwide presence also allows multinational customers to benefit from the service’s unique networking capabilities, such as its global routing service to allow VMware workloads to securely communicate across regions.”

Google Cloud first launched a deep integration with VMware in November 2019 with the acquisition of CloudSimple, a VMware vSphere private cloud infrastructure provider.

The move now sees VMware run on all three of the major cloud infrastructure providers, as well as Alibaba and IBM.

It also signaled VMware’s desire to set itself up as a key player in any enterprise hybrid IT strategy, while Google Cloud continues to look to prove itself as a viable rival to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

Last week, VMware also launched a point-of-presence (PoP) in a Sydney data centre for its Carbon Black offering approximately five months later than intended.

The virtualisaion giant had intended to launch the data centre presence in the city during the first half of 2020 to support its VMware Carbon Black Cloud Platform.

From today, organisations can run the Google Cloud VMware Engine from Google’s Sydney cloud region.

The Engine is an integrated first-party offering and fully owned and operated service that enables enterprises to migrate or extend their VMware-based applications to Google Cloud without any major changes to application policies, tools or processes.

This allows customers to keep what they like about their on-prem application environment and tap into next-generation hardware and application services with minimal effort.

“VMware technologies form the cornerstone of many customers’ enterprise IT environments and we’re focused on giving customers a simple way to be able to run what they want, where they want and how they want. As part of our ongoing commitment to enterprise customers, this is a significant step forward, building on the support we have already added for the likes of SAP, Oracle and Windows over the last year,” says Google Cloud Australia and New Zealand vice president Mark Innes.

Google Cloud VMware Engine provides a hyper-converged architecture so organisations can run and scale their infrastructure to power enterprise workloads that they would traditionally have needed to manage on-premise.

Enterprises can also modernise existing IT investments and leverage on-demand self-service provisioning of VMware private clouds with integrated connectivity to Google Cloud services such as BigQuery, Cloud Operations, Cloud Storage, Kubernetes, and Cloud AI.

Businesses in the A/NZ region can deploy Google Cloud VMware Engine closer to their operations and unlock new growth opportunities.

The Engine’s worldwide presence allows multinational customers to benefit from the service’s networking capabilities, such as a global routing service to allow VMware workloads to securely communicate across regions.

Partner ecosystem

This availability builds on VMware Cloud Foundation joining Google Cloud in July 2019 and the acquisition of CloudSimple in November 2019.

Google Cloud VMware Engine is also VMware Cloud Verified, the highest level of validation for VMware-based cloud services.

“VMware’s partnership with Google Cloud is about accelerating our customers’ digital transformation journey, so we’re pleased Google Cloud VMware Engine is now available in the Sydney region. Local customers can now maintain the familiarity of their VMware tools and training and protect their investments as they execute on their cloud strategies. We look forward to helping our mutual customers bring new services to market rapidly and operate them seamlessly and more securely across hybrid- and multi-cloud environments,” says VMware vice president and Australia and New Zealand managing director Brad Anderson.