The introduction of vCloud Director 8.20 received analyst coverage from 451 Research, which took a closer look at the platform and the expanded capabilities enabling service providers to manage and operate virtual data centers (VDCs) for multiple customers.
Because vCloud Director is VMware’s strategic cloud management platform for service providers, it is designed to support the multi-tenancy and self-service requirements of public cloud (IaaS) and managed hosting providers. For enterprise customers with dedicated private clouds, VMware offers vRealize Automation to accelerate the deployment and management of applications and compute services.
The 451 Research Impact Report explored vCloud Director 8.20 and the new features informed by service provider feedback. These include a redesigned and re-implemented user portal, NSX® integration at the API level, and role management with organization and virtual machine affinity. Improved updating processes and automatic discovery and importation of vCenter virtual machines also contribute to a “stable, mature and capable cloud management platform” for service providers, according to 451 Research.
Lauded by 451 Research as “one of the most mature and able cloud management platforms extant” with “features tailored to its intended audience, and a track record of developing to answer demand from that specific audience,” vCloud Director is designed to meet the unique needs of service providers, including the rapid on-boarding of customers, monetization of services, and ability to differentiate in a highly competitive managed infrastructure market.
The Impact Report focuses on two areas specifically – the new user portal, and NSX integration, which 451 Research calls “a big deal” because it allows providers to tie NSX into billing and metering systems, which in turn enables rapid monetization of NSX-based services and future-proofs vCloud Director.
vCloud Director now integrates more closely with VMware NSX network virtualization, which means that service providers can abstract and define more NSX features for individual tenants while customers are able to customize network settings. This enables new, advanced service offerings that give tenants more power to manage their workloads.
Moving away from plugins, the new user portal for vCloud Director 8.20 takes advantage of industry-standard HTML5, enabling improved role-based access and controls, and better updates. With a new automated discovery tool service providers can dramatically improve customer on-boarding, especially in a hybrid environment.
Watch this video to learn how PhoenixNAP uses VMware vCloud Director to grow its enterprise cloud services business, or read how US Signal is empowering customers to consume resources on-demand and accelerating business growth.
Interested in learning more about how vCloud Director can keep you ahead of the competition? Visit vcloudairnetwork.com today. And don’t forget to join in on the conversation at Twitter and like the vCloud page on Facebook.
Source: 451 Research: vCloud Director 8.20 and a fresh commitment to VMware’s partners, March 23, 2017 by Carl Brooks
