What is Azure VMware Solution?

If you are looking to extend your footprint to Azure or with a hybrid scenario where you can extend your VMWare workload to the cloud, you might be interested in Azure VMware Solution (AVS). AVS is a Microsoft service, verified by VMware, that can help you run the servers on Azure infrastructure. You can use the same VMware tools and skills that you already know, such as vSphere, vSAN, vCenter, and NSX-T while taking advantage of Azure’s global scale, security, and services.

What is Azure VMware Solution?

Private clouds with VMware vSphere clusters constructed from specialized bare-metal Azure equipment are made available to you through the fully managed AVS solution. You will need to start your AVS deployment with a minimum of 3 hosts and you can keep on adding 16 nodes per cluster. An SDDC will be created with VMware vSphere, VMware vSAN, VMware vCenter Server, and VMware NSX-T Data Center.

Azure VMWare Solution is Microsoft managed where the upgrades are managed by the provider. You don't need to be concerned about acquiring, deploying, or managing hardware because Microsoft handles and maintains the private cloud infrastructure and applications. Since the rest of the operations are taken care by the provider, you can simply take care of running your workload and applications.

How does Azure VMware Solution work?

AVS integrates seamlessly with your existing VMware environment and Azure services. You can use VMware’s HCX technology to migrate your on-premises workloads to AVS without any downtime or disruption. You can also use Azure Migrate or other third-party tools to assess and migrate your workloads.

The same VMware tools you are currently familiar with, such as vSphere Client, NSX-T Manager, Power CLI, or any common DevOps toolchain, may be used to manage your workloads once they are operating on AVS. You can also view and create vSphere VMs in the Azure portal via API calls or CLI2.

AVS provides you with high-speed, low-latency connectivity to Azure services and VNets. You can access Azure services such as Azure Backup, Azure Monitor, Azure Security Center, Azure Database Services, Azure IoT Hub, and Azure AI Services from your private clouds. You can also use ExpressRoute Global Reach to connect your on-premises environment to your AVS private cloud21.

What are the benefits of Azure VMware Solution?

AVS offers many benefits for your business, such as:

Cost savings: You can reduce your capital expenditure and operational costs by moving your workloads to AVS. You can also take advantage of a few cost-savings options specifically for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads, such as Azure Hybrid Benefit and Extended Security Updates2.

Scalability: You can scale up or down your private clouds on demand, depending on your business needs. You can also leverage Azure’s global presence and availability zones to run your workloads closer to your customers and ensure high availability2.

Modernization: You can enhance your applications with cloud-native capabilities such as microservices, containers, serverless computing, and DevOps practices.

Compatibility: You can ensure operational continuity when moving your workloads to AVS. You don’t have to refactor or rearchitect your applications or change your operating systems or licenses.

Now, let’s discuss more about NSX-T.

What is NSX-T?

NSX-T is a software-defined networking solution that reproduces the complete set of Layer 2 through Layer 7 networking services (such as switching, routing, firewalling, load balancing, VPN, and QoS) in software. NSX-T is used to create and manage Virtual Networks for your application.

NSX-T supports any type of application and any type of platform.

How does NSX-T work?

NSX-T works by implementing data planes, control planes, and management planes.

Management plane: This is the plane that provides the user interface and API for managing your NSX-T environment. It also hosts the policy engine that processes the network policies and translates them into logical configurations.
Control plane: This is the plane that maintains the state and topology of your virtual networks. It also distributes the logical configurations to the data plane nodes.
Data plane: This is the plane that performs the actual packet processing and forwarding for your virtual networks. It also implements network services such as firewalling and load balancing.

What is vCenter?

vCenter is software that helps you manage many computers that run virtual machines. A virtual machine is like a computer inside a computer. It can run different operating systems and applications without affecting the main computer. vCenter lets you see and control all the virtual machines from one place. It also helps you make sure they have enough resources and work well together.

How does vCenter works?

vCenter works by connecting to many computers that run virtual machines and showing them on a single screen. You can use vCenter to see how the virtual machines are doing, what they are using, and how they are connected. You can also use vCenter to change the settings of the virtual machines, move them to different computers, or make them work better together. vCenter also helps you protect virtual machines from problems and fix them quickly if something goes wrong.