We’re thrilled to share some exciting news with our community: IBM Cloud for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) as a Service is now available in the Madrid region! This marks a significant milestone for both IBM Cloud and our clients, as Madrid becomes the second MZR in the European region to offer VCF as a service. This new capability enhances our ability to deliver enterprise-grade VMware solutions on the cloud, and it’s packed with features that will help businesses manage their most critical VMware based workloads more effectively.

The Madrid MZR is now fully equipped to offer VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service, which is built to enable businesses to deploy, manage, and scale VMware virtual data centers (VDCs) seamlessly on IBM Cloud, providing a secure, reliable, and fully managed environment. And while this launch brings many benefits, one of the most exciting features is the Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities available through the service.

Disaster Recovery: A Key Highlight

The availability of IBM Cloud for VCF as a Service in the Madrid MZR brings a powerful solution for the customers - the ability to set up cross-regional disaster recovery (DR) between Madrid and Frankfurt, businesses can protect their critical workloads by seamlessly replicating and recovering them in a different region in the event of an outage or disaster.

Disaster recovery is essential for maintaining business continuity, and IBM's solution allows organizations to implement a reliable and flexible DR strategy that fits their needs. Whether it’s moving workloads from Madrid to Frankfurt or vice versa, this robust, cross-regional disaster recovery feature is a game changer in ensuring your business remains resilient.

Why IBM Cloud for VCF as a Service?

·           IBM Managed Solution: IBM's comprehensive management and maintenance of the underlying VMware stack ensures seamless operations, allowing customers to focus on innovation and application management rather than spending resources on managing the VMware stack. Customers don’t need to worry about the VMware pricing and portfolio changes.

·           Flexible Consumption: Customers can choose between single-tenant and multi-tenant models based on workload and budgetary requirements.

·           Flexible Pricing Options: IBM offers flexible pricing structures, including On-Demand (Hourly), reserved (Monthly), and 1-year and 3-year committed term usage, empowering customers to optimize costs without sacrificing performance.

·           Unparalleled Compute and Storage Options: Customers have the access to the most diverse range of compute and storage options tailored to unique needs.

·           SAP Certified Hardware Options: Customers can benefit from SAP-certified hardware options, ensuring compatibility and performance for mission-critical workloads.

Tailored Consumption Options IBM Cloud for VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service is available with two distinct consumption models, each designed to fit your unique requirements:

• Single-Tenant:
• Dedicated Resources: Offers complete isolation and security, ideal for production workloads and regulated applications.
• Flexibility: Choose from a wide range of host profiles (including IBM and SAP-certified profiles).
• Storage Options: Access both NFS and vSAN storage tailored to your workload needs.
• Multi-Tenant:
• True cloud like consumption with rapid deployment and scale: New virtual data center environments can be created in less than 20 minutes.
• Flexible Billing Options: Pay for vCPU, RAM, and storage on-demand or with reserved pricing models.
• Capacity Management: IBM manages infrastructure capacity, relieving your team of maintenance work.

The multi-tenant model is unique to IBM as the sole hyperscale cloud provider offering this model, giving customers an unparalleled advantage in flexibility, cost optimization, and ease of scalability.

Why Madrid?

The launch of IBM Cloud for VCF as a Service in the Madrid MZR underscores IBM’s continued commitment to expanding its cloud offerings across Europe. It also enables businesses in Spain and the surrounding regions to leverage a high-performance, secure, and fully managed VMware solution in the cloud. With the added benefit of flexible disaster recovery options across European regions, IBM is helping organizations meet the growing demands of data residency, compliance, and business continuity.

What’s Next?

As we continue to roll out VCF as a Service, we are offering special promotions to help businesses get started on their cloud transformation journey:

• Launch Offer: Use promo code VCFAAS1000 to receive USD 1000 in cloud credits.
• Special Discounts: Get up to 50% off when you commit to a 1- or 3-year term contract on new VCF-as-a-Service offerings, plus additional credits up to USD 200K through June 30, 2025, when migrating VMware workloads to IBM Cloud.
• Low Starting Prices: On-demand VCF-as-a-Service deployments begin under USD 200 per month.
• IBM Cloud ROI: According to a 2024 IBM-commissioned Forrester study, businesses could see a 201% return on investment (ROI) over 3 years through reduced downtime, lower costs, and improved efficiency.

Ready to Get Started? The launch of IBM Cloud for VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service in Madrid is just the beginning of our expanded commitment to bringing innovative cloud solutions to Europe. We’re excited to help businesses leverage VMware technology in the cloud with enhanced disaster recovery, scalability, and security.

Contact us today to explore how IBM Cloud for VMware Cloud Foundation can empower your organization’s cloud transformation, or for more details on our special offers. Stay tuned for future updates as we continue to innovate and expand our cloud services around the world!

Written By:

Barry Brown, Director, IBM Cloud and Power Technical Sales, EMEA

Arkapravo Chakraborty, Senior Product manager, IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions