Over more than 10 years at IBM-particularly within IBM Cloud-I've seen countless technologies emerge and capture our customers attention. Coming from an infrastructure background, I've witnessed the steady evolution toward Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and now, seemingly Everything as a service-XaaS.
It's easy to get caught up in the hype cycle of each new offering. But when you sit down with a customer to discuss modernization or cloud migration, there's almost always a Windows 2000 server hiding somewhere in their environment. Every time I mention this in a presentation, people laugh-until a few milliseconds later, when they glance at each other and realize it's true. And that's okay.
From "Legacy" to "Legendary" 🤓
In fact, I've moved away from calling these "legacy platforms" and started referring to them as "legendary platforms"(patent pending 😏). Not all monolithic applications are bad, and not all "older" technologies need to be containerized. Some just work-and work well.
In that spirit, let's talk about VApps-pre-packaged solutions consisting of one or more virtual machines (VMs) bundled with their network configurations. These are still very much in play for a variety of enterprise workloads.
The IVR VApp That Just Needed to Work 🦾
Years ago, I supported a customer implementing an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system delivered as a VApp. That customer didn't want to talk about infrastructure-they just wanted the VApp to run.
This was back in 2015 👴🏼. We delivered a VMware solution on top of our Classic Infrastructure (which we simply called "infrastructure" at the time) using bare metal servers. It wasn't a fully infrastructure-independent solution, as the customer still had to manage their VMware environment. But we were the only cloud provider offering a VMware-based platform that could support their VApp, which couldn't be restructured or re-coded for a different deployment model. VMware was the only viable path.
Modern Use Case, Familiar Challenges
Nearly a decade later, I continue to encounter customers with similar requirements. Our mission remains the same: to meet customers where they are. Just last year, I supported another use case-this time with IBM Guardium. While Guardium is available as a SaaS offering, this customer had specific licensing and deployment needs that required the VApp version.
IBM Cloud offers Classic VSI public images, but in this case, VMware was again the best fit. The solution involved a few VMs, each requiring 8 vCPUs and 32 GB of RAM-a configuration that could lead to underutilization in a traditional dedicated host billing model. The customer also only needed a few terabytes of storage.
Why VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCFaaS)? 🧐
Given these needs, we selected VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service (VCFaaS)-a solution tailored to deliver VMware capabilities with infrastructure sized to exact requirements. Because it's a managed offering, onboarding was streamlined, and the customer didn't have to worry about Day 2 infrastructure management.
VCFaaS enabled us to meet all of Guardium's operational and technical requirements while removing the burden of managing the VMware cluster. It brought together the power of VMware and the agility of the cloud.
A One IBM Solution in Action 👁️ 🐝 Ⓜ️
This deployment also reflected the strength of IBM's collaborative approach. The IBM Security team delivered the Guardium solution. Expert Labs brought hands-on implementation expertise. And IBM Cloud provided the scalable, secure infrastructure foundation.
The solution has now been running smoothly for over two years, and a renewal is already on the horizon, a testament to the value and reliability of the platform.
Final Thoughts 🧠
VMware Cloud Foundation as a Service is more than just a managed infrastructure offering. It's a flexible, practical, and secure foundation capable of supporting both legendary workloads and modern application architectures.
Whether you're deploying a prepackaged network solution from the IBM Cloud catalog or bringing your own VApp (Bring Your Own Virtual Application-BYOVA), VCFaaS is designed to meet your needs, wherever you are in your cloud journey.