VMware Adds Object Storage, Mobile Capabilities To vCloud Air

VMware added object storage to its hosted hybrid cloud service vCloud Air (previously vCloud Hybrid Service). The company also added a new lineup of third-party mobile cloud application services to support mobile in the enterprise.

vCloud Air joins two existing block storage tiers, Standard and SSD-Accelerated. Object storage is low-speed, long-term storage for unstructured data. The object storage is based on EMC’s ViPR technology and offers the S3 API. One differentiator is that vCloud Air supports large objects of up to 20TB in size. The object storage is available in beta during Q3 2014.

In a bid for enterprise mobile cloud needs, the company has partnered with providers of Mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS), front-end mobile application development tools, mobile testing and analytics tools and mobile application development and integration services.

“With a mobile backbone, IT can support the explosive growth and compressed development cycles of mobile applications, while handling all of the security, connectivity, and governance requirements,” wrote Ajay Patel, vice president Application Services, Hybrid Cloud Business Unit.

A wide array of pre-validated solutions offered by independent software vendors (ISVs) will be available on vCloud Air. Pre-validated mobile capabilities include:

• Enterprise Mobility: AirWatch helps an organization manage its mobile footprint across employee-owned, corporate-owned and shared devices from a centralized console.
• Mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS): Scale and integrate mobile applications with backend systems and third party cloud services through mBaaS solutions on vCloud Air. The initial offerings are from BaaS provider Kinvey, enterprise mobile platform built.io, and Node.js community leader StrongLoop.
• Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP): Mobile web application development tools from Sencha’s HTML5 mobile application platform Sencha Touch Bundle and cross-platform application development capabilities, including Appcelerator Titanium or the extensible, integrated Appcelerator Platform.
• Pivotal CF Mobile Services: Platform as a Service Pivotal is extending Pivotal CF on vCloud Air with mobile backend capabilities such as Push Notifications, API Gateway and Data Sync, all at enterprise standards of compliance and security.
• Rapid Application Delivery: Customers can create, deploy, manage and change both mobile and web applications on vCloud Air with the high productivity application platform from OutSystems.

“Businesses today look to modern, mobile applications to drive revenue, differentiation and loyalty,” said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. “We are continuing to push the pace of our cloud expansion, intent to make VMware vCloud Air the industry’s leading hybrid cloud platform for building, deploying, scaling and operating next-generation, mobile-cloud applications.”

vCloud Air is available in eight data centers worldwide, with the company committing to further expansion. It recently announced its hybrid cloud expansion in the Asia-Pacific region via a joint venture with SoftBank Telecom Corp. and SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. which brought vCloud Air to Japan. VMware recently announced a strategic partnership with China Telecom to build a hybrid cloud service in Beijing.