BYTE the Cloud

Chris 0:00
All right, cloud gurus, ready to level up your AWS skills? Always

Kelly 0:03
ready?

Chris 0:04
Awesome. So let's dive into a service that's been making waves. VMware Cloud on AWS feel like it's popping up everywhere these days. It really is. And if you're aiming for those AWS certifications, you know they love to throw in curve balls. Oh yeah. Today we're gonna break down this service, not just what it is, but like how to actually use it, and, most importantly, how

Kelly 0:25
to ace those exam questions. I

Chris 0:27
got it so, first things first, what exactly is VMware Cloud on AWS? In

Kelly 0:32
a nutshell, it's running your VMware environment right on AWS. Think of it like your virtual machines, your vSphere, that whole setup, all living happily in the AWS cloud. Okay,

Chris 0:42
so it's kind of like having a foot in both worlds exactly. You

Kelly 0:45
get the familiarity and control of VMware combined with the power and scale of AWS. It's a hybrid cloud Dream Team.

Chris 0:53
Okay, I'm starting to see the appeal, but let's get real world here. Can you give us an example of how a company might actually use this?

Kelly 1:00
Sure, imagine a company. They've been running their applications on their own servers forever. They're hearing all the buzz about

Chris 1:05
the cloud, but they're not ready to just rip and replace everything, right? That's

Kelly 1:09
where VMware Cloud on AWS comes in. It lets them move those applications to the cloud. No massive re architecting needed. They can keep using their VMware Tools, keep their IT team happy, so

Chris 1:20
less disruption, faster adoption. I dig it. Yeah. What are some other scenarios where this service shines?

Kelly 1:26
Well, disaster recovery is a big one. Say a company's data center goes down power outage. Who knows? With VMware Cloud on AWS, they can have a backup environment ready to go in the cloud. So

Chris 1:38
business keeps running, no matter what, that peace of mind is priceless, absolutely.

Kelly 1:43
And we can't forget application modernization. Lots of companies are trying to modernize those legacy apps, but it can be a beast of a task. Oh, I know the feeling. VMware Cloud on AWS gives them a stepping stone. They can shift those apps to the cloud as is, and then gradually start using AWS services like Kubernetes, uh huh, so

Chris 2:02
they can dip their toes in the container world. Yeah, smart.

Kelly 2:05
You got it. It's all about making that transition smoother.

Chris 2:08
Okay, so we've got a good grasp of the why, but what about the how? What's going on under the hood that makes this service tick?

Kelly 2:15
One of the biggest perks is that consistent VMware experience. Your IT team can use the same tools they already know, vCenter, NSX, the whole shebang. It's all there, just running in the AWS cloud. No need to retrain everyone, though, exactly. And here's where it gets really interesting. VMware Cloud on AWS, integrates with a ton of AWS services. Connect your VMware workloads to Amazon as three for storage, Amazon RDS for databases, even stuff like Amazon Sagemaker for machine learning.

Chris 2:44
So you're basically combining two powerful ecosystems that opens up a lot of possibilities. Speaking of I read that it supports Kubernetes too. You bet it's

Kelly 2:53
a key piece of that app modernization puzzle we were talking about. You can run containerized apps right next to your virtual machines, a

Chris 2:59
hybrid approach there. Okay, this is all sounding pretty amazing, but like, every Rose has its thorns, right? Are there any downsides or limitations our listeners should know about? Of course,

Kelly 3:08
no. Tech is perfect. One thing to consider is cost. It can be pricier than just sticking with on premises or going all in on AWS. You're paying for both the VMware software and the AWS infrastructure. So you're getting

Chris 3:23
that best of both world setup, but there's a price tag attached, yep. And

Kelly 3:27
another thing is complexity. This isn't some simple plug and play service. It needs a good understanding of both VMware and AWS, not for the cloud newbie, then, right? You want some solid expertise on your team to handle the setup and management. So careful planning is key, absolutely. And one more crucial point, VMware Cloud on AWS doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's part of the bigger AWS ecosystem. You got to know how it plays with VPCs, security groups. Iam all those core AWS services. Okay,

Chris 3:56
I see what you mean. It's all connected. So we've covered the what, the why and the how. But now let's talk about something a little more high stakes. You mean, the exam? You know it. Let's put on our exam taking hats, and walk through some questions that might just show up on that AWS certification.

Kelly 4:11
Sound like a plan? All right, hit me with a question. What kind of stuff might they ask about? Okay, here's

Chris 4:15
one. What are some of the core components of a VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC. So first off, got to know what an SDDC even is, right? SDDC

Kelly 4:25
stands for software defined data center. It's basically your pool of resources and VMware Cloud on AWS, compute, storage, networking, all that good stuff. It's like having your own data center, but in the cloud.

Chris 4:37
Okay? So it's virtualized, flexible, all those cloudy things, exactly. And

Kelly 4:40
within that fddc, you've got components that mirror a traditional VMware environment. You've got your vCenter Server, ESXi hosts, NSX for networking, VSAN for storage. So

Chris 4:51
it's bringing those familiar VMware Tools into the AWS world. Yep, exactly. But why would AWS even ask about these components? On the exam, because they

Kelly 5:01
want to know you get the architecture, you understand how the pieces fit together. That's key for designing, deploying, managing the service properly. Gotcha.

Chris 5:07
Okay, let's try another one. What are the different connectivity options for connecting to a VMware Cloud on AWS, SDDC?

Kelly 5:14
Ooh, this is all about how you establish those connections, right between on premises, your SDDC, in the cloud and the rest of AWS, yeah, getting everything talking to each other exactly. So one option is VPN going over the public internet. Simple,

Chris 5:28
straightforward. But what if you need something a little more

Kelly 5:32
heavy duty? Then you've got AWS direct connect that creates a dedicated private connection between your data center and AWS bypasses the internet completely.

Chris 5:41
Okay, so VPN for basic stuff, Direct Connect for when you need that extra oomph. Makes sense. Now. What about networking? I feel like AWS exams love networking questions.

Kelly 5:52
Oh, they do something like, how does VMware Cloud on AWS work with VPCs? That's a classic. Ooh, yeah.

Chris 5:58
VPCs, virtual private clouds, your own little network bubble inside AWS. But how does that play with a VMware SDDC?

Kelly 6:06
Well, your SDDC needs to be connected to a VPC to interact with other AWS services, right? And that's where elastic network interfaces, or ENI is committed.

Chris 6:14
ENI is those are like virtual network cards, right? They attach to your SDDC

Kelly 6:18
bingo, and they act as the bridge between VMware and that AWS VPC. So you can use all those AWS networking goodies, security groups, route tables, nacls, to control traffic going in and out of your VMware environment. So

Chris 6:32
it's really integrated seamlessly, and you can manage security really granularly. Okay, this is making more and more sense now. What about users and permissions. How do you control who has access to all this stuff in VMware Cloud on AWS? Ah,

Kelly 6:46
good one. This is where Iam comes in, identity and access management. But here's the thing, VMware Cloud on AWS also plays nicely with existing identity providers,

Chris 6:55
like if a company's already using Active Directory or Azure AD, yep, they

Kelly 6:59
can keep using those to manage access to their cloud environment too. So it's all centralized, keeps things consistent and

Chris 7:05
probably makes security audits a lot easier. Okay, we've talked connectivity, we talked networking, we've talked security. What about storage? Ah,

Kelly 7:11
storage. That's the foundation, right? So VMware Cloud on AWS has a few options. By default. It uses VSAN.

Chris 7:19
VSAN, that's VMware software defined storage, right? You know it.

Kelly 7:23
It takes the local storage on those ESXi hosts and creates a big pool everyone can share. Smart but

Chris 7:29
what if a company wants to use something else, like maybe they love AWS as storage services and want to stick with those? They

Kelly 7:35
totally can. They can use Amazon, EBS, elastic block storage. It's persistent block storage for EC2 instances, and remember, in this case, those instances are running your VMware environment.

Chris 7:45
Ah, I see. So you can mix and match a bit exactly. Okay, here's a potential exam question, what are the different EBS volume types, and which one would you pick for, say, a performance hungry app in VMware Cloud on AWS?

Kelly 7:58
Ooh, good one. They're testing you on both EBS and how it applies to VMware Cloud on AWS. So with EBS, you've got GP two for general stuff, IO one for high performance. S to one for throughput, and sc one for less frequently accessed data, and for that performance hungry app, IO one for sure provisioned. IOPS got to give those demanding apps what they need.

Chris 8:19
Make sense, match the storage to the workload. Okay, switching gears a bit security. What are some things to keep in mind when securing VMware Cloud on AWS? Ah,

Kelly 8:28
security is paramount. And with this service, you've got security at both the VMware and the AWS level. It's like a double layer of protection,

Chris 8:37
double the security, double the fun. Aha, something like that. So

Kelly 8:41
on the VMware side, you've got stuff like vSphere security policies, NSX firewalls, VSN encryption. And on the AWS side, security groups, network access control lists, AWS, KMS for encryption, im for access control. It's all there.

Chris 8:57
So it's really about combining the best of both worlds. I bet they get asked something like, how do you manage security groups in a VMware Cloud on AWS environment?

Kelly 9:06
Oh, for sure. And you'd have to explain how those security groups are, like virtual firewalls for your EC2 instances controlling traffic based on rules.

Chris 9:13
And those rules have to play nicely with the VMware side of things too. Yep, it's all connected. Okay, this is a lot to digest, but it's good stuff. What about cost optimization?

Kelly 9:22
Cost optimization always a hot topic in the cloud, right? And with VMware Cloud on AWS, you've got both the VMware licensing costs and the AWS infrastructure cost to think about

Chris 9:32
double the costs, double the fund. Just kidding. So how do you keep those costs in check? Well, one

Kelly 9:37
thing is right sizing. Make sure you're not using more resources than you need.

Chris 9:41
Don't want to be paying for stuff you're not actually using exactly. And you

Kelly 9:45
can use reserve instances for your VMware Cloud on AWS hosts. Those give you big discounts, but you have to commit for

Chris 9:52
certain time. Okay, so for long term workloads, that makes sense, right?

Kelly 9:56
And if you've got workloads that can handle some downtime,

Chris 9:59
i. Maybe some batch processing or something exactly.

Kelly 10:02
You can use Spot Instances. You bid on spare capacity, and it can be way cheaper. Ooh, Gotta

Chris 10:07
love those Spot Instances, but gotta be careful with those interruptions. Okay, we've covered a lot of ground here, but I feel like the AWS exam could still throw us some curveballs. What else should we be prepared for?

Kelly 10:20
Well, they might give you some troubleshooting scenarios like, imagine a VM in VMware Cloud on AWS can't talk to a server on premises. Oh,

Chris 10:29
yeah, troubleshooting always fun. So you'd have to walk through the whole connection

Kelly 10:32
path, VMs, network settings in the cloud, VPC config, route tables, security groups, Direct Connect, even the on premises server settings, it's like being a detective find

Chris 10:43
the culprit. I like it. What about monitoring? I feel like that's important for any cloud service. Totally

Kelly 10:48
they could ask about monitoring the health and performance of your VMware Cloud on AWS environment.

Chris 10:54
So tools like vCenter for the VMware side, Amazon Cloud watch for the AWS side, yep.

Kelly 10:59
And maybe cloudtrail for logging, AWS config for tracking changes. It's all about visibility, knowing what's going

Chris 11:07
on. Speaking of knowing what's going on, I have a feeling they might throw in some questions about disaster recovery testing. Oh,

Kelly 11:12
yeah, for sure. That's not just about knowing what disaster recovery is. It's about knowing how to actually do it. Okay.

Chris 11:18
So you'd have to explain how to kick off that failover process, make sure everything's running in the cloud, and then fail back cleanly to on premises

Kelly 11:25
Exactly. Hands on knowledge they want to see. You can walk the walk I see.

Chris 11:29
So it's not just theory, it's about real world skills,

Kelly 11:33
yep. And here's another curve ball they might throw integration with other AWS services. We

Chris 11:39
talked about that a bit right, like s3 rds, right? But

Kelly 11:43
they could get specific. They might ask about AWS Lambda, serverless computing, or transit gateway for connecting multiple VPCs. Oh,

Chris 11:53
I see it's about seeing VMware Cloud on AWS as part of the bigger AWS picture.

Kelly 11:57
Exactly how it all fits together. Okay,

Chris 12:00
that's a good takeaway for everyone listening. Don't get tunnel vision. Think about how this service connects to other services, how it solves real problems. Totally.

Kelly 12:08
It's all about the bigger picture, or about seeing those connections. Yeah. And that actually brings me to my final thought for today. As cloud engineers, it's super easy to get lost in the tech stuff. You know, all those configurations and services, but we can't forget why we're doing all this. Technology is a tool, right? A means to an end, exactly. So as you're studying for that exam, don't just cram the facts. Think about the why, what business problems does VMware Cloud on AWS solve? Why would a company choose this?

Chris 12:37
Because if you can connect those technical dots to the business outcomes. That's when you truly understand the cloud. That's when you become a valuable asset, not just someone who can pass a test. Exactly. So

Kelly 12:48
keep learning, keep experimenting, and keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the cloud. Couldn't

Chris 12:53
have said it better myself. Well, folks, that's our VMware Cloud on AWS Deep Dive. We covered a ton today, the basics, exam tips, even those tricky curveball questions, hopefully you're feeling more confident now, ready to ace that exam, and, more importantly, ready to conquer any real world cloud challenges that come your way until next time. Keep on clouding you.