Combine VMware
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Content

Digitalization is reality

3

The cloud is the vehicle of digitalization

4

The art of cloud migration

5

The owned data center – a discontinued model?

6

Introducing Azure VMware Solution (AVS)

7Workload migration

10

Gain experience with a proof of concept

11

An exemplary use case

12

Conclusion

13

Sources/contact

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Digitalization is reality

While only a few years ago digitalization wasseen as a vision of the future, it now has developed into a standard task. Together with thecloud-first maxim, a basis for the business ofthe future is being created in many companies– at very different speeds and in cooperation
with many participants, also beyond IT. Despiteongoing discussions about compliance andgovernance, the added value of the cloud is
widely recognized: Cloud ecosystems of large
hyperscalers such as Azure serve as a source ofinnovation and allow the introduction of new
business models with minimal risk. But theyalso allow agile reactions to disruptive market
events, which have been increasing in recent
years. These are not only triggered by digitalization itself, but also by geopolitical developments. Last but not least, the Covid pandemic
has put the deeply interlinked global economy
and its supply chains to the test. Companies
with flexible processes and dynamic cloud IT
are better prepared for such challenges.

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The cloud is the vehicle ofdigitalization
With the advantages and options of the cloud, business decision-makers have an effective tool
to shape the future. But cloud also requires a cultural change within companies.

This includes, for example, an agile business view with newdecision-making, innovation and development processes suchas those brought by DevOps. The increased experimentation
with new business ideas and the procedural basis for this must
be implemented.
However, the upheaval also means putting existing IT to thetest. To what extent are on-premises systems and owned data
centers future-proof? Which know-how and skills do IT andbusiness departments need to acquire to effectively use thecloud? In which situations is investment protection crucial?
All in all: Which implementation strategy for the cloud fits best
to the specific situation of the company?

Cloudification needs the application view
The cloud – and with it the hyperscalers – is often classified asa pure infrastructure focus. But that's not correct. The path tothe cloud must be considered from the point of view of services
and business processes. The applications that support theseprocesses therefore play an important role. They are also thestarting point for cloud transformation. In addition, hyperscalerssuch as Microsoft Azure offer rich ecosystems with out-of-thebox solutions for, e.g., artificial intelligence, big data/data
analysis, high-performance computing or the Internet of Things.
Thus, the hyperscalers are also becoming innovation drivers,
for example, by adding additional functionalities to existing
applications with cloud services.

Example: Custom Cloud Migration PathHistorically grown SAP systems are an essential part ofmany companies worldwide. The SAP R/3 systems
operated by their own team in their own data centerare of essential importance for a large number of centralcompany processes at a European manufacturer. The
core system for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), its
peripheral systems and the business warehouses keep
the company running.
Two key elements prompted the IT team to put theexisting SAP landscape to the test: On the one hand,the company wants to advance the necessary digitalization to increase its ability to innovate, for agility andefficiency – crucial skills in order to remain relevant in
its market in the long term. On the other hand, the company's own data center, in which, among other things,
the SAP systems are operated on on-premises hardware,is showing its age. It no longer meets the current standards of technology, security and sustainability. The
mechanical engineering supplier has therefore decided
to dissolve the data center in the medium term – withthe consequence that other operating platforms have to
be found for the workloads operated there.
Since the company has been working closely with
Microsoft for many years, the application owners
decided to migrate their SAP workloads to Microsoft
Azure. Regarding the type of migration, the company
wanted to keep all options open.

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The art of cloud migration

Based on an original concept by Gartner, the 6R methodology for developing a cloud migration
strategy has now established itself on the market. In general, there are six options for dealing
with applications on the way to the cloud, which generate different efforts. Depending on theapplication landscape and the importance of the applications within a company, a specificcloud (migration) strategy is created on this basis with an individual mix of the six paths.

6R
The 6Rs for application migration







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Retain – the application is kept unchanged. This
creates hybrid solutions in which the classic IT world
and the cloud world are operated alongside or with
one another.
Retire – the application is switched off because it
provides minimal business benefits.
Repurchasing – an application is replaced by a standard (cloud) product, e.g. a SaaS.
Rehosting – "lift and shift", the application is elevatedfrom an on-premises infrastructure to a cloud infrastructure, while remaining largely unchanged.
Replatforming – the application’s core architecture
remains unchanged, while a few minor adjustments
are made, for example, the transfer of data-bases toopen source such as PostgreSQL.
Rearchitecture/Refactor – cloud-native redesign of
the application.

Virtualization is not just virtualization
In reality, many companies with historical business activities runlegacy systems that have shaped and reliably supported business processes for decades. Transferring these systems to thecloud is not always easy. They typically run on mature virtualization technologies such as VMware's vSphere. VMware is the undisputed leader in data center virtualization1,2,3 .

It is estimated that up to
70 percent of enterprise
workloads run on VMware.

Almost every IT team that operates applications in corporate
environments is familiar with the tools and mechanisms of the
VMware suite.
Enterprises often take a (low-risk and inexpensive) lift-and-shift
approach to the cloud for such systems. It is very well suited todetach old infrastructures and hardware; it also achieves scaling
options for the application. But in the past, the virtualization
technologies used in the cloud and in enterprise data centerswere not always compatible. Technical challenges arose during
the transfer, which hindered migration to the cloud.

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The owned data center –a discontinued model?
There are many reasons for moving to the cloud. Some of theseare driven by economic or financial factors, others will be technical. In many cases, the two components can hardly be distinguished – the digital world requires an integrated view of bothanyway.
Typical business reasons that favor the pro-cloud decision are
the exploitation of innovation potential, cost flexibility (moving
away from CapEx) and (international or short-term) business expansion opportunities that on-premises installations do not offer to the same extent.
The entry into DevOps, new disaster recovery concepts or making operations more flexible (workload shift or burst capacities)
are typical reasons resulting from a technology strategy.
Aspects that affect the company’s own data center are often –rightly so – also included in the consideration of the cloud. Can
current security aspects, service levels, operational and sustainability requirements still be guaranteed? Can internal operations ensure business continuity, does the company have efficient disaster recovery concepts? Which added value isgenerated by purchasing and continuously managing hardwareon its own terms?
According to the Bitkom study “Data Centers in Germany - Current Market Developments”, dated February 2022, only 54 percent of German companies are sure they will still have their own
data centers in three years.

Five percent of those surveyed clearly state in the study thatthey will no longer have their own data center, while around 40
percent admit they cannot or do not want to make any statements about the future of their data centers (!). In the study,
3,000 locations that operate at least ten racks or require atleast 40 kilowatt hours (kWh) of IT connecting power were considered data centers. This means that the future of around
1,500 of these locations is unclear. Another result of the study
confirms the move away from the company-owned data centers: In an expert survey, the topic of on-premises data centers
was classified as the only topic with decreasing importance,
while all cloud-related topics, especially the hybrid cloud, areincreasing in importance for companies.

Importance of data center concepts and deployment models
The importance of DC concepts ...
... decreases... remains... increases
strongly ... decreases the same ... increases strongly
Hybrid Cloud
Hyperscale Data Centers
Edge Data Centers
Public Cloud
Colocation Data Centers
Private Cloud

Number of data centers in companies
No own data center
anymoreOn Premise Data CentersFig.2: Expert survey: How will the importance of the above
DC concepts/deployment models develop in Germany until 2025?4

5,3%
78,7%

1 own data center2 own data centers
3 and more own
data centers
Don't know/
not specified

52,7%
1,8%
1,2%
today
in 3 years

0,2%
0,4%
19,4%
40,4%

Fig.1: Company survey: How many own data centers does your company operatein Germany today or in 3 years? 4

With business and technology requirements driving cloud adoption on one side, and the demands for significant re-skilling on
the other, a challenging area of conflict arises for companies.
As a further barrier to cloud entry, investment protection also
plays an important role in this tradeoff. How can entry into thecloud be successful, even if the company does not yet have extensive cloud expertise? How long does it make sense to exploit
the investments already made?

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Introducing Azure VMware Solution(AVS)
Solutions that combine VMware virtualization with hyperscaler infrastructures open up cloud entry opportunities for organizations with a strong VMware focus. With the Azure VMware Solution(AVS), Microsoft is making it easy to take those first steps into the Cloud.

Applications

Guest-OS

Virtual Machines

vSAN

vCenter

Identity Management

In addition, companies can call in a managed services provider.
They set up a landing zone (which, for example, takes over basic
security functions and identity management) and contributes theservices up to the guest operating system. The advantage of thisapproach: The outsourcing company can focus on the application
layer, all infrastructure and platform services are provided (withthe exception of the configuration) as a service.

NSX-T

Host Patching

ESXi Host

Hardware Failure

Azure/AVS Portal

Physical Security

PhysicalInfrastructure

Because it has the native VMware vSphere components (ESXi,
vCenter, vSAN, NSX-T, and HCX) but on Azure infrastructure, itis perfect for organizations that may not have time initially tospend re-factoring their existing VMware-based applications but
need to have a presence in the cloud fast. As these components
will all integrate with the infrastructure deployed on premises,
the approach is suitable for organizations that want to continue
using VMware (also in the cloud), e.g. vCenter to manage
critical workloads.

Deployment
Lifecycle
Configuration
Operations
SupportMicrosoft Responsibility

T-Systems Responsibility

Customer Responsibility

Fig.3: Hosted Azure VMware solution − Accountability matrix

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A new solution for disaster recovery at the University of Miami 5

The University of Miami very well knows the risks of opera­ting in a hurricane region and were looking for an efficientsolution to implement their disaster recovery (DR) strategy.
The university decided to rely on the Azure VMware Solution.
Because the university's IT team has been using vSphereand vSAN in a private cloud for more than a decade, they
are familiar with VMware technology. So far, however, not
all of VMware's functionalities and products could be usedin the cloud. Now this was possible with Azure VMware
Solution. "Once the environment was configured for the

Azure VMware solution, moving the systems with VMware
HCX was easy," explains Mari Lovo, who is responsible forcloud infrastructure services, "there was no need to retrain
the admins either. For the most part, they were able tocontinue using their existing VMware knowledge.” In
addition to the originally targeted, improved reliability, theuniversity also benefited from the lower license costs for
VMware and increased flexibility. This enabled the newenvironment to be used to provide additional virtual desktops during the covid-phase work-from-home regulations.

The AVS acts as an extension of the on-premises data center.
Enterprises gain the option of moving their workloads between
their own data center and the AVS as desired – even in a hybrid
model (mode 1).

At the same time, the installation serves as a springboard tomodify the applications in and for the cloud (mode 2) or toenrich them with services from the Azure ecosystem.

T-Systems Managed Cloud Services

Customer

Hosted Azure VMware Solution

Azure Services

Private Cloud
VMware Environment

vCentervSphere and vCenter
HCX

NSX

ESXi

vSAN
Native Azure services
including storage, Big
Data, IoT, security,and mobile

Azure Dedicated Certified Infrastructure

Data Center

Azure Global Infrastructure

Fig.4: Key features of the Hosted Azure VMware solution

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Availability
AVS is currently available in 20 Azure regions with 50 availability
zones. Thus, workloads can also be easily operated or offered in

3

EU North

CA Central

1 CA East

3

3
3

3

1

3 3 3 GERWest Central
EU West3

UK South

1 US North Central
US WestUK Westother regions of the world. Burst scenarios and expansion strategies are efficiently supported.

3 US East

FR Central

US Central

1

3 JA East

JA WestUS South Central

3

AP Southeast

3
BR South3

3 AU EastZA North

1 AU Southeast

Fig.5: Available Microsoft Azure regions with AV nodes (Status May 2022, Microsoft 6)

Technical capacity
The on-premises data center is connected to the desired Azure
platform via ExpressRoute or a site-to-site VPN. When connecting production workloads to on-premises or using HCX,
Microsoft strongly recommends Express-Route. The native
services of Azure are provided within the customer's own
environment, the bare metal infrastructure and the vCenterwith the components HCX, NSX, ESXi and vSAN in a separate
AVS environment.

A cluster requires at least three nodes, up to a maximum of 16
hosts (with up to 6 clusters possible in a private cloud). A single
node offers 36 CPU cores, 576 GB of RAM and a storage vSAN
cache of 1.6 TB (NVMe connection). A total volume of 15.4 TB
SSD storage is available per node.

Software Specification
ESXi

ESXi 6.7U3 Enterprise PlusvCentervCenter 6.7U3 Standard

vSAN

vSAN 6.7 Enterprise

NSX-T

NSX-T 2.5 Advanced

HCX

HCX Advanced
HCX Enterprise available
on Demand

Hourly “Pay as you go“billing, 1 yr or 3 yrs Reserved
Instance requires minimum
3 Nodes, maximum 16 Nodes in a
ClusterFig.6: VMware software used for AVS

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Workload migration

Within a few days, an extension of the data center can be established in the Azure cloud – including the establishment of a landing zone. Using VMware HCX™ (formerly Hybrid Cloud Extension
and NSX Hybrid Connect), workloads can then be easily migrated bi-directionally between the twodomains – the cloud is not a one-way street in this case.
HCX offers the possibility for migrations of the types "live", "warm” and “cold”.

Cold migration

Warm migration

The migration of backups,
archives and templates is nottime-critical. Downtime hardly
disrupts operations. Cold migrations, in which the virtual
machines (VM) are switched
off and synchronized, are ideal
for this. They will start again
when all the data is copied tothe target site.

This method supports the
migration of multi-VM
applications or mass migrations (e.g. when dissolving
data centers) with minimal
downtime. Here HCX
creates replicas of theexisting VMs in AVS.

+
-

+
-

Live migration
Minimal downtime or functional limitations apply to the operation – and also the migration – of businesscritical applications. The business continuity requirements of such applications require live migrations. Untila few years ago, this was impossible. In this case, HCX mimics the functionality of vMotion to move VMs
within a cluster – with the exception that the VM is moved from its source to a new data center. Status,
connectivity (including IP address) and context are preserved. HCX usually sequences VMs for live migration,
but with VMware Cloud a feature is available to realize migration of multiple VMs as well: HCX Replication
Assisted vMotion.

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Gain experience with aproof of concept
The decision to enter the cloud is a fundamental business decision that must include one essential
component: experience. As part of a 4-week Proof of Concept (PoC), companies can gain experience
with the Azure VMware solution.
The proof of concept follows a best practice approach. This includes an onboarding workshop and an AVS cluster in a region of thecustomer's choice, including a test environment.
The PoC starts with recording the basic requirements. The availability of an IP address range, firewall port opening, access permissions arrangements and connectivity.
In the first week of implementation, the AVS will be provided by
T-Systems, Microsoft and the customer’s VMware team. An
essential part of this start phase is to integrate the AVS into theexisting on-premises environment. On the first day the cluster iscreated, on the second day global access is established followed
by a connectivity test between the on-premises environment andthe Azure vNet. HCX is deployed on day three; the functionality of
HCX is checked with the first test migrations. Day 4 and 5 are reserved for any further connectivity testing and troubleshooting.
In the second and third week, the customer can run through test
scenarios. In this phase, T-Systems employees are available ascontacts if specific questions arise during the test.
The conclusion of the PoC is a joint review, the shutdown of thetest cluster and the possible agreement of further steps.

Test scenarios
1

Expected results

Validation of the AVS setup

Successful rollout within three to four hours without manual intervention

2

Logging into the AVS components
and validating the available versions• ESXi 6.7 U3• vCenter 6.7 U3• vSAN 6.7 Enterprise• NSX-T 3.1.1• HCX R147

3

Connectivity test between AVS and on-premises
environment• The URLs for vCenter and NSX in the AVS must be reachable from On-Prem• VMs in the AVS must be accessible from the on-prem servers and vice versa

4

Connectivity test between AVS and Azure-native
resources/services• The URLs for vCenter and NSX in the AVS must be reachable from Azure-native resources• VMs in the AVS must be reachable from Azure JumpBox VMs and vice versa• Azure Native VMs must be reachable from VMs in the AVS

5vLAN test

Error-free vLAN extension

6

Migration test from on-premises to AVS

Error-free migrations with HCX vMotion and HCX Bulk Migration

7

Migration test from AVS to On-Premises

Error-free migrations with HCX vMotion and HCX Bulk Migration

8

Performance test of the migrated VMs

Comparable performance as in original operation

Fig.7: Test of the AVS solution incl. success criteria
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An exemplary use case

A European retail company has had a data center for two decades. It no longer meets thecurrent requirements for operational safety and, with a PUE of 1.8, also does not meet thenecessary sustainability requirements.
The data center is fully utilized, further growth cannot be supported on the IT side. Because of the high costs, the IT managers
decide to close the data center and relocate the workloads aspart of a multi-cloud concept.

course of this, the classic vCenter licenses will also be graduallyreplaced. The migration plan makes it possible to plan the resource
development of the platform, new resources can be added to thelandscape within a few days.

A small number of employees already have experience in cloudtechnology. The web shop and a customer app are already being
developed in an agile manner on Azure using DevOps methods.
However, the majority of the workloads run on established,
VMware-based systems.

By dissolving the company's own data center, an extensive cloudskilling program can be started in the next few months. Together
with T-Systems as a managed services provider, the retailer analyzes its application landscape for optimization potential andquick wins. Early initiatives include replacing the databases withcloud-native Azure SQL Services.

In order to leave the data center at short notice and migrate theworkloads, the IT team relies on a lift-and-shift approach withoutchanges to the application and platforms ("as-is" mode). VMwarebased management is retained, and the operations team’s preparation requires minimal training.
To this end, the company is establishing an initial AVS landscapeincluding a landing zone with the help of T-Systems. During the

To exploit further cloud-native advantages, a roadmap for application modernization or consolidation and replacement is being
drawn up. First teams start existing services around analytics
capacities and AI functions for new reporting and business insight, e.g. for the CRM system. To do this, they use the platform
services available on Azure and integrate them into the existing
services via APIs.

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Conclusion

The Hosted Azure VMware
Solution puts an end to different IT worlds. Companies
that want to retain VMware
know-how and the corresponding management tools,
but still dare to take the step
into the cloud, will find theright solution with AVS.
With this entry, cloud advantages such as
fast scalability and cost flexibility, but alsosustainability and up-to-date security arewithin reach. At the same time, operations
teams can relieve themselves of the taskof managing their own data centers andassociated resources. The infrastructure,
as well as the management tools, such as
vCenter, come directly from the cloud.
This is accompanied by a significant
optimization of license costs.
In addition, services from the Azure cloud
ecosystem that generate innovation
potential become available. At the sametime, with the leap into a "familiar" cloudenvironment, companies gain an excellent
basis for driving forward the fundamental
modernization of their applications(beyond a lift and shift).
A managed services partner with theright expertise can be the ideal companion
to plan and take the next steps.

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Looking to move your VMware workloads
to the cloud?
Talk to us – we will identify optimization
potential together with you and help withthe migration.

Sources[1] VMware and why is it such a power on the market, Michal Zbyl/WMWare,xopero.com, October 2021
[2] Best Server Virtualization Software for 2021, Sam Ingalls, ServerWatch,
April 2021
[3] VMware: What Dead Money Looks Like, WMWare/Dell, Seeking Alpha,November 2021

[4]
[5]
[6]

Rechenzentren in Deutschland, Dr. Ralph Hintemann, Simon Hinterholzer,
Monika Graß, Tim Grothey, Borderstep Institut für Bitkom e.V., 2022
(German only)
University of Miami Gains Flexibility and DR Resiliency with Azure VMware
Solution, Microsoft, September 2021
Azure Geographies, Microsoft

Contact

Publisher

T-Systems International GmbH
Hahnstraße 43d60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

T-Systems International GmbH
MarketingHahnstraße 43d60528 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Phone:
Email:
Internet:

0800 33 09030
info@t-systems.com
www.t-systems.com

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