vCloud Data Center Services certified hosting providers

[MushroomHunter]

We are looking for a hosting provider. Can someone give me a list of what hosting providers expose the vCloud Data Center Services vCloud Director self services portal, where I am able to configure my cloud services based on a pool of cloud resources that we purchase?

I know bluelock is one. Who are the others?

Thanks, Dave

[CharlieLlewelly]

Hi Dave, there is loads of information on providers here: http://vcloud.vmware.com/vcloud-ecosystem. I work from a company called Eduserv who provide cloud resources via the vCD portal. I would be happy to chat things through if you want to PM me? Also more info can be found here 🙂 http://www.eduserv.org.uk/cloud

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks Charlie that helps a lot.

Do you happen to know where I can find out what vCloud Data Center offers that vCloud Express does not? Would love to know the differences and so far that has been elusive. For Instance, bluelock has the Data Center version and most providers have the Express version. I'm trying to figure out on what I would be missing in the Express version. Hopefully I still get vCloud Director with Express. Thanks again, Dave

[charliejllewell]

Sorry Dave I haven't had any experience with vCloud express. You you may be best contacting the providers of vCloud express directly as they may have matrix showing the differences.

[StratoGen201110 · Accepted solution]

Hi Dave,

Apologies, a little slow on the response!

vCloud Datacenter Services is targeted into the Enterprise space and only handful of global tier one providers have this certification.  It basically means that their environments were co-architected by VMware and the provider.  They use vCloud Director and expose the vCloud API.

vCloud Powered service providers such as StratoGen have built their own environments, but to be certified as vCloud Powered you must be a VMware Service Provider Partner (VSPP), deploy vCloud Director and expose the vCloud API.  You have a choice of billing models based around the 3 Virtual Datacenter types in vCloud Director - fixed pay monthly plans on Allocation & Reservation Pool models, and variable by the hour plans on Pay as You Go.

So the difference really is what market you consider yourself to be in - if you need a global enterprise player then you should look at vCloud Datacenter Services, if you are in SMB or Mid Market then you should probably look at vCloud Powered providers.

Many vCloud Providers offer a free Test Drive of their services so you can try them out with zero commitment.

vCloud Express was to be VMware's answer to Amazon EC2 - instant access to vCloud resources, credit card only payment, PAYG by the hour payment plans only.  Only a couple of providers ever offered vCloud Express.  You still got vCloud Director, but you'll see this no longer exists on the vCloud Ecosystem as it has been rolled into vCloud Powered.

I trust this helps.

Thanks,

Karl.

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks Karl. That helps a lot.

An interesting story about Dell who is supposedly Datacenter certified. I would never host with them even if they actually ever did call me. I talked with 5 people in their business unit and none had ever heard about the cloud anything and could not help me unless I had a SKU number. I asked them to have someone call me but never got a call. I filled out their online form 3 times and no one ever called. It's been about 2 weeks. They are worthless and don't especially reflect well on VMware. Amazing...

Food for thought regarding your billing model, you might also consider "hybrid" billing which actually would be perfect for us. I'm willing to commit to X amount of resources monthly for production to get a lower cost, but would also like "cloud by the hour" for scalability and dev/test systems.

- Dave

[StratoGen201110]

Hi Dave,

I tend to find most large suppliers are equally difficult to buy from (particularly if you don't buy lots from them already), which is where the smaller players come into their own!

Hybrid billing is no problem.  Within vCloud Director you log into an 'Organization' - within that Organization you can have multiple 'Organization Virtual Datacenters' which is what the billing model is attached to.  You can have one Org vDC  on pay monthly (allocation pool or reservation pool), one on PAYG, both accessible in the same account.  They can share a common 'Organisation Network' so they can see each other if need be.

We've just set up a customer environment like this today.

Thanks,

Karl.

[admin]

Hi,

I run the vCloud Datacenter and vCloud Powered programs at VMware.

vCloud Datacenter providers follow a prescriptive architecture and service description from VMware, which we validate, so they offer a common experience and service across providers. vCloud Powered providers are certified to meet the basic vCloud compatibility test -- providing vCloud Director, the vCloud API and VM upload/download -- and are free to implement any service level on top of that. Both offer the core VMware compatibility you're looking for.

We are in the process of retiring vCloud Express -- this was a program for credit-card pay-as-you-go providers in the early days of vCloud, and it has served its purpose.

Sorry you didn't hear from Dell -- I will certainly let them know about your experience, as I am sure the cloud team would not want that repeated.

Regards,

Mathew

[MushroomHunter]

Nice to know...thanks Karl!

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks Matthew...

[MushroomHunter]

You should talk to CSC as well. They initially responded, we had a good talk with their engineers and were hopefull, were told they would get back to us soon with a quote after the July 4th holiday, and never heard back. I called the sales guy a couple times and he said he was in a meeting and would call be right back. Twice. They are worse than Dell since wasted more of my time. So much for the uppercrust DataCenter Services Tier. You'd think these two companies would give better service, or even some service...

[MushroomHunter]

We are in the final stages of  negotiating with a VMware Powered hosting provider and I could use help  with a couple things real soon as this issue just popped up. I was  assuming we had resources dedicated to us that would not be shared, as that is what providers generally promised, and with this particular provider, I'm not so sure due to something they tried to add to the contract.

1.  What is the proper terminology to ask if we are getting CPU  cores and RAM in reserved/dedicated mode vs. shared mode.

2.  Is there any way I can tell if my CPU and RAM is being shared with  other users (time sliced) or completely reserved/dedicated to our VMs?

Thanks, Dave

[charliejllewell]

1. The correct term is reservation model.

2. You can check that the allocation model under provider virtual datacentres is set to reservation

Hope this helps

Charlie

[MushroomHunter]

In the reservation model, are my CPU and RAM allocations 100% reserved or even in the reservation model, is there some term/policy to ask if they are 100% reserved rather than only some portion thereof? Thanks, Dave

[PeterBlatherwic]

Yes, if Reservation Pool allocation model is used, reservations are 100% guaranteed.  Other allocation models apply % guarantees in various ways. 

-- PeterB

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks Petar, Here is what I'm dealing with now -

"We have vCloud Director on top of vCenter which manages this, and it does so in a bit different way than the typical reservation pool. vCloud Director constantly juggles w/ resource pool shares in order to provide / guarantee what ever it is allocated to you."

Does this make sense?

[PeterBlatherwic]

Hmmm... 

The word "juggle" would not really apply to Reservation Pool allocation, IMHO.  In that model resources for your Organizatio vDC are nailed up.  Other models provide % guarantees at either vDC level (Allocation Pool model) or at vApp level (Pay-As-You-Go). 

I have attached a capture from a doc I recently put together, showing how reservations made at the Virtual Appliance / vApp level get applied when the VA is deployed in the various models (many of our VAs come with built-in reservations).  Maybe this will help.  But bear in mind it is diffferent at the vDC level -- Allocation pool sets % guarantees on both CPU and memory there (not forcing CPU reservation to 0 as it does at VA/vApp level). 

Hope this helps,

PeterB

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks Peter. I don't fully undersand you caveat. Are you saying under vCloud Director (vDC == Virtual Data Center ?), the Reservation Pool allocation model is not there, and only the Allocation Pool and PayAsYouGo models are available?

[PeterBlatherwic]

Sorry for the shorthand.  Yes 'vDC' = virtual Data Center ... what vCloud Organizations get allocated to them.

All 3 allocation models are available to create vDCs for Organizations.  And Organizations can potentially also get more than one vDC, potentially using different allocation models. But, of course, the provider probably only uses one of these models to dole out Organization vDCs.

Reservation Pool is the only model that provides absolute guarantee on resources for the vDC, and also completely repects any reservations built into Virtual Appliances and vApps when they are deployed (the reservations can be built into the OVA package for the VA/vApp).   But Reservation Pool does not allow any resource over-commit for the provider, so it is expensive.

-- PeterB

[MushroomHunter]

Thanks, this has helped us put togehter a provider contract.