Google, VMware Do Hybrid Cloud Deal

Following up on promises by VMware to put its cloud platform into the heart of all major cloud services, VMware and Google announced today that Google Cloud Platform (GCP) will support VMware's Cloud Foundation, VMware's hybrid cloud management system.

In an interesting twist, a third company, CloudSimple, developed and will help run the integrated solution. Support will be offered by Google. The service includes VMware's vSphere, vSAN, and NSX deployed in GCP.

The latest move is part of a broader push by Google to drive revenue of GCP and make it more palatable to enterprises. Google recently announced in its earnings release that its run rate for cloud is more than $8 billion.

Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud who took over led a reorganization last year, spoke to VMware's strength in managing hybrid cloud workloads, including those that run using containers.

“Customers increasingly want to run their mission-critical workloads, including those from VMware, in Google Cloud,” said Kurian in a statement.

Sanjay Poonen, chief operating officer, customer operations at VMware, said the partnership will help extend more solutions to customers to help them manage hybrid cloud applications. “With VMware on Google Cloud Platform, customers will be able to leverage all of the familiarity of VMware tools and training, and protect their investments, as they execute on their cloud strategies and rapidly bring new services to market and operate them seamlessly and more securely across a hybrid cloud environment," he said.

At an analyst event this spring, VMware officials said the goal was to have deep integrations between VMware Cloud Foundation and the major "Six Clouds" -- which including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, GCP, Oracle, Alibaba, and IBM. Google and Oracle were the only ones remaining before this week -- so this latest announcement leaves Oracle as the last deal to get done.