Marriott uses VMware, IBM hybrid approach in cloud journey 

Last week, VMware announced the VMware Cloud Foundation which combines VMware’s compute, storage and network virtualization solutions into an integrated platform. For the first time, organizations can now automatically provision pre-configured VMware Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) environments on IBM Cloud in hours versus weeks or months. The platform integrates VMware vSphere, VMware Virtual SAN, VMware NSX and VMware SDDC Manager, and gives customers broad choice in their infrastructure decisions.

As a bit of an update, IBM currently has nearly 4,000 cloud consultants trained on VMware products and services. Deploying from VMware products in an on-premise environment to IBM’s cloud is now faster because VMware Cloud Foundation is compatible with IBM.

There are now more than 500 companies running VMware virtual machines on the IBM cloud.

One such company is Marriott International. With more than 4,500 properties in 88 countries and territories, the hotel chain is always looking to innovate in order to enhance guests’ experience.

“It’s more than just keeping our guests happy, it’s about helping them create a memory by exceeding their expectations,” said Alan Rosa, senior vice president of Technology Delivery and IT Security, Marriott International. “From reserving and booking rooms, planning their next family vacation or facilitating an important business event, the process of consuming our services and products needs to be seamless and integrated into our guest’s style of working and transacting.

Marriott has been using VMware technology and IBM services for years but started experimenting with using the two together after the partnership announcement.

Marriott has transitioned to a mostly cloud environment, but some components of its network are still not in the cloud and this is why the VMware-IBM hybrid approach appeals to the company.

Rosa expects Marriott’s 50-50 computing architecture to transition to a 70 per cent and then 80 per cent cloud in a few years. Ideally, he said, the customers will not even whether their apps are running on on-premises virtual machines or in the cloud.

“Marriott has been able to keep innovating by rapidly launching new customizable applications that support these experiences,” he said. “The partnership between IBM and VMware gives us an advantage in that Marriott can continue to do what we do best but expands our reach on a global scale with trusted partners whom consistently deliver.”

You can learn how VMware on IBM Cloud enables companies to consolidate legacy infrastructures onto an automated and centrally managed, software-defined data center by clicking on this link to a set of special VMware on IBM Cloud content.

You’ll find free downloadable whitepapers on how to Consolidate Complex Environments, use NetApp AltaVault for Backup and Disaster Recovery and how to Secure Cloud Workloads using Vmware and the IBM Cloud.

You can also join IBM Cloud Platform Service and VMware experts in a Webcast to learn the essential of extending VMware computing to the cloud.