Azure VMware Solution
Version 1 recently held a webinar on Microsoft Azure VMware Solution (AVS) https://www.version1.com/webinar-vmware-on-microsoft-avs/ detailing the technical scale and capabilities the service can offer customers and, my contribution, licensing and cost considerations.
Azure VMware solution (AVS) is a collaboration between Microsoft and VMware/Broadcom. It’s a service offered by Microsoft that allows organisations to run their VMware-based workloads on dedicated Azure infrastructure, in other words, it’s a fully managed VMware environment in Azure.
· It has the same VMware on-premises technology within the Azure service, so no refactoring of applications is required to provision AVS.
· Customers can continue to leverage their VMware skills if they have them in house.
· One important element as far as I can see is that all VMware licenses in Azure compute are available for a predictable monthly cost.
Azure VMware Solution has been around for a while but obviously right now, there’s a degree of nervousness borne around the Broadcom acquisition of VMware. AVS offers a way of potentially mitigating VMware contract complexities from on-premises into Azure by providing a vehicle to remove that legacy infrastructure and offers operational consistency and reliability.
You can securely and quickly migrate workloads with theoretically, no downtime or disruption if migrating to AVS. Once there, you can obtain immediate capacity on-demand, allowing you to scale up and down accordingly thereby harnessing the unlimited power of the cloud.
As an enabler for innovation, you can modify or extend at scale by essentially taking away any obstacles to accessing the power of compute within the cloud. Using the Azure infrastructure that is deemed as more carbon efficient than a server sitting in the corner of an internal data centre will therefore help to reduce your carbon footprint potential and contribute to a more sustainable future for all.
AVS is aligned to a cloud first strategy for customers — it offers that opportunity to lift and shift away from on-premises into the cloud.
Licensing & Costs:
Compute, storage & network
There is a 3-node cluster minimum requirement and you can scale up on demand. PAYG is available billing hourly or a heavily discounted one, three or five year reservation payment option.
VMware Licensing
Microsoft is the licensee, they are the license holder. You are essentially buying this as a service which negates the potential contract and complexities of VMware licensing when in Azure as it includes all the VMware licenses within that dedicated hosted solution.
Certified Backup
There are 3rd party certified backup solutions available through the Azure marketplace to deliver complete backup and DR solutions for AVS.
Bandwidth
ExpressRoute is required for dedicated bandwidth between on-premises and Azure — another cost consideration.
Windows Server
With Windows Server datacentre that includes Software Assurance on-premises, you can use those core licenses in Azure to mitigate the cost of core licenses on shared infrastructure. However, as AVS is a dedicated hosted infrastructure, the dual use right doesn’t apply — you can’t just pick up your data centre or use your on-premises datacentre licenses to mitigate the costs in Azure. You must have dedicated or additional licenses with Software Assurance or Subscriptions to license the Windows VMS with Azure Hybrid Benefit to take away the costs.
SQL Server
With SQL Server, you also need dedicated licenses with Software Assurance or Subscriptions to allow for Azure Hybrid Benefit on the VMs that sit on the AVS solution.
Extended Security Updates
When Microsoft products go end of life or end of extended life, they no longer carry out hot fixes or patches or security updates, however they do have extended security updates which are (if on-premises) chargeable. This cost translates to 75% additional cost for Windows and 100% additional cost for SQL to run legacy servers on-premises with the extended security updates.
If you move this into Azure, it’s free, so you can continue to run versions 2008, 2012, 2016. Versions 2008 and 2012, which are no longer supported in Azure, are now supported with security updates at additional cost.
Reduced Overheads
Lift and shift into AVS with theoretically no downtime and no need to re-factor or re-architect. This removes the on-premises maintenance costs of hardware and the day-to-day feeding and watering of the infrastructure.
Example AVS Configuration & Cost Options:
Figure 1
If we look at an example top, middle and bottom configuration (figure 1) of an AVS cluster solution purchased pre-packaged in Azure with between 36 and 64 cores and a varying amount of RAM and flash storage; you can buy these on a per hour PAYG, or you can reserve it on a one year or a three or a five-year agreement.
The three and five-year term offer the same discount, however the five-year locks-in the VMware license and the compute costs for the full-term providing cost predictability.
The PAYG for a top-level configuration for example could be approximately £6k a month (based on UK South region web prices). This is list price, however this is reduced down to just over £3k per month if reserved for five years. Even with inflation that’s going to be more than 50% discount in five years’ time than it is today.
It’s important to note that AVS is not a way of just cutting costs to deploy a VMware solution into Azure. But what it does do is lock in that price. If you have hardware that is over five years in your on-premises datacentre, that is very likely to cost you more than £6k per month to replace. In addition, you will need to consider the cost of managing and maintaining the hardware. When you compare this cost versus the cost of the AVS, this solution is quite compelling.
Summary:
In a period of potential uncertainty with regards to future VMware licensing costs, increased scrutiny and responsibility for the carbon emissions produced with on-premises infrastructure and the drive towards digital transformation and taking advantage of the flexibility and scalability cloud services can provide, a business case for AVS is there — depending on individual organisation’s objectives and needs; but definitely it provides a viable option to many that ought to be considered.
As Microsoft license experts, we can help you with any Microsoft license matter and support your cost and risk reduction objectives. If you have any questions relating to this or any other Microsoft licensing subject, please go to our website or contact us.
About the Author
William Nelson is a Sales Specialist/License Management Practice as part of the SAM & Licence Management Team at Version 1.
