Flex core is the default baseline for creating a cloud infrastructure service in your datacenter for your customers. It delivers simplicity in a predefined core bundle of solutions suitable to deliver cloud services, flexibility to add additional products aligned to different services or customers and value priced at only 7 points per GB vRAM per month.

We are pleased to now announce 2 add-on capabilities available for those utilizing Flex Core: VMware Cloud Director Availability Migration (from October 18th 2021) and Tanzu Basic (for usage starting October 1st 2021). Both are available through the VMware Flex Model, as an entitlement at no additional cost;

This means you can now use VMware Cloud Director Availability to migrate (warm or cold) your customers VMs to your VMware Cloud Director Cloud and between Cloud Director Clouds. You can now also move forward with inclusive Tanzu based multi-tenant managed K8s services, and drive your Developer Ready Cloud message on cloud native infrastructure services as a first step towards App Modernization.

This opens up a whole new world of possibilities to you and your customers, moving them to cloud with simplicity and self service and then helping customers App Modernization strategy on your cloud, driving more consumption of the cloud infrastructure and remaining relevant to customers future application needs.

VMware wants our Cloud Providers to support customers growth in cloud and Kubernetes services. Cloud Director Availability delivers a very simple user experience, integrated to VMware Cloud Director, it is designed to migrate (zero cost) and then provide value added Disaster Recovery (chargeable) services. With Tanzu Basic, cloud provider partners worldwide can expand into offering multi-tenant managed K8s services, and drive their Developer Ready Cloud message on cloud native infrastructure services as a first step towards App Modernization. Let me give an example:

• Migrate customers VMs from on-premise to your VMware Cloud Director instance and deliver secure private or public cloud multi-tenanted services. (zero cost Cloud Director or on premise vSphere plugin)
• Deliver additional virtual infrastructure services to the customer surrounding networking, security and storage, all available in Cloud Director and NSX. (included in Flex Core)
• Address customers need for containers. Start simple with Tanzu Basic and Kubernetes as a Service (zero additional cost starting October 1, 2021)
• Give customers self service in Cloud Director using Container Service Extension (zero cost Cloud Director plugin)
• Supply customers the ability to source their own products in a customizable marketplace from App Launchpad and Bitnami Marketplace (zero cost Cloud Director plugin and MSP agreement)
• Deliver optional managed reporting services using vRealize Operations management packs for Kubernetes. (additional flex costs)

Of course there is much more that you can do, this is only a small subset of capabilities. The differentiation is key, you are uniquely placed to deliver this value and capability to customers in yourregion and within yoursovereignty. In fact, offering a choice of 'comparable' native Kubernetes (in your datacenter) plus your unique managed services, marketplace services, securely tested and validated applications (from Bitnami) and the capability to publish applications that are created to the customer's orgs is very unique.

What does this mean for cloud provider partners already using VMware Cloud Director Availability?

Partners using Cloud Director Availability are already entitled to migrate customer VMs and vApps already at zero cost, using Disaster Recovery protection is an additional cost. There is no change for partners already using VMware Cloud Director Availability today. Partners must continue to report migrations and protections on a monthly basis as normal, there is no change. By including VMware Cloud Director Availability migration in the Flex Core we are simply ensuring that partners have a migration capability inclusive in the core bundle.

What does this mean for cloud provider partners new to VMware Cloud Director Availability?

Cloud provider partners can deploy VMware Cloud Director Availability and setup their VMware Cloud Director customer org Virtual Data Centers (org VDC) as migration targets for on premise customers to replicate to. If partners wish they can also sell Disaster Recovery services, but this is charged per VM, whereas migration jobs are zero cost. Partners must report both migration and disaster recovery usage as described in the Product Usage guide.

What does this mean for partners already deploying Tanzu Basic?

Partners who are already deploying multi-tenant managed K8s services with Tanzu Basic, can continue to use their current licenses with no minimum usage requirements going forward. They must plan on transitioning to the newly available Tanzu Basic licenses on Flex Core, through the VMware Customer Connect Portal. In the event they need additional licenses, one-off orders are no longer needed and they can start using the newly available licenses on Flex Core. 

What does this mean for cloud provider partners new to Tanzu Basic?

Partners who want to start deploying Tanzu Basic can do so without having go through a Term contract. The newly available Tanzu Basic licenses will show up in recent notifications when they login to VMware Customer Connect Portal. They are entitled to use these licenses at no additional cost and start deploying Tanzu Basic.

Learning more about Tanzu Basic edition cloud providers:

For more details about this announcement, please check out the Tanzu Basic on Flex Model FAQ document.

For additional learning and training resources on Tanzu Basic edition and the overall VMware Tanzu portfolio, refer to our previous Tanzu Basic for Cloud Providers announcement blog - Tanzu Basic for Cloud Providers Announcement.

If you want to find out more about how you can build an offering around VMware Cloud Director and Tanzu, please ensure you register for our Technical Advisory Board (open to valid VMware partners only) as this is covered in Day 1 of the 2 days. AMERICAS/EMEA (October 26th / 27th
(7am - 11:30am Pacific Time) registration, ANZ/APJ November 2nd and 3rd
(6pm - 10:30pm Pacific Time) registration and JAPAN November 9th and 10th (4pm - 8:30pm Pacific Time) registration (will be live translated).

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