GDIT and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) are building a native on-demand VMware environment to provide mission partners the power to accelerate their cloud migrations without conversion.
The upcoming integration of VMware’s virtualization capabilities into the milCloud 2.0 environment creates opportunities for Department of Defense (DoD) agencies to leverage their existing VMware footprint in milCloud 2.0, subject matter experts from GDIT, VMware, and Dell Federal Systems explained during MeriTalk’s “Migrating to VMware on milCloud 2.0” webinar on November 18.
By adding VMware to milCloud 2.0, agencies will be able to take advantage of the benefits of the VMware platform like network virtualization and security improvements, while benefitting from future VMware improvements, such as the addition of Kubernetes containers.
“As VMware continues to build out the solution, we will continue bringing that to DISA so we can continue to share those advantages,” said Bill Rowan, Vice President of Federal Sales at VMware. “We’re going to ensure that you’re able to continue to take advantage of those new technologies that are coming to market with the same offering over a period of time,” he added.
Some use cases for VMware’s offering include cloud extensions like virtual desktops, disaster recovery functions that can complement continuity of operations plans, cloud migrations that can be application-specific or data center wide, and the build-out of next generation applications.
Using VMware within milCloud 2.0 will also make migration easier from a technical and workforce standpoint. Rowan emphasized the ability to take a hybrid cloud approach, made easier by the familiarity DoD has with VMware. A preview of the environment demonstrated the ease of use during the webinar.
“Right now, about 90 percent of all the assets that have been virtualized inside the Federal government, and specifically within DoD, have been virtualized on the VMware platform,” he noted. “As an operator inside an agency, when you log in, it will appear no different if your infrastructure is your on-prem environment or over on milCloud 2.0,” he said. “The cloud should not look like some foreign destination.”
milCloud 2.0 will include two offerings for virtual machines – a milCloud 2.0 standard configuration and a higher performance version that will use a 24vCPU series. Under the standard configuration, DoD customers will see performance improvements and will be able to leverage VMware’s advantages without seeing an increase in their costs.
“Our team was also able to deliver this model for the exact same cost required to buy a virtual machine in milCloud 2.0 today – that is unheard of. We were able to fold all this in to the same cost model that we currently have,” said Brian Whitenight, Partner Accounts Director for milCloud 2.0 at GDIT.
Users will also continue to benefit from the advantages of milCloud 2.0, such as no bandwidth or transaction fees, the ability to use funds and services across years, and the speed to deployment for preapproved and already-competed cloud services.
“We think this is going to facilitate better use on-prem, but you’ll also see the cost advantages and the performance advantages of running inside milCloud 2.0, which we think will encourage greater use and greater migration to the cloud,” Rowan said.
milCloud 2.0 has multiple security measures built into the IL-5 approved environment and through Dell’s trusted supply chain.
“There are layers to this onion that are able to provide the best security possible,” said Mansour Yusuf, Chief Cloud Architect at Dell Federal Systems.
To hear more milCloud 2.0 insights, you can register to watch the on-demand webinar.
You can also register for the next webinar on Feb. 24, 2021, to learn how mission partners can best leverage the upcoming VMware technology on milCloud 2.0 to support critical needs.
