Cloud Foundry vs VMware vCloud

May 18, 2023 | Author: Michael Stromann
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Cloud Foundry
Open Source Cloud Application Platform that makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy and scale applications, providing a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. It is an open source project and is available through a variety of private cloud distributions and public cloud instances.
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VMware vCloud
Start moving toward secure cloud computing with VMware vCloud solutions and services. Leverage the power of cloud computing while retaining the flexibility and open standards to support your existing IT infrastructure. Enabling IT as a service through cloud computing gives you a more efficient, flexible and cost-effective model.
Cloud Foundry and VMware vCloud are two cloud computing platforms, but they differ in their approach, architecture, and target audience. Cloud Foundry is an open-source platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution that provides developers with a streamlined and automated way to build, deploy, and scale applications. It abstracts away the underlying infrastructure complexities, allowing developers to focus on writing code and accelerating application development. Cloud Foundry supports multiple programming languages and provides a self-service environment for developers. On the other hand, VMware vCloud is a cloud computing platform that extends VMware's virtualization technology to the cloud. It enables organizations to create and manage virtualized infrastructure in a cloud environment using familiar VMware tools and workflows. VMware vCloud is well-suited for organizations that have invested heavily in VMware virtualization technologies and want to extend their infrastructure to the cloud seamlessly.

See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Cloud Foundry vs VMware vCloud in our news:

2019. VMware completes $2.7 billion Pivotal acquisition



VMware has successfully completed the $2.7 billion acquisition of Pivotal, a private cloud platform. This acquisition serves as another crucial step for VMware as it strives to transition from solely a virtual machine company to a cloud-native provider capable of managing infrastructure across various environments. This addition aligns with VMware's recent acquisitions of Heptio and Bitnami, further reinforcing its strategic vision. The ultimate goal is to seamlessly integrate these developments into VMware Tanzu, a comprehensive management platform designed to unify Kubernetes containers and VMware virtual machines.


2017. Cloud Foundry adds native Kubernetes support



Cloud Foundry, the open-source platform as a service (PaaS) offering for enterprise, made an early commitment to Docker containers. However, with the introduction of Kubo, a tool donated to the project by Pivotal and Google last year, Cloud Foundry gained a new capability to rapidly deploy and manage a Kubernetes cluster. Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration tool backed by Google and emerging as the industry standard for container management, is now an integral part of the Cloud Foundry platform under the new name "Cloud Foundry Container Runtime." The collaboration between Google, Pivotal, and Cloud Foundry in developing this integration comes as no surprise.


2017. VMware Cloud is now live on Amazon Web Services



Last autumn, VMware and AWS announced a strategic partnership, and now they have unveiled a unified solution for enterprises called VMware Cloud on AWS. VMware Cloud on AWS offers customers a seamlessly integrated hybrid cloud environment that maintains consistent architecture, capabilities, and operational experience across their on-premises vSphere-based infrastructure and AWS. Although AWS operates its own virtual machines (VMs), they differ from those used by VMware in data centers. This disparity poses management challenges for companies seeking to utilize both platforms. By enabling organizations to migrate to AWS while retaining their VMware VMs in the public cloud, they can enjoy the benefits of both worlds without encountering management complexities.


2015. VMware will make Google Cloud Platform available to its customers



Google and VMware have joined forces to offer selected services from the Google Cloud Platform to VMware customers through vCloud Air, VMware's hybrid cloud platform. Later this year, vCloud Air users will gain access to Google's BigQuery analytics, Google Cloud Storage, as well as Google's Datastore and DNS services. Other Google services may also become available in the future. This collaboration can be seen as a win for both companies. VMware gains four valuable Google services, including the robust BigQuery analytics, which can help attract enterprise customers. Meanwhile, Google has the opportunity to showcase its top-notch intellectual property to the enterprise cloud users it seeks. Google aims to strengthen its hybrid cloud offerings, while VMware aims to demonstrate its cloud platform's compatibility with major players like Amazon Web Services (AWS).


2014. VMware's cloud to support Docker, Google and Pivotal containers



VMware is collaborating with Docker, Google, and Pivotal to ensure seamless compatibility between container technology and its virtualization technology. This joint effort will enable developers and operations staff to utilize the Docker Engine alongside VMware's vSphere hypervisor and vCloud Air environment. VMware will also engage in collaborative projects with Docker on various open-source container initiatives within the Docker platform. The company is committed to ensuring that future Docker projects seamlessly integrate with the broader VMware platform. Additionally, VMware's software will effectively support Google's Kubernetes container management system. In its partnership with Pivotal, VMware has already been leveraging containers in conjunction with virtual machines as part of its application development platform since 2011.


2012. Surprise! VMWare has joined OpenStack



Recently we found out that the open cloud platform alliance OpenStack includes several members from EMC. It was a surprise, because EMC owns VMWare - the direct competitor of OpenStack. We thought that it was a little misunderstanding in the Swedish family EMC-VMWare. But this wasn't the last surprise in this story. In the end of the last week, VMWare personally became the "Gold member" in OpenStack. (Recall, OpenStack was founded two years ago in order to struggle against the dominance of Amazons's public cloud and VMWare's data-center cloud management systems). Together with VMWare two more giants: Intel and NEC joined OpenStack on Friday. So now, on the cloud platform market we have the confrontation: Amazon vs "Everyone else". You may think that the forces are not equal, but ... ***


2011. SaaS vendors using third-party PaaS as their own



An interesting new trend is emerging: SaaS vendors start to use third-party PaaS services as platforms for their own clients and partners. Let's first consider the ordinary situation. For example, there was such SaaS provider as Salesforce. And it provided the online CRM system. The system was growing but the customers wanted more and more new features. Then Salesforce management thought: "we can't implement so many features, and it's not right to make the system too complicated. Let's better create a (PaaS) platform, and let our customers and partners create add-on apps and functions themselves. That's how Force.com appeared. And many others SaaS vendors headed the same way: Google, NetSuite, Intuit, Box.net ... But not all SaaS-providers are so mighty to create own PaaS platform. Or maybe creating own PaaS-platform - is not the smartest option. Why not use one of the existing PaaS-services, such as Force.com? ***


2011. VMware wants to revolutionize PaaS market



We have already noted that PaaS (Platform as a Service) - is the future of cloud platforms. For now the PaaS market is dominated by Salesforce (Force.com), Microsoft (Windows Azure) and Google (Google App Engine). Recently Amazon also entered this space with AWS Elastic Beanstalk. Of course VMWare also has its own plans regarding this market. Like Amazon, VMWare still paid more attention to another cloud technology - IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Its product vCloud enables service providers and enterprises to create cloud platforms that mimic Amazon EC2. But, frankly speaking, VMWare hasn't achieved great success in the IaaS-space so far, because it didn't offer something revolutionary. Having analyzed these mistakes, the company is now entering the PaaS market. And here it really wants to make a revolution. ***


2010. VMWare wants to become Microsoft of the Cloud Computing era



Previously, when enterprise software was running on servers and desktops, Microsoft ruled the IT market. It supplied the operating systems for servers and desktops, as well as tools for developing applications for these OS. As the cloud technologies emerge, servers and desktops are no longer the central objects of IT infrastructure. Software moves to private and public clouds. Desktops are used just as thin clients (terminals with a browser) and the need in servers disappears at all. And since the basis of cloud technology is virtualization - the power goes to the company, that owns 80% of the virtualization market  - VMWare. ***


2010. Google partners with VMWare to adopt GAE for Enterprise



In response to the recent launch of VMForce, Google today announced the upcoming version of its cloud platform for enterprise users - Google App Engine for Business. Until now, GAE was actually not suitable for hosting enterprise applications. First, GAE does not provides enterprise-ready support, security and service level guarantees. Besides, it supports only one database - Big Table, which is not used in existing business applications, and locks clients into one platform. The enterprise version of GAE, which is scheduled for 4 quarter of 2010, will fix these issues. Corporate customers will be offered a premium support, 99.9% SLA, administration panel for managing security policies. In addition, GAE will add support for SSL and SQL databases. Instead of difficult-to-forecast scheme of payment for computer resources, the clients will pay a flat rate - $8/month for app user. ***

Author: Michael Stromann
Michael is an expert in IT Service Management, IT Security and software development. With his extensive experience as a software developer and active involvement in multiple ERP implementation projects, Michael brings a wealth of practical knowledge to his writings. Having previously worked at SAP, he has honed his expertise and gained a deep understanding of software development and implementation processes. Currently, as a freelance developer, Michael continues to contribute to the IT community by sharing his insights through guest articles published on several IT portals. You can contact Michael by email stromann@liventerprise.com