VMware vCloud Automation Center 6.0 is LIVE!

It has been a long time coming…lots of hard work, energy, collaboration, and a massive investment from VMware to ensure this release marks the beginning of a game-changing technology for organizations looking to accelerate and optimize their cloud strategy. vCloud Automation Center 6.0 was made Generally Available today (as promised). This release does more than update an existing platform — it sets the stage for what’s next for VMware, its Partners, and customers.

vCAC 6.0 addresses real IT problems with the Business in mind. And it does this with “time to value” at the forefront. We’ve moved beyond the days of delivering cloud solutions that promise the world but start with a blank canvas, “Here’s your cloud…it can do anything…but first I’ll need 6 FTE’s and 18mos to turn it into something consumable…fingers crossed”. Sound familiar? Unfortunately that strategy is alive and well today. I call it “custom COTS” (commercial-off-the-shelf).

What our customers are looking for is real COTS, something that delivers time to value and begins to address real IT problems immediately. A solution that promises ecosystem integration while allowing them to utilize existing investments. A solution that will help organizations realize the value of the Software-Defined Datacenter on day 1. vCloud Automation Center is core of this strategy for VMware, and I’m confident it will set the standard for cloud service automation.

Highlights of What’s New in vCAC 6.0:

Unified Service Catalog for Infrastructure, Desktop, and Application Services
Enhancements to Application Deployment and Updates (formerly “Application Director”)
Extensibility to any IT Service with the game-changing Advanced Service Designer for XaaS
Integration with IT Business Management Standard Edition
Several Improvements in Infrastructure as a Service
- Support for VMware vCloud Hybrid Service: vCloud Automation
  Center now provides the ability to provision and perform basic
  administrative tasks on virtual machines deployed in vCloud Hybrid
  Services.
- Support for OpenStack: In addition to vSphere, vCloud
  Director, Amazon Web Services, Hyper-V, Kernel-based Virtual Machine,
  Citrix XenServer, and various physical server management interfaces,
  vCloud Automation Center now provides support for provisioning and
  performing administrative actions on machines managed by OpenStack.
Puppet Integration (through vCAC Application Provisioning Engine)
Enhanced vSphere platform integration
Improved Roled-based access and Administration Capabilities