Lift and transform with Google Cloud VMware Engine and Google Compute Engine.

A two-step guide from Google Cloud

As you accelerate your cloud journey and look to modernize your VMware infrastructure, Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) provides a streamlined and low-risk pathway to rapidly migrate your VMware workloads from on-premises to Google Cloud.

Once you have migrated to VMware Engine, you can further modernize your VMware estate by migrating suitable workloads to Google Compute Engine. Compute Engine can help optimize your performance while helping you grow efficiently and have more to invest for innovation.

A two-step process enables you to gain the initial benefits of the cloud quickly and then modernize your infrastructure at your own pace.

Step 1 - Migrate to VMware Engine to lay the groundwork

Familiarity with platform and faster migration timelines: By initially migrating to a fully managed VMware environment on Google Cloud, you retain familiar VMware tools and skills, enabling a faster move to the cloud with minimal disruption to operations.

Future-proofed investment and further optimization at your own pace: Transitioning to VMware Engine lays the groundwork for migration to Compute Engine or other compute platforms like Google Kubernetes Engine and allows you to capitalize on existing Google Cloud setups (like landing zones and IAM), as well as unique commercial constructs such as convertible committed use discounts. It also gives you time to understand the changes in day 2 ops and positions you for future additional modernization.

Step 2 - Migrate to Compute Engine for workloads where it makes sense

Diverse infrastructure: Compute Engine offers a continuously updated selection of the latest hardware, including Intel, Arm, AMD, and GPUs/TPUs, providing excellent and continuously improving performance per dollar and catering to a wide range of workloads. Benefit from the workload-optimized, high-performance Hyperdisk block storage that is cost-efficient, easy to use, and offers comprehensive data protection capabilities. Take advantage of robust lifecycle management with advanced maintenance controls and enhance data privacy with Confidential VMs that encrypt data in use.

Global reach and foundational platform: Available across all Google Cloud regions and zones, Compute Engine serves as the robust infrastructure layer underpinning higher level services like Google Kubernetes Engine and GKE Autopilot.

Flexible and scalable management: Easily manage workloads at scale with flexibility for varying usage patterns, utilizing Spot VMs and Duration-based pricing through Dynamic Workload Scheduler for cost-effective handling of bursty or fault-tolerant applications.

Efficient migration from VMware Engine to Compute Engine is enabled by Migrate to Virtual Machines

Agentless migration to Compute Engine: Migrate to Virtual Machines migrates VMs from VMware Engine to Compute Engine without requiring agents inside the guest VMs, simplifying the migration process. Migrate a single application or hundreds of applications quickly, with up to 200 concurrent VMs at any point in time per connector.

Minimal downtime migration: Agentless migration utilizes continuous data replication in the background, minimizing disruption to applications. The source VM continues to run during the migration process until the final cut-over.

Efficient data transfer: The tool compresses data during transfer, speeding up migration and optimizing network resource usage.

Simplified compatibility: The tool intelligently adapts VMs for the Google Cloud environment by automatically handling driver, network, and OS configurations, simplifying compatibility challenges.

Non-disruptive testing: Enables non-disruptive testing of migrations in Google Cloud without impacting the live on-premises VMs, significantly reducing migration risks.

Simple user experience: Manage all workload migration from your Google Cloud console to many target projects.

Let's get moving

Assess: Run an assessment using Google Cloud Migration Center to do asset discovery (servers, performance metrics, software), understand dependencies and licensing, and generate Compute Engine VM recommendations and optimization reports

Plan: Create migration waves planning using the data collected