NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Amazon returns Microsoft’s volley with System Center integration
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Hot on the heels of Microsoft Corp. unveiling a landmark expansion of its infrastructure-as-a-service platform, Amazon.com Inc. is sending the ball back into Redmond’s court with a new add-on meant to make it easier for Windows shops to move their on-premise workloads to its rival cloud.
The tactic is the same one Amazon employed against VMware Inc. back in July, when it introduced a connector for the virtualization stalwart’s vCenter management platform that makes it possible to control EC2 instances from the same place as internal processes. That allows admins to carry their existing skills over to the public cloud without having to familiarize themselves with a new interface and juggle extra tabs, removing yet another barrier to adoption in the enterprise.
The newly released add-on for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is based on the same premise. According to Amazon, the integration allows users to launch new VMs running either Windows or Linux from within the SCVMM console and carry out common maintenance tasks such as stopping, restarting and removing instances in addition to retrieving administrative passwords. The plug-in also makes it possible to apply commands on a group basis, sparing admins of a lot of unnecessary clicking, and supports monitoring and reporting capabilities through the AWS Management Pack introduced last year.
But while AWS System Manager for SCVMM shares the benefits of the vCenter connector, chances are it also suffers from the same pitfalls, most notably the fact that it only works one way, meaning that there is no straightforward way of moving workloads from AWS back on-premise. VMware was quick to call the disadvantages of the IaaS powerhouse’s add-on following the July launch, but Microsoft, the symbol of proprietary software, is pursuing a more open-minded approach to the cloud. It endorses NetApp Inc.’s recently introduced Private Storage (NPS) for Azure even as it pushes its own cloud-connected arrays, although the latest update from AWS probably won’t be as welcomed at Redmond.
AWS System Manager for SCVMM is available for download immediately at no charge. It’s compatible with SCVMM 2012 SP1 and up.
Photo via Pixabay
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