Cloud computing is a model that allows ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources. vCloud resources are provisioned rapidly and released with minimal management effort.

The VMware vCloud suite delivers a complete, integrated cloud infrastructure suite that simplifies IT operations while delivering the best service level agreements (SLAs) for all applications. The vCloud Suite includes the entire set of vCloud infrastructure capabilities: virtualization, software-defined datacenter services, policy-based provisioning, disaster recovery, application management, and operations management.

The vCloud solution encompasses the vCloud Suite along with an architecture defined in the VMware vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT) and a set of recommended guidelines for organization, process design, and instrumentation. These all feed a CIO scorecard enabled by the VMware IT Business Management (ITBM) product suite. It is an all-encompassing approach to maximizing the benefits of the software-defined datacenter.

Architecting a vCloud focuses on the IaaS layer, detailing use of the vCloud Suite to extend the capabilities of the vSphere virtualization platform.