The main differentiator is not at a platform level (which must be consistent across both next-generation hosting offerings), but at the management and service level.

 

The provider must be able to position the various components within an applicable service level suitable to a consumer's application or requirements. Whether a consumer uses virtual data center, hosted private cloud, or a blend of both hosting service offerings, these must form part of an integrated solution, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.

To achieve this, the provider must standardize across the hosting infrastructure platforms and networks, and layer on clear, repeatable, and supportable orchestration and automation to manage these on a per-resource, per-consumer, and per-platform level.

Future hybrid capability is a key strategy and includes disaster recovery, management of third-party clouds, and management of replication from a customer’s infrastructure off-premises to the service provider’s data center. To achieve these goals, the provider cannot afford to write a full orchestrator, automation, and customer portal from scratch. In working with VMware, the provider wants to consider best practices and off-the-shelf tools, such as VMware vCloud Director®, to avoid large development efforts and delays that would be involved in creating something from scratch.