Amazon EVS New2024年〜
A fully managed service for running VMware vSphere environments on AWS
What It Does
Amazon Elastic VMware Service (Amazon EVS) lets you run VMware Cloud Foundation-based vSphere environments as a fully managed service on AWS. You can migrate existing VMware workloads to AWS without redesign or refactoring, running VMware core components like vCenter, ESXi, vSAN, and NSX on AWS infrastructure. AWS handles hardware management, patching, and scaling, significantly reducing operational overhead while letting you continue using your existing VMware skills and tools.
Use Cases
It is used for lift-and-shift migration of on-premises VMware environments to the cloud, workload migration during data center consolidation, building disaster recovery (DR) sites, on-demand provisioning of dev/test environments, extending the life of VMware-based legacy applications in the cloud, and flexible capacity expansion in hybrid cloud configurations - covering all cloud use cases that leverage VMware assets.
Everyday Analogy
Think of it like moving to a new apartment. You can bring all your furniture and appliances (VMware workloads) from your house (on-premises data center) directly into the new apartment (AWS). The building management company (AWS) handles building maintenance, so you can focus on rearranging furniture and adding new appliances. Since you can use the same furniture at the new place, you don't need to change your lifestyle.
What Is Amazon EVS?
Amazon EVS is a service that provides VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF)-based vSphere environments as a fully managed service on AWS. Many enterprises have built their virtualization environments on VMware over many years, and EVS lets them migrate to AWS without rewriting applications. The entire VMware ecosystem - centralized management with vCenter Server, storage with vSAN, and network virtualization with NSX - runs on AWS infrastructure, allowing you to continue using existing operational procedures and tools.
Key Features and Architecture
Amazon EVS deploys the VMware Cloud Foundation stack on dedicated Amazon EC2 bare metal instances. vSphere clusters start with a minimum of 4 hosts and can scale out by adding hosts as workloads grow. Integration with AWS native services (S3, RDS, Lambda, etc.) is straightforward, allowing workloads within the VMware environment to directly use AWS services. AWS also handles hardware failure detection and automatic recovery for ESXi hosts, improving infrastructure availability.
Migration Approaches
Migration to Amazon EVS can be performed using tools like VMware HCX or AWS Application Migration Service (MGN). With HCX, you can live-migrate virtual machines from on-premises vSphere environments to EVS with zero downtime. Applications continue running during migration, minimizing disruption. Phased migration is also possible - migrate some workloads to EVS first and move the rest later. For a systematic understanding of migration approaches, specialized books on Amazon provide comprehensive coverage.
Pricing and Considerations
Amazon EVS pricing is based on the type and number of EC2 bare metal instances used, plus VMware licensing. You can choose between On-Demand and Reserved Instance pricing models, with Reserved Instances optimizing costs for long-term use. Note that the minimum configuration is 4 hosts, which can be costly for small-scale testing. VMware licenses are required separately, so verify whether you can bring your own licenses (BYOL) in advance.
Things to Watch Out For
- The minimum configuration is 4 hosts, so for small-scale testing, also consider direct EC2 migration with AWS MGN
- VMware licenses are required separately, so verify BYOL (Bring Your Own License) conditions in advance
- AWS Direct Connect is recommended for stable network connectivity during on-premises migration
