Blog Your VMware on Google Cloud roadmap: lessons from 3 Insight customer stories

Virtual machines (VMs) are here to stay. This computing paradigm marks the evolution from hardware-bound software to software in the cloud, and the advantages are obvious–flexibility, scalability, and cost savings among them. As more businesses in every industry make VMs central to their efforts to streamline and scale operations, improve agility, and save on costs, Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) has emerged as a clear infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) leader. In this blog post, we’ll touch upon some of GCVE’s most compelling features and look at three Insight customer use cases that illustrate why VMware on Google Cloud makes a lot of sense when it comes to running VMware workloads. 

First, the benefits. SADA¹ engineer Forrest Burrows recently went deep into the reasons why GCVE tops his list of VM IaaS providers. If you’re coming at this question from a technical background, you definitely won’t want to miss Forrest’s detailed analysis, which includes a handy chart that compares the strengths and weaknesses of various VMware environments. Let’s lay out some high-level advantages of going with GCVE, then move on to some examples of organizations getting the most out of their move to the platform.

Benefits of GCVE

• Seamlessly extends your VMware environment, without costly and time-consuming refactoring or replatforming.
• Operational consistency means that you maintain your familiar VMware tools and processes, minimizing disruption and accelerating time-to-value.
• Provisions and scales resources on demand, empowering you to respond quickly to changing business needs.
• Optimizes infrastructure expenditures (aka “saves you money”) with flexible pricing models and pay-as-you-go options.
• Google Cloud’s robust infrastructure provides high availability and reliable disaster recovery.
• Makes available Google Cloud’s vast ecosystem of innovative services, including AI/ML, data analytics, and more.

At Insight, we’ve helped numerous businesses enjoy the advantages of moving to Google Cloud VMware Engine. Let’s explore three inspiring stories of customers who achieved bold business outcomes by migrating to Google Cloud with guidance from Insight migration experts.

Flower power: FTD moves from on-prem to Google Cloud VMware Engine

Delivering a fresh bouquet of flowers to that special someone is a feat that involves moving not just daisies, but data. For 100+ year-old floral brand FTD, optimizing that data meant making the leap from maintaining on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. Selling their headquarters buildings in Downers Grove, Illinois precipitated their migration, as they came to see it as a now-or-never opportunity. Seizing this chance to elevate their infrastructure, FTD called in Insight experts to orchestrate the move. 

FTD’s 29-week migration from on-prem to Google Cloud involved multiple phases: discovery, architecture, buildout, and active migration. The team’s goal was to migrate hundreds of virtual machines (VMs) to GCVE, while leveraging Insight’s technical expertise and flexibility. 

Ultimately, Insight helped FTD move 325 of nearly 400 virtual machines to be migrated, while equipping them to migrate the remainder on their own. To maintain continuity of service and application performance, database nodes were moved in the same waves as dependent applications and their VMs. 

Advantages of the migration included: 

• Reduced administrative overhead
• Cloud elasticity that allowed FTD to deploy to multiple geographic regions for increased availability, while putting variable operating expenses within their direct control
• Reduced hardware costs, which led to increased transaction volume

Read the case study to see how FTD’s migration to Google Cloud unveiled a garden of opportunities and a rosy outlook for the future.

LoadSpring expands global footprint with Google Cloud

LoadSpring Solutions helps businesses that are performing impactful work in a variety of industries, including engineering and construction, departments of transportation, manufacturing, and healthcare and life sciences. Whether they’re designing and building nuclear power plants, skyscrapers or bridges, organizations rely on the LoadSpring Cloud Platform to make their teams’ jobs easier. As the company grew, the quest to uncover the best solution to meet the needs of global customers initially proved to be daunting. And VMware licensing presented an obstacle. 

Working with Insight and Google Cloud VMware Engine, LoadSpring lifted and shifted their technology stack to Google Cloud. As a result, the company: 

• Expanded their global footprint to meet the needs of customers worldwide
• Achieved performance parity to on-prem VMWare out of the box 
• Resolved issues with VMware licensing abroad—Google Cloud now handles it all
• Saved months of time and personnel resources by not having to send their engineers into remote regions to set up service
• Helped their clients expand their cloud, business intelligence and AI/ML capabilities to achieve better project results

Learn more about how LoadSpring worked with Insight to leverage Google Cloud and Google Cloud VMware Engine to lift and shift their full technology stack.

Swyft quickly migrates from on-prem to Google Cloud

Swyft provides a software and data analytics platform that gives brands and retailers everything they need to build and deploy automated retail stores. With Swyft, customers such as Apple, Best Buy, and CVS are able to provide consumer goods 24/7 through next-generation vending machines, even in satellite locations where they don’t have stores.

Working with Insight, the Swyft team configured a VPN tunnel between the data center and Google Cloud Platform so that Swyft could migrate their entire VMware environment to Google Cloud VMware Engine. This allowed an easy lift and shift of VMware-based applications to Google Cloud without any major changes to apps, tools, or processes. Read the case study to learn more about how Swyft and Insight’s migration experts got it done. 

Tap into Insight’s expertise for a seamless Google Cloud VMware Engine migration experience

Accelerating your data center exit and modernizing your cloud infrastructure starts with a robust strategy that prioritizes your business continuity. Insight’s team of Google Cloud VMware Engine migration experts understands the unique challenges and opportunities involved in transitioning your VMware workloads to the cloud. We’ll work closely with you to develop a tailored plan that minimizes disruption, optimizes performance, and unlocks the full potential of Google Cloud’s innovative capabilities.

Book a discovery call today and let’s discuss your specific goals and requirements. Our team is ready to share proven best practices, leverage industry-leading tools, and guide you through a seamless migration to Google Cloud VMware Engine.

Let Insight be your trusted partner on your journey to a more agile, scalable, and cost-effective cloud environment.