In case there was any doubt about where Amazon wants your software applications to run, the cloud services giant just launched a new tool to automate the transfer of workloads running on companies’ internal servers over to Amazon Web Services.
For companies that rely on Windows or Linux computer servers running in their own data centers, the Server Migration Service, announced last week, will theoretically make it easier to move them to AWS servers. This move comes just weeks after AWS and VMware (VMW) announced a way for VMware, a big rival, to run its data center software on—you guessed it—AWS servers.
And it comes about a year after Amazon (AMZN) introduced a migration tool to move customers’ Oracle (ORCL), MySQL, PostgreSQL and/or Microsoft (MSFT)databases to AWS servers running the AWS Relational Database Service.
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There is a trend here. AWS chief executive Andy Jassy has said the company understands that some companies want to keep running some workloads on their own servers—at least for the foreseeable future. Yet, all of these migration services, understandably from Amazon’s point of view, facilitate a one-way trip to AWS.
Competitors that promote a hybrid computing worldview which stipulates that some applications and data will stay on internal servers indefinitely but also incorporates public cloud resources like those offered by AWS, Microsoft, and Google (GOOGL), paint Amazon is inflexible in this respect.
Amazon and VMWare plan to announce partnership.
Amazon (AMZN) pioneered the shared public cloud infrastructure model in 2006 and pretty much had the market to itself for a few years until Microsoft, Google, IBM and others jumped in a few years later. Microsoft Azure is seen as a distant but fast-growing No. 2 player in this market.
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Interestingly, AWS has started to send out press releases touting customer wins, something new to the company. Last week, for example, it claimed Under Armour (UA), Liberty Mutual and Nextdoor as new accounts.
