Continuing the rapid expansion of its VMware vCloud Air hybrid cloud platform, VMware, Inc. today unveiled new hybrid cloud service capabilities and a new lineup of third-party mobile application services designed to enable enterprise and application developers to better support the dynamic needs of modern businesses.

"Businesses today look to modern, mobile applications to drive revenue, differentiation and loyalty," said Bill Fathers, executive vice president and general manager, Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit, VMware. "We are continuing to push the pace of our cloud expansion, intent to make VMware vCloud Air the industry's leading hybrid cloud platform for building, deploying, scaling and operating next-generation, mobile-cloud applications."

A year after introducing VMware vCloud Air (previously, VMware vCloud Hybrid Service), VMware's hybrid cloud platform has rapidly expanded its global footprint to provide US, European and Asia-Pacific businesses of all sizes with the fastest path to cloud. Now with eight data centers in the US, UK and Japan, VMware recently announced its hybrid cloud expansion in the Asia-Pacific region via a joint venture with SoftBank Telecom Corp. and SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. (SoftBank C&S) that brought vCloud Air to Japan. In addition, VMware has announced a strategic partnership with China Telecom to build a world-class hybrid cloud service in Beijing.

VMware vCloud Air -- A Hybrid Platform for Existing and New Applications
Today at VMworld 2014, VMware is introducing new vCloud Air platform capabilities to support mobile-cloud applications:

• New VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand -- VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand will provide customers with on demand access to vCloud Air, in an instant access with the swipe of a credit card. Billing is provided in arrears for services consumed. Initially offered as a qualified beta, customers can apply for a vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand account here.
  
  
• New VMware vCloud Air Object Storage - Designed to offer extremely scalable, cost effective, and durable storage for unstructured data, VMware vCloud Air Object Storage will enable customers to easily scale to petabytes and only pay for what they use. VMware vCloud Air Object Storage will include lifecycle management, versioning and large object features that will simplify and reduce management overhead and for highly available hybrid application deployments.
  
  

Hybrid Mobile Cloud Solutions and New Pre-validated Mobility Capabilities
A wide array of pre-validated solutions offered by independent software vendors (ISVs) will be available on vCloud Air. These mobility experts provide customers with a choice of proven capabilities to meet a spectrum of customer needs in keeping pace with the rapidly changing mobile landscape.

• Enterprise Mobility Management -- Offering an industry-leading platform for mobile device, application, email, browser and content management, AirWatch by VMware solutions will be available this year on vCloud Air. AirWatch provides a simplified, efficient way to manage an organization's mobile footprint across employee-owned, corporate-owned and shared devices from a centralized console.
  
  
• Mobile Backend as a Service (mBaaS) -- Organizations will be able to scale their ability to build mobile applications and integrate them with corporate backend systems and third-party cloud services through mBaaS solutions on vCloud Air, offered by leading enterprise BaaS provider Kinvey, enterprise mobile platform, built.io, and Node.js community leader StrongLoop.
  
  
• Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP) -- Developers will be able to create mobile applications on vCloud Air using mobile web application development tools from Sencha's high-performance, HTML5 mobile application platform Sencha Touch Bundle and cross-platform application development capabilities, including Appcelerator Titanium or the extensible, integrated Appcelerator Platform.
  
  
• Pivotal CF Mobile Services -- Enterprise Platform as a Service leader Pivotal® is extending Pivotal CF on vCloud Air with mobile backend capabilities such as Push Notifications, API Gateway and Data Sync, all at enterprise standards of compliance and security.
  
  
• Rapid Application Delivery -- Customers can create, deploy, manage and change both mobile and web applications on vCloud Air with the high productivity application platform from OutSystems.
  
  

Read "VMworld 2014 US: IT's Most Wanted List: Get Me a Mobile Backbone" blog post to learn more about the solutions from VMware's ISV partners here.

VMware Customers on Point with Hybrid Cloud
As America's oldest professional ballet company, the San Francisco Ballet present more than 100 performances internationally each year, so having reliable IT and computer systems when faced with an operational disruption is vital. "We needed a strategic disaster recovery plan consistent with our on-premise infrastructure, and VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery provides that seamless connection and dependable recovery, increasing business resiliency with minimal investment," said Murray Bognovitz, director of information technology, San Francisco Ballet. "Working with technology partners like VMware gives us the best of both worlds by extending our existing infrastructure to realize the benefits of public cloud."

As a systems integration and engineering company, SAIC has a strong need for an agile IT delivery platform. "With VMware vCloud Air, we're able to migrate workloads and data sets seamlessly from our VMware vSphere®-based private cloud environment to the public cloud with very minimal engineering and administration interaction from our IT team," said Coby Holloway, vice president, Cloud and Business Transformation Services, SAIC. "This enables us to rapidly deliver unique solutions and offerings to our customers."

Pricing and Availability

• VMware vCloud Air Object Storage is expected to be available in beta in Q3 2014 with general service availability expected in Q1 2015.
• VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand is available today through a qualified beta program, with general service availability expected in Q1 2015. Developers and IT organizations interested in a trial of Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand can learn more about participating here.
• Available today, pricing for the mobile development services within VMware's vCloud Air's service catalog vary and are determined by individual ISVs. For more information, please visit here.