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Has AWS Just Sidestepped Its Biggest VMware Partner?
This move gives customers a new choice for running VMware in the cloud, sidestepping the all-inclusive model and responding directly to market disruption.
Key Highlights
- AWS has launched Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS), a new way to run VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on the AWS cloud.
- Unlike the existing VMware Cloud on AWS, EVS is a foundational service where customers bring their own VCF licenses and retain full administrative control.
- The service is a direct response to customer and partner concerns following Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, particularly around licensing and lack of control.
- Positioned as a "primitive" service, EVS is architected to enable a new ecosystem of partner-managed VMware services on AWS.
The News
Amazon Web Services announced the public preview of Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS). This new offering allows customers to deploy their own licensed VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environments directly within their Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). The preview is available in five AWS regions for non-production workloads. This service creates a new, distinct option alongside the existing Broadcom-managed VMware Cloud on AWS. Find out more by clicking here to read the launch blog.
Analyst Take
The public preview of Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS) is less of a product launch and more of a strategic masterstroke. For years, the default path for running VMware’s enterprise stack on AWS was VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC on AWS). That service, now sold and operated by Broadcom, is a fully managed, all-inclusive offering. AWS provided the hardware, but Broadcom ran the show. With EVS, AWS is offering a fundamentally different model, and its timing is spectacularly shrewd.
The VMware ecosystem has been in a state of flux since the Broadcom acquisition. Customers are contending with significant shifts in product bundling, the termination of perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions, and a general feeling of uncertainty. In my view, AWS has been listening intently to the market's anxieties and has responded not by modifying its existing partnership, but by building an alternative path. EVS is a direct answer to the customer desire for more control and flexibility.
The core difference is in the operating model. Think of VMC on AWS as leasing a fully furnished and managed apartment; you get the space and all the amenities, but the landlord dictates the rules and furnishes the place. Amazon EVS, by contrast, is like AWS providing you with a prime plot of land and the foundational utilities. You bring your own architect and builder—in this case, your own VCF licenses and an IT team or a partner—to construct the house exactly as you want it. This means you control the architecture, the configuration, and the software versions. For many enterprises, that level of control is paramount.
Positioning EVS as a "primitive" service is classic AWS parlance. It means they provide the secure, scalable, and foundational building blocks, and then get out of the way. This approach hands the operational reins of the VMware software stack back to the customer. It is a calculated move designed to empower the AWS Partner Network. AWS is effectively enabling its vast ecosystem of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Systems Integrators (SIs) to build their own managed VMware offerings on top of EVS. This could spark a new wave of competition and innovation, with partners creating specialized services for specific industries or use cases, a stark contrast to the one-size-fits-all model of a single managed service.
What was Announced
The details of the public preview reveal a focus on control and integration. Amazon EVS is designed to give VMware administrators a familiar experience, but with the benefits of cloud infrastructure. The service is architected to automatically deploy a fully functional VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment on dedicated AWS infrastructure.
Initially, the service supports VCF version 5.2.1 running on Amazon EC2 i4i.metal instances. These instances are storage-optimized, which is a good starting point for I/O-intensive enterprise workloads. A key architectural design choice is the ability for customers to use their existing VCF license portability entitlements. This "bring-your-own-license" (BYOL) model is a significant departure from the all-inclusive subscription of VMC on AWS.
Critically, the entire VCF stack is deployed directly inside the customer’s Amazon VPC. This provides low-latency, native access to the full portfolio of over 200 AWS services. The announcement also highlights the ability to integrate with preferred external storage solutions, specifically calling out Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. This is an important feature, as it allows customers to decouple their storage from their compute, potentially optimizing costs and performance beyond what is possible with a purely hyper-converged solution like vSAN.
Most importantly, EVS aims to deliver full administrative access to the core VMware components: ESXi, vCenter, NSX, and SDDC Manager. This is the control that power users and experienced administrators have been asking for, allowing them to configure, patch, and manage the environment to their own specific corporate standards, just as they would on-premises.
Looking Ahead
The introduction of Amazon EVS reshapes the landscape for enterprise cloud migration. It is more than just a new service; it is a declaration of strategy. AWS is betting that customer choice and partner enablement will win out over a single, highly-prescriptive managed offering. This move puts direct competitive pressure not only on Broadcom's VMware Cloud on AWS but also on similar managed offerings like Azure VMware Solution and Google Cloud VMware Engine.
The key trend that I am going to be looking out for is the partner response. The success of EVS is intrinsically linked to the ability of the AWS Partner Network to build compelling, cost-effective, and robust managed services on top of it. If MSPs and SIs embrace this platform, it could create a vibrant marketplace of VMware-on-AWS solutions, offering customers a level of choice they haven't had before. Based on my analysis of the market, my perspective is that AWS is leveraging the post-acquisition disruption as an opportunity to become the de facto infrastructure layer for any and all VMware workloads, regardless of who manages the software.
Going forward, I am going to be closely monitoring how the company performs on its stated goals of expanding VCF version support, instance types, and licensing options. The richness of these future options will determine the breadth of its appeal. When you look at the market as a whole, the announcement today establishes a new paradigm. The question for enterprise customers is no longer just "Which managed VMware cloud do I choose?" but rather, "Do I want a managed service at all, or do I want to maintain control and build my own VMware cloud on AWS infrastructure?" HyperFRAME will be tracking how EVS adoption and the resulting partner ecosystem evolve in future quarters, as this will be a key indicator of a significant shift in the cloud market.
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.