One of the more popular posts at viktorious.nl, is the one about vRealize and vCloud Suite licensing. For both vRealize and vCloud Suite a Standard, Advanced and Enterprise version is available.As you probably know, the difference between vRealize and vCloud suite is wether vSphere is included in the license: vCloud Suite = vRealize Suite + vSphere Enterprise Plus. The three different versions of the vCloud Suite (Std,Adv,Ent) will always include vSphere Enteprise Plus.
At VMworld Barcelona, back in November, vCloud Suite Platinum was announced. vCloud Suite Platinum became GA last week. The question is, what is vCloud Suite Platinum? Well, in vCloud Suite Platinum vSphere Enterprise Plus is replaced by vSphere Platinum. There’s still the Standard/Advanced/Enterprise distinction, so this means we will have vCloud Suite Platinum Standard, Advanced and/or Enterprise available. The following graph details the difference between the vCloud Suite and vCloud Suite Platinum:
Of course the next question is, what is the difference between vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere Platinum? It’s all about VMware AppDefense. AppDefense is included in the Platinum version of vSphere.
VMware AppDefense is a data center endpoint security product that protects applications running in virtualized environments. Rather than chasing after threats, AppDefense understands an application’s intended state and behavior, then monitors for changes to that intended state that indicate a threat. When a threat is detected, AppDefense automatically responds.
The nice thing is that there’s an AppDefense vRealize Orchestrator plugin available for vCloud Suite Platinum, that can be used as part of the provisioning proces in vRealize Automation. The vRO AppDefense package is available for download here. With this plugin you can capture the application context at provisioning time from the application blueprint. The vRO package provides three AppDefense specific workflows that are linked to the vSphere virtual machines in your vRealize Automation blueprints through the use of XaaS components and an event broker subscription. This will help you to automatically configure a scope and determine the normal behaviour of your application.
The new vCloud Suite Platinum is a socket based license that includes a SaaS component that is required for AppDefense. The SaaS service runs in the US, London, Frankfurt and Sydney. The vCloud Suite Platinum license includes a 12- or 36 month prepaid subscription to the service. If you’re upgrading from vSphere Enterprise Plus you can leverage a 50% upgrade promotion.
I hope this was helpful!
