vCloud Express is a class of service that offers the ability to provision infrastructure on-demand, via credit card, and pay for use by the hour. Users employ the vCloud API to access and manage vCloud Express services in a compatible, interoperable manner across both private and public clouds. As a VMware Virtualized ™ service, it ensures compatibility with other VMware environments both internally and with external services.

No. It is a class of service that is VMware Virtualized using VMware vSphere, and delivered by VMware’s ecosystem of service provider partners.

There are three Service Provider Partners with active vCloud Express. In North America, this includes Terremark and Hosting.com. Melbourne IT will offer it in the Asia/Pacific region.

Learn more about offerings from these vCloud Express Service Providers.

• Self-Service Portal
• vCloud API
• Web-based Signup/Activation
• Utility Pricing
• Credit Card Billing
• Interoperability Across Service Providers

Many VMware customers are interested in quick, easy access to VMware Virtualized infrastructure for prototyping and development from external third party providers. With vCloud Express, our customers get on-demand, pay-as-you-use infrastructure that is compatible with their existing VMware-based IT environment and provides a non-disruptive path to migrate from development to deployment.

By using vCloud Express for short-term computing requirements, users can increase flexibility and time to market and reduce capex and resource challenges associated with trying to address the fluctuating infrastructure needs of development, staging, and production teams. By leveraging the VMware platform, the vCloud Express service retains the robustness, interoperability and reliability that VMware is known for while delivering the easy access and cost-effectiveness of a transactional service model.

Unlike other on-demand cloud solutions, vCloud Express is compatible with the vast majority of virtualized IT environments, providing the interoperability to seamlessly transition from the external developer cloud to internal production or to enterprise-class VMware virtualized external services. In addition, developers have the choice of choosing from many vCloud Express services, depending on their existing relationships, location and requirements.

The vCloud Express service price is set by each Service Provider to be competitive in the market.

Key audiences include development and IT professionals, ISVs, SMBs, and enterprises who want “IT on demand”, i.e., easy access to service for development and testing new applications, or to “experiment” with the cloud experience. vCloud Express is particularly attractive to existing VMware users because it is compatible with their existing IT environments.

Additionally, for businesses such as SMBs and start-ups that don’t want to invest heavily in on-premise IT, vCloud Express offers an easy, low-cost option to IT services that is agile and flexible to accommodate business growth.

The VMware vCloud Initiative brings together the ecosystem, technology and applications to deliver best-in-class, reliable, interoperable cloud computing solutions. With the vCloud Express service, VMware is expanding the spectrum of VMware Virtualized cloud services to include development as well as enterprise-class production environments. And with a number of leading service providers delivering the vCloud Express, this new class of service aligns with a key tenet of the vCloud Initiative, which is to offer our customers the choice of deploying cloud solutions where they want, when they want, to best suit their needs.

The vCloud API is an open, RESTful, pure virtual API supporting multi-tenancy. It is standards-based and platform independent, making it compatible with a diverse range of applications. This API provides an interface for consuming and managing virtual resources from the cloud, enabling the deployment and management of virtualized applications in both private and public clouds, as well as enabling interoperability between clouds.

For vCloud Express customers, the vCloud API is available as a way to make use of their infrastructure purchased in the cloud.