Explore VMC on AWS pricing, features and use cases with a trial run

Examine feature and service integration offered with standard VMC on AWS pricing

Once the SDDC is up and running, admins can run VMs and explore other features, such as building a stretched cluster that spans Amazon's availability zones.

VMware Site Recovery is another useful service admins can integrate with VMC on AWS. This is an add-on that admins can purchase on top of their subscription; it connects an on-premises data center to VMC on AWS, which enables failover in both directions if the entire service becomes unavailable. 

Admins might not want to commit to multi-year contracts before knowing that VMC on AWS works as expected and integrates with their current environment. There are two ways to evaluate the service and how it matches the costs of VMC on AWS pricing. The first one is free of charge and admins can access it online from VMware's hands-on labs.

Figure C below is a screenshot of an example SDDC deployed in the hands-on lab. This deployment shows compute and network configurations, and what the possibilities are for products that integrate with a cloud-based SDDC. A new SDDC deploys without any actual hardware, so admins won't be able to start any workloads.

If admins want the ability to run actual workloads and integrate the SDDC with an on-premises vSphere deployment, they can use the flexible VMC on AWS pricing plans to purchase a one-month subscription for a single-host SDDC. This offers an actual, physical vSphere host in the AWS data center that does almost everything a three-node cluster does. There are some limitations, however, such as not being able to evaluate a stretched cluster with one host.

This single host deployment only runs for a maximum of 30 days, so admins have to plan their evaluations carefully. It's possible to upgrade the single host SDDC to a full, three-host SDDC and retain the data, but that would require the purchase of a full subscription.

Test out VMC on AWS pricing models

Predictability is one of the most compelling selling points of cloud-based services.

The VMC on AWS setup requires a minimum of three hosts and the ballpark figure for that is around $9,000 per month for three years. VMware provides a cost calculator for more accurate estimates of VMC on AWS pricing, and promotions might make it even cheaper. Keep in mind that a shorter contract period significantly increases the monthly fee.

There are two pricing models for this service: on-demand and subscription.

The on-demand consumption model structures payment for physical hosts by the hour. There are no upfront costs and there's flexibility to scale the number of hosts up or down without long-term commitments. In this VMC on AWS pricing plan, admins only pay for each hour that the host is active in their accounts. The minimum number of hosts required is three.

Long-term host subscriptions offer up to 50% cost savings in comparison to on-demand hosts consumed over equivalent periods. Host subscriptions are available in one- or three-year terms. Upfront payment is necessary for this VMC on AWS pricing model, but this maximizes savings and offers a huge discount in comparison to the on-demand pricing model.

VMware provides another useful calculator to help potential customers figure out how many hosts they need. If admins already have some experience with how their workloads perform on their own hosts, keep in mind that such a calculator might be conservative when providing advice.