Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Fueling resilience: Phillips 66’s journey with VMware Cloud on AWS (ENT102)

Summary

Andy Reedy from AWS and Rick Snell from Phillips 66 discuss Phillips 66's successful migration to VMware Cloud on AWS.
VMware Cloud on AWS is a managed cloud service that runs VMware stack on AWS bare metal infrastructure, managed by VMware for patching, updating, and upgrading.
Phillips 66, a Fortune 20 company, moved 98% of its workloads to the cloud as part of its digital transformation.
They faced a challenge to integrate an acquisition by moving 1,000 servers to the cloud in three months without optimization, re-IP, or Active Directory changes.
They utilized VMware Cloud on AWS for production workloads, using stretch clusters for high availability and non-stretch clusters for test/dev environments.
The migration was successful due to careful planning, leveraging AWS Direct Connect, and using VMware HCX for efficient workload migration.
Lessons learned include the importance of network layer planning, VMware skills, subnet-by-subnet cutover planning, and dependency mapping.
The session concludes with a discussion on the importance of proof of concept environments, bringing teams together for cloud projects, and the announcement of a new AWS instance type, M7i Metal 24XL.

VMware Cloud on AWS provides a seamless transition for companies with existing VMware workloads to move to the cloud without re-platforming.
The managed service aspect of VMware Cloud on AWS is a significant value proposition, as it offloads the maintenance burden from the customer's IT team.
Phillips 66's use of VMware Cloud on AWS for disaster recovery and production workloads highlights the service's flexibility and reliability.
The migration experience of Phillips 66 underscores the criticality of network planning, VMware expertise, and the need for comprehensive planning and testing.
The introduction of the M7i Metal 24XL instance type indicates AWS's commitment to providing a range of options to support different use cases and workloads.
The session emphasizes the importance of cross-functional collaboration within organizations when undertaking cloud migrations and the benefits of hands-on experimentation with cloud services.