Amazon teams with VMware for hybrid cloud

Amazon.com is teaming up with VMware to let customers combine VMware’s software for corporate networks with Amazon’s internet-based cloud-computing services, a bid by Amazon to better compete with rival Microsoft in hybrid cloud solutions.

VMware will deliver, sell and support a product that lets customers use their existing VMware software with access to Amazon’s cloud-based storage, database and analytic software, the companies said Thursday in a statement.

Hybrid solutions allow customers to run applications on their own servers and through various remote cloud-based applications simultaneously. Called VMware Cloud on AWS, the product will be available in mid-2017. Pricing will be disclosed closer to the release, the companies said.

It will appeal to companies that want the flexibility and capacity of managing data via the cloud.  Amazon is trying to maintain its lead in the cloud-computing market over rivals Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google and IBM as more companies transition from using their servers to renting computing power and data space hosted remotely, which they access via the internet.

Movie-service Netflix is a prominent example of a web company powered by Amazon Web Services. VMware is shifting its cloud strategy to focus on selling products that work with existing leaders, rather than trying to establish itself as an alternative to the Amazons of the world.