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Virtualisation and cloud provider VMware has rebranded its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering vCloud Hybrid Service (vCHS) – popularly referred to as “vCheese” – to VMware vCloud Air.

The platform, built on VMware hypervisor vSphere, will remain the same IaaS hybrid cloud it has always been, but the name change illustrates VMware’s commitment to delivering value-added as-a-service systems, according to Geoffrey Waters, vice-president for channel partners at VMware.

The rebrand comes ahead of VMware’s annual virtualisation and cloud conference, VMworld 2014.

Launched in 2013, VMware vCHS is an IaaS offering featuring three cloud services – dedicated cloud, virtual-private cloud and disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS). It allows customers to extend applications, networking, management, operations and tools, over on and off-premise environments.

The hybrid service is aimed at enterprises' large cloud projects with resource-intensive workloads and provides 120GB of vRAM, 30GHz of vCPU and 6TB of storage. It also allocates a 50Mbps network by default and can burst up to 1Gbps during peak demand.

“We continue to see tremendous momentum for vCloud Air, as more and more businesses look to capitalise on the undeniable operational and economic benefits of hybrid cloud,” said Bill Fathers, executive vice-president and general manager of the hybrid cloud services business unit at VMware.

A study earlier in 2014, on VMware’s UK customers, found 65% of the respondents said hybrid cloud could help meet business demands more quickly. Another 81% said they needed a system that makes their public cloud as easy to manage as their own infrastructure.

However, commenting on the rebrand on Twitter, Gartner analyst Kyle Hilgendorf said: “It’s just a name, but clearly vCHS was messy, will vCloud Air resonate more?”

VMware launched vCHS in Europe in February 2014. Since its launch in the UK, more than 800 individuals at partner organisations have been accredited in Europe, according to the company. In July 2014, VMware opened its second UK datacentre in London’s Chessington to expand vCHS in Europe.

“Hybrid cloud is, in many respects, the most important part of our strategy,” said VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, at the time of its launch in London.

Fathers said vCHS was formulated based on customer feedback that suggested third-party clouds were proprietary, hard to migrate to and disengage from, and eroded customer investments in skills and technology.

In addition to rebranding vCHS, VMware has also launched vCloud Air Network, the extension of its channel partner programme – VMware Service Provider Program (VSPP) – with more cloud service options.

“VCloud Air Network represents another key element of our cloud strategy – enabling customer choice and flexibility to find the ideal, local cloud service based on industry-leading VMware technology,” Fathers said.

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