VMware debuts cloud integration manager for service providers

VMware on Tuesday announced the latest product in its evolving cloud portfolio: the Cloud Integration Manager.

The Cloud Integration Manager, designed to accelerate service providers' time to revenue by automating the delivery and maintenance of VMware's vCloud Director clouds, offers a REST-based API to integrate with service providers' back office systems and a web based admin portal as well as Web-based portals that automate service plan, customer lifecycle and reseller management.

It will be delivered in the first quarter of 2012, the Palo Alto, Calif. company announced.

The Integration Manager, naturally, is integrated with VMware vCloud Director, vSphere, vShield Edge and vCenter Chargeback Manager.

vCloud Director

"In production at service providers, Integration Manager will mostly be driven through API calls from the service provider’s customer portal or CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. These are typically the systems of record for customer data and product orders, with Integration Manager doing the detailed provisioning work," wrote Mathew Lodge, VMware's senior director of cloud services. "Integration Manager is also important for VMware's reseller partners, many of whom are looking to add cloud services to their portfolios in order to be able to sell complete hybrid clouds (combinations of public and private clouds). "

VMware also announced that almost 90 service providers deliver vCloud-based services.

Since virtualization is the foundational component of cloud computing, VMware has emerged as a leading vendor with a broad supply of tools for private and public clouds, noted the Taneja Group in a recently published report.