The Countdown Is On: Upgrade to VMware vSphere 6.5 Now!

Are you currently running VMware vSphere 5.5? Whether your workloads are on-premises or in a cloud environment, the time to upgrade is fast approaching. VMware announced end of support for vSphere 5.5 will take place on September 19, 2018. With only a few months left, existing clients are faced with the challenging decision on when to upgrade and will also need to evaluate how an upgrade impacts existing environments.

IBM services has years of managing VMware environments, and sticking to VMware’s guidance to upgrade to vSphere 6.5 will enable clients to maintain full support. By making the move to vSphere 6.5, users can take advantage of the latest features in the VMware suite including upgraded encryption capabilities, improved user experience and seamless integration with other VMware products. Here’s a summary of the key items you need to know.

Extended support for vSphere 6.5 is available through November 15, 2021
Technical guidance for vSphere 5.5 is available until September 19, 2020 through the self-help portal
No new hardware support, server/client/guest OS updates, security patches or bug fixes for vSphere 5.5
Users can purchase VMware Extended Support in one-year increments for vSphere 5.5

Ready to make the move to vSphere 6.5? It’s also the perfect opportunity to consider moving some of your on-premises VMware environments to the IBM Cloud. With over 60+ data center locations, there’s bound to be 1 or 2 locations to upgrade and modernize your existing data centers. With IBM Cloud, you can maximize the value of existing on-premises infrastructure, while confidently leveraging the same tools, technologies, and skills to quickly and securely take advantage of the benefits of the cloud. IBM offers two solutions that leverage vSphere on bare metal servers:

VMware vCenter Server on IBM Cloud offers vSphere as a service. Through automation built by IBM, a fully functioning VMware software-defined data center environment is deployed on top of IBM Cloud bare metal servers in a true lift ‘n shift fashion. You can provision in hours and scale as needed while maintaining full, native access to the entire VMware stack.
VMware vSphere on IBM Cloud allows you to build a highly customizable, manually configured VMware environment with minimal commitment. This virtualization service combines VMware-compatible bare metal servers, hardware components and licenses — to build your own VMware environment.

Concerned about the time and complexity of migrating to the cloud? No need to worry. Migration is made easy through VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension (HCX) or through existing VLANs and VMware vMotion for a live migration of virtual machines. If you need assistance, IBM Cloud experts who are trained in VMware are here to walk you through the upgrade steps.

Contact a cloud expert or visit the VMware on IBM Cloud Upgrade Center for more information on the benefits of upgrading today!

Thom Baker

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