DBaaS Monetization with VMware Data Services Manager: A Guide for Cloud Service Providers
Demand for Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) is exploding as businesses prioritize digital transformation, application modernization and efficient operations. This represents a significant revenue opportunity for cloud service providers (CSPs), and VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) is a powerful platform to take advantage of this.
VMware DSM simplifies the provisioning, lifecycle management, and monitoring of open source and commercial databases (such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL (Tech Preview)) in the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) environment. By offering this solution, ISPs can transform infrastructure management into a high-value, self-service data offering.
Value Proposition for Cloud Service Providers
Monetizing VMware DSM is about leveraging its core capabilities—automation, policy-based management, and multi-tenancy—to deliver superior services with optimized operational efficiency.
- Increased operational efficiency and reduced costs
DSM automates tedious, repetitive tasks like provisioning, patching, scaling, and backups. This means:- Lower operating performance: Less reliance on expensive, specialized personnel for routine operations. It allows your existing VI administrators to manage the underlying infrastructure while the platform handles the database lifecycle.
- Fast service time: Developers can provision databases in minutes through self-service catalogs (especially when integrated with VMware Cloud Director or VCF Automation), accelerating application deployment and reducing time to market for your tenants.
- Standardization: Policy-based management ensures that each database instance meets pre-defined security, compliance, and configuration standards, reducing configuration drift and troubleshooting time.
- Offer premium services and differentiation
A fully managed DBaaS offering is a strong differentiator in the competitive cloud market.- High value services: Instead of just offering raw VMs, you offer a complete enterprise-grade data service with guaranteed SLAs, built-in High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities.
- Attract modern workloads: Support for modern, cost-effective, open-source databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL) appeals to customers who are modernizing their application suites and trying to avoid proprietary licensing costs.
- Security and Compliance: DSM features such as integrated security and policy enforcement enable you to offer sovereign cloud solutions that meet strict data residency requirements and regulatory mandates.
Basic monetization strategy
ISPs can adopt several flexible models for generating revenue from their DBaaS using DSM.
1. Prices according to use (cloud model)
This sample model directly ties billing to resource consumption and is the most common cloud approach.
| Price component (Example) | Description | CSP monetization |
| Compute/VM class | CPU/Memory allocated to the database VM. | Charge per hour vCPU or GB RAM per hour used by database instances. Offer tiered classes of virtual machines (eg Small, Medium, Large, Optimized) for easier customer selection. |
| Storage (I/O) | Storage capacity and performance (IOPS/Latency) consumed by the database. | Charge per GB-month with another third party service: Standard (lower costs, lower IOPS) a Insurance premium (higher cost, guaranteed high IOPS, use of vSAN storage policies). |
| Data transfer | Outbound network traffic from the database. | Charge a small fee per GB of output data (data leaving your cloud environment). Admission is usually free. |
2. Functionality-based levels (added value)
Create tiered DBaaS offerings that combine core services with valuable add-ons. Example as below.
| Level of service (Example) | Feature Inclusion | Monetization hook |
| Basic | Core DB instances, automated provisioning, basic monitoring. | Base price to support adoption. |
| A basic plus | Standard function + Auto Backup and restoreimproved performance metrics, 99.9% SLA. | high recurring fee; monetize automatic backups by charging for storage consumed by backups and for restore operation. |
| Modern | Professional features + High Availability (HA) (cross-group replications), Disaster Recovery (DR) (replication between sites), FIPS compliance, dedicated support. | Highest recurring fee; monetize the additional compute/storage space required for HA/DR replicas. |
3. Operational and managed services
Monetize the expertise needed for Day 2 operations beyond the automated platform.
- Managed Database Service (MDS): Offer a fully managed service where your team takes over performance tuning, custom configuration, comprehensive query optimization and schema changes. This is a professional service with a high margin.
- Consulting/Migration Services: A fee to help customers migrate their legacy databases (eg, proprietary SQL Server/Oracle) to open-source instances managed by DSM.
- Custom Templates/Policies: Fee to define and manage custom infrastructure policies, security configurations or VM classes for specific clients that meet high requirements.
Keys to Implementation Success
To successfully launch and monetize your DBaaS offering, focus on three key areas: integration, licensing, and marketing.
- Integrate with VCF9 Automation or your existing Cloud Director (VCD) deployment.
VMware DSM natively integrates with either VCF Automation 9.x or VMware Cloud Director (VCD) through the Cloud Director extension for Data Solutions. This integration is essential for CSP because:- Enables multi-tenancy: Provides a secure, self-service catalog for tenants to deploy and manage databases without provider intervention.
- Centralized management: Enables providers to maintain full control over underlying infrastructure and resource pools through infrastructure policies.
- Billing integration: Consumption data tracked by the platform can feed into your existing metering and billing systems for accurate usage-based billing.
- Understanding VMware Licensing
CSPs must align their service pricing with the Broadcom/VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program.
Note: VMware Data Services Manager is typically licensed as an advanced service or add-on to the basic VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) core licensing. ISPs typically pay for this based on consumption metrics, which may include VCF cores, vSAN TiB, or specific ancillary services such as DSM. Your price must factor in these wholesale costs plus your desired profit margin.
Go-To-Market Strategy
It’s always good to place your own DBaaS as a solution, not just the product.
- Target persons: Tailor your marketing to appeal to both application developers (focusing on self-service, agility and speed) and IT/DB administrators (focusing on automation, control, security and compliance).
- TCO advantage: Highlight the significant total cost of ownership (TCO) savings achieved by moving from high-cost proprietary databases to fully supported open source options managed by your platform.
- Hybrid/multi-cloud: Position the service as a key enabler for hybrid cloud strategies, enabling applications to use on-premises DBaaS that offers the same simplicity as Hyperscaler.
By leveraging the automation and multi-tenancy capabilities of VMware Data Services Manager, cloud service providers can move from selling commodity infrastructure to offering a profitable, modern and highly differentiated Database-as-a-Service solution.