Enterprise cloud and managed services company Virtustream Inc. says the new capabilities in its latest platform release make it easier than ever to migrate on-premises software applications to the cloud.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies Inc., said the new version of its Virtustream Enterprise Cloud released today comes with significant cloud automation features. With these additions, lengthy tasks that previously required manual oversight by information technology teams can now be done automatically and securely, with minimal human input, the company said.

Virtustream’s Enterprise Cloud is a public cloud platform that competes against the likes of Amazon Web Services Inc. and Microsoft Azure. However, Virtustream’s cloud is more of a niche platform that’s designed to host mission-critical and highly regulated applications, such as SAP SE and other enterprise resource planning systems.

It differentiates itself by offering highly defined managed services around the infrastructure applications are hosted on, providing advantages such as more efficient resource usage and better application management through automation and provisioning. Virtustream’s cloud is also integrated with Pivotal Software Inc.’s version of Cloud Foundry, which is a popular application development platform for cloud-native apps.

One of the new features is in the latest release is an updated xStream cloud management software platform. It has been rebuilt with a new architecture and application programming interface that combine to eliminate some of the heavy lifting involved when migrating apps from on-premises environments to the cloud.

Now, customers can use Virtustream’s platform to self-provision virtual machines that are automatically configured with a range of security services, such as intrusion detection, firewalls and anti-malware tools. This not only cuts down on the time it takes but also reduces the risk of errors occurring during the configuration process, the company said.

Virtustream is also providing more automation capabilities for the apps it hosts. For example, customers running SAP applications are now able to automate start and stop operations as required. This helps users reduce costs by automatically shutting down applications when they’re not being used, such as at the weekend or during scheduled maintenance periods.

“Enterprise applications and workloads require special handling and care,” said Deepak Patil, senior vice president of product and technology at Virtustream. “Historically, enterprise cloud customers had constraints that precluded them from flexibility and conveniences — such as quick provisioning — that are leveraged by cloud consumers with less complex use cases.”

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