7.4

n
For information about vRealize CloudClient, see https://developercenter.vmware.com/tool/cloudclient.
XaaS Overview
With the XaaS, XaaS architects can create XaaS blueprints and resource action, and publish them as
catalog items.
With XaaS, you can provide anything as a service using the capabilities of
VMware vRealize ™ Orchestrator ™. For example, you can create a blueprint that allows a user to
request a backup of a database. After completing and submitting a backup request, the user receives a
backup file of the database they specified.
An XaaS architect can create custom resource types mapped to vRealize Orchestrator object types and
define them as items to be provisioned. A XaaS architect can then create blueprints from
vRealize Orchestrator workflows and publish the blueprints as catalog items. The vRealize Orchestrator
workflows can be either predefined or independently developed by workflow developers.
You can also use the XaaS to design additional actions that the consumer can perform on the provisioned
items. These additional actions are connected to vRealize Orchestrator workflows and take the
provisioned item as input to the workflow. To use this function for items provisioned by sources other than
the XaaS, you must create resource mappings to define their resource types in vRealize Orchestrator.
For more information about vRealize Orchestrator and its capabilities, see the vRealize Orchestrator
documentation.
Service Catalog Overview
The service catalog provides a unified self-service portal for consuming IT services. Users can browse the
catalog to request items they need, track their requests, and manage their provisioned items.
Service architects and administrators can define new services and publish them to the common catalog.
When defining a service, the architect can specify the kind of item that can be requested, and what
options are available to the consumer as part of submitting the request.
Group managers or line-of-business administrators can specify business policies such as who is entitled
to request specific catalog items or perform specific actions on provisioned items. They can also apply
configurable approval policies to catalog requests.
Users responsible for managing the catalog, such as tenant administrators and service architects, can
manage the presentation of catalog items to the consumers of IT services, for example by grouping items
into service categories for easier navigation and highlighting new services to consumers on the portal
home page.
Containers Overview
You can use containers to gain access to additional instrumentation for developing and deploying
applications in vRealize Automation.
Containers for vRealize Automation allows vRealize Automation to support containers. You can provision
an application that is built from containers or from a combination of containers and VMs.
Foundations and Concepts
VMware, Inc. 10