VMware Inc. launched a number of new product offerings this week, key among them being what it called the “next evolution” of VMware Cloud; the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator, which is designed to help organizations cost-effectively install, configure, operate and maintain their edge deployments; and an expansion of the firm’s Tanzu application platform.
All three were announced Tuesday at VMware Explore 2023 in Las Vegas, and will play a key role in the company’s current and future development plans.
VMware Cloud, the company said, “combines VMWare Cloud Foundation software and VMware Cloud Services. Cloud Foundation combines the best innovations from VMware’s on-premises and public cloud software offerings into a unified stack to deliver a consistent environment across any on-premises, hyperscaler cloud, or partner cloud environment.
“VMware Cloud services simplify the deployment and operations of VMware Cloud Foundation environments across any cloud or on premises environment.”
Organizations, it said, can deploy and manage their environments in three ways:
- Customer Managed – VMware Cloud editions can be deployed by customers in their own data centres or their choice of colocation partners with control of the infrastructure environment.
- VMware Managed – VMware Cloud on AWS is a VMware-managed cloud service with integrated hardware and software. VMware Cloud on Equinix Metal will be a distributed cloud service that enables customers to purchase software and hardware as a service separately for maximum flexibility.
- Provider Managed – new VMware Cross-Cloud managed services based on VMware Cloud editions from partners such as IBM Cloud enable customers to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for on-premises environments, simplify operations, reduce risk with observability, actionable insight, and performance optimization, and accelerate cloud migrations.
Also part of the launch is VMware NSX+, a new cloud-managed service offering of NSX for multi-cloud environments (previously Project NorthStar) that the company said “advances core networking and security capabilities for VMware Cloud,” and vSAN Max, “a new offering within the vSAN family that will deliver petabyte-scale disaggregated storage.”
The VMware Edge Orchestrator (formerly VMware SASE Orchestrator) now contains new capabilities to orchestrate and manage multiple edge services at scale.
According to a release, “enterprises are looking to transform both the value they are delivering to their customers as well as how they deliver this value. The challenge in achieving the goal of leveraging the edge effectively is the complexity across people, processes, and technology.
“This includes a lack of reliable connectivity with a central data centre or cloud location, a lack of IT expertise on-site at disparate sites, and the need to scale deployments to thousands of sites, often across domains and geographic boundaries.”
Enhancements to the orchestrator, VMware said, will “help customers plan, deploy, run, visualize, and manage their edge environments in a friction-free manner – allowing them to run edge-native applications focused on business outcomes. The VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator (VECO) will deliver holistic edge management by providing a single console to manage edge compute infrastructure, networking, and security.”
VMware said it defines software-defined edge as a “distributed digital infrastructure that runs workloads across a number of locations, close to endpoints that are producing and consuming data. It extends to where the users and devices are – whether they are in the office, on the road or on the factory floor.”
As for Tanzu, the company launched a suite of new offerings it said will allow organizations to develop, deliver, and optimize apps across clouds. The new platform, “brings together existing Tanzu and Ario products with new integrations” and portfolio enhancements.
The expanded platform includes:
- The new VMware Tanzu Application Engine (beta), which will introduce a capability for application teams to request business requirements such as high availability, more secure connectivity, and scalability.
- Enhanced multi-cloud Kubernetes operations through new lifecycle management for Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) in addition to AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, and cluster cost visibility for Kubernetes FinOps powered by VMware Tanzu CloudHealth.
- A developer portal that “extends curated app templates and more secure supply chain automation with the ability to further customize the experience with beta support for an ecosystem of open source and DIY Backstage plugins.”
“Modern applications and multi-cloud are at the heart of digital transformation,” the company stated. “VMware research shows more than 70 per cent of CIOs are developing net-new cloud native apps, and modern apps designed for the any-cloud model have now overtaken traditional apps in the enterprise.
“Business leaders are keenly aware that software agility and speed to market are critical to a business’s ability to compete successfully and grow revenue.”