VMworld 2020: Top 11 Announcements From the VMware Event

On the first day of VMworld 2020, VMware unveiled a host of new products, services, and partnerships. From future-ready workforce solutions to the expansion of Tanzu portfolio and launch of new cloud offerings, VMworld 2020 kicked off with some exciting launches.

This week, VMware launched the most-awaited event of the year, VMworld 2020. VMworld is the company’s flagship annual cloud computing conference. The all-virtual event commenced on September 29, 2020, and will go on until October 1, 2020. Let’s look at the top 11 announcements from the event.

1. VMware and NVIDIA Partnership

VMware and NVIDIA announced a broad partnership to accelerate AI adoption across enterprises. VMware also announced a new architecture for data center, cloud, and edge that taps NVIDIA data processing units (DPU) to support existing and next-generation applications.

NVIDIA will integrate its NGC AI processing software to VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation, and VMware Tanzu. The company plans to create an enterprise-ready AI platform that will enable companies to run AI workloads and deploy and manage AI-ready infrastructure where the data resides, across cloud, edge, or the data center. Customers will get early access to the technology, but the companies did not reveal the sale date.

Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, saidOpens a new window , “We (VMware) are partnering with NVIDIA to bring AI to every enterprise, a true democratization of one of the most powerful technologies. We’re also collaborating to define a new architecture for the hybrid cloud—one purpose built to support the needs and demands of the next generation of applications. Together, we’re positioned to help every enterprise accelerate their use of breakthrough applications to drive their business.”

2. VMware Plans To Acquire SaltStack

VMware plans to acquire SaltStack, an open-source based automation software provider. This will help the company expand its vRealize automation capabilities for software configuration management, infrastructure, and network automation capabilities across on-premises and cloud environments. With SaltStack, VMware plans to address customer automation needs and strengthen customers’ ability to automate the deployment and configuration of infrastructure platforms across on-premises and in the cloud.

 Marc Chenn, CEO of SaltStack, saidOpens a new window , “As VMware paves the way for the multi-cloud future, automated cross-cloud orchestration and configuration management will be an integral part of multi-cloud’s strategic advantage. VMware and SaltStack, together, will forge a more robust foundation for the future of cloud innovation, which starts today with this thrilling announcement.”

3. Project Monterey Launched

VMware introduced Project Monterey to reimagine data center, edge, and cloud architecture and address the challenges of next-generation applications, including AI, machine learning, 5G, multi-cloud, and hybrid apps. The initiative will leverage a smart network interface controller (SmartNIC), a hardware technology to deliver maximum performance, zero-trust security, and unified and consistent operations to VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) deployments.

With Project Monterey, customers will be able to solve network performance and security challenges and gain flexibility in delivering storage functionality. VMware has partnered with hardware companies, including NVIDIA, Pensando, and Intel, for SmartNIC technology. The company has also collaborated with server OEMs, such as Dell Technologies, HPE, and Lenovo, to deliver integrated solutions for customers.

Rajiv Ramaswami, chief operating officer, products and cloud services, VMware, saidOpens a new window , “We’re announcing Project Monterey to help customers address the shifting requirements of next-gen apps. By reimagining the architecture of the data center, cloud, and edge, we expect to offer customers the freedom to run these apps in the best environment.”

Currently, Project Monterey is a technology preview, and the company has not announced timelines of its availability. 

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4. VMware Updates Tanzu’s Portfolio

On VMware Tanzu’s first anniversary, the company expanded its portfolio and announced new partnerships and customers. VMware announcedOpens a new window Tanzu support for VMware Cloud on AWS and preview support for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. The company also announced preview support of Azure VMware Solution. With this offering, VMware customers will be able to run their application on any infrastructure of their choice. Additionally, the company announced a partnership with GitLab to unify app developers and operations teams to streamline development pipelines.

5. Carbon Black Cloud Workload Unveiled

VMware launched VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload for securing modern virtual workloads to minimize cyberattacks and strengthen security posture. The cloud-native solution provides agentless security, vulnerability management capabilities to protect virtual workloads in the vSphere environment.

VMware offers a 6-month unlimited free trial of Carbon Black Cloud Workload essentials for all vSphere customers.

6. New Updates Announced for VMware Cloud on Dell EMC 

VMware announced new updatesOpens a new window to the VMware Cloud on Dell EMC September release. VMware Cloud on Dell EMC now supports various security standards, including ISO27001, ISO27017, ISO27018, SOC 2 Type1, CSA, CCPA, and GDPR compliance standards. The company also introduced X1d.xLarge, 4th node compute instance, to support 96 virtual CPUs to handle storage-intensive applications. 

The September release of VMware Cloud on Dell EMC supports multiple cluster support per rack and has increased node density per rack with a 50% increase in the number of nodes running in each rack. Furthermore, the latest release supports HCX Advanced for seamless, non-disruptive, large-scale workload migration.

7. Lumen and VMware Team up for Secure Edge Computing

VMware deepens its partnership with Lumen, a fiber-based networking connectivity company, to streamline and secure edge computing. The partnership will help enterprises move business applications with low latency closer to digital interactions. Lumen will integrate VMware SD-WAN, VMware Workspace ONE, and VMware Carbon Black with its global edge infrastructure to deliver work from anywhere.

Rajiv Ramaswami, chief operating officer, products and cloud services, VMware, saidOpens a new window , “The combined capabilities of Lumen and VMware will empower organizations to take on the next phase of digital business.”

8. New SASE Security Partners and SASE Updates

VMware announced two new partners, Menlo Security, and Zscaler, to its secure access service edge (SASE) platform. VMware will integrate Menlo Security’s secure web gateway, cloud access service broker, and remote browser isolation capabilities natively into the VMware SASE platform. The VMware Zscaler partnership will combine VMware SD-WAN, firewalls, and zero-trust access for network connectivity with ZScaler security capabilities to build a robust SASE architecture. 

Along with the partnership, the company has expanded its SD-WAN global network to more than 2,700 cloud service nodes across 130 points of presence. It will also combine its SD-WAN solution and VMware Workspace ONE platform to a single, cloud-native solution, VMWare Secure Access, scheduled to be released by the end of January 2021. The company even launched a new edge network intelligence to deliver better visibility and security to customer experience across applications and IoT devices.

9. VMware Cloud Management Updates

VMware announced the new vRealize Cloud Universal Opens a new window subscription, a SaaS management suite that offers customers the flexibility to deploy workloads on both SaaS and on-premises under a single license. vRealize Cloud Universal includes four new SaaS features, including vRealize Cloud Federated Catalog, vRealize Cloud Federated Analytics, vRealize AI Cloud, and vRealize Cloud Subscription Manager.

Saimon Michelson, field CTO, North America at CTERA, said, “Companies adopting SaaS solutions must have a clear understanding of how their data is protected from third-party access. SaaS providers typically will store customer data in their data centers or in public cloud infrastructure and leverage deduplication technology to reduce their storage capacity. Ideally, you can leverage the convenience and cost-effectiveness of SaaS without compromising your data integrity. Look for solutions that encrypt data locally before being sent to the cloud. This way, in the event of a breach of the SaaS provider, your proprietary data remains safe as there is no way for the attacker to decrypt the data. Look also for multi-tenant solutions that offer the option to isolate your data from other organizations’ data as an added layer of protection. This way, third parties using the same SaaS provider should have access only to their partitioned area within the provider’s cloud.”

VMware also announced the general availability of vRealize AI Cloud, an intelligent, self-optimizing service for software-defined infrastructure. The company has launched the first version of vRealize AI Cloud for vSAN optimization to help customers attain consistent and optimal performance of their mixed application workloads.

The company also launched VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.0 (on-premises) and VMware vRealize Network Insight Cloud 6.0.0 (SaaS) for the Virtual Cloud Network. The new launches will advance the visibility and analytics for NSX-T, VMware SD-WAN, VMware Cloud on AWS, and other software-defined infrastructure aspects. Also, the newly launched vRealize Network Insight 6.0 will support network assurance and verification capabilities for network intended goals.

VMware also announced the integration of VMware Skyline with vRealize Operations CloudOpens a new window . The integration will enable customers to manage their hybrid cloud environments seamlessly. VMware Skyline is included in vRealize Cloud Universal subscription and Success 360 and is included with production and premier support subscriptions. All Skyline customers are eligible for a free 30-day trial of vRealize Operations Cloud.

Furthermore, VMware CloudHealth now supports Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Opens a new window (OCI) for customers to view public cloud costs from a single platform. The new offering will enable customers to gain better visibility into cloud usage and spending, track their OCI budgets, and organize expenses for cost reporting and show back.

Jason Wilbur, director of product management, Oracle, saidOpens a new window , “Oracle shares CloudHealth’s commitment to providing customers cost and resource usage visibility across all environments. We’re confident our partnership will help Oracle’s customers grow and optimize their usage of OCI services.”

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10. Launch of VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery

VMware unveiled VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery, an on-demand, easy to use disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) offering to protect on-premises vSphere workloads onto VMware Cloud on AWS. It combines cloud storage with SaaS-based management for IT resiliency at scale and offers a pay-when-you-need-failover capacity model for disaster recovery resources.

Mark Chuang, VP, product management at VMware, saidOpens a new window , “Based on technology from VMware’s recent acquisition of Datrium, it will enable IT and business continuity teams to resume critical business operations after a disaster event.”

11. VMware Cloud Partner Navigator Launched

VMware announced VMware Cloud Partner Navigator, a unified partner platform to expand business opportunities in a multi-cloud environment. With Cloud Partner Navigator, partners can simplify multi-cloud operations by centralizing management, standardizing automation, and streamlining routine back-office operations.

VMworld 2020 took off with cloud services, security, and edge computing announcements. With a slate of announcements, VMware plans to accelerate customer’s cloud journey with advanced technologies and innovations. The next two days of the event will involve expert roundtables, guided workshops, and VMware demo zone and sponsor demo zone. 

Which VMworld 2020 announcement did you think was the most exciting one? Comment below or let us know on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!