VMware fast-tracks innovation and digital transformation

Sanjay Poonen, COO, VMware, introduces VMware as a trusted digital foundation featuring five key franchises.

VMware has delivered new solutions and services at VMworld 2020 to help customers survive and thrive in the most turbulent market in generations. The company said that it is now "more than infrastructure", with shaping the future of digital as its No. 1 priority.

Key announcement highlights at VMworld include:

VMware delivers intrinsic security to the world’s digital infrastructure

New solutions will advance security for public and private clouds, security operations and distributed workforces as organisations accelerate cloud adoption to build resilient, future-ready digital infrastructure. Specifically, VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload delivers advanced protection purpose-built for securing modern workloads to reduce the attack surface and strengthen security posture. This innovative solution combines prioritised vulnerability reporting and foundational workload hardening with industry-leading prevention, detection, and response capabilities to protect workloads running in virtualised, private and hybrid cloud environments.

VMware announces future ready workforce solutions

VMware has announced VMware Future Ready Workforce solutions to provide exceptional workforce experiences, end-to-end Zero Trust security controls, and simplified management. The Future Ready Workforce solutions combine VMware Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Digital Workspace and Endpoint Security capabilities to help IT manage and optimise more secure access to any app, on any cloud, from any device while providing a simple, high-performant, and a safer user experience for the distributed workforce.

VMware empowers customers to build multicloud futures

VMware has announced new innovations to help customers build, run, manage, connect, and protect any app on any cloud. With these new and updated offerings, customers and partners can unlock multicloud’s full potential value by providing more developer freedom while providing IT with consistent and efficient security and operations. The company also announced its intent to acquire SaltStack, a pioneer in building intelligent, event-driven automation software. Following the close of the acquisition, SaltStack will enable VMware to significantly broaden its software configuration management and infrastructure and network automation capabilities.

VMware expands Tanzu portfolio and partnerships

VMware Tanzu celebrates a year of achievements with Tanzu support for VMware Cloud on AWS, Azure VMware Solution, and Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. Tanzu is also partnering with GitLab. Introduced at VMworld 2019 US, VMware Tanzu is a portfolio of products and services for modernising applications and infrastructure with a common goal: to deliver better software to production, continuously. Over the last year, VMware has grown the Tanzu portfolio, expanded its partner ecosystem, and added new customers.

Re-imagining hybrid cloud architecture

Project Monterey has launched. This technology preview is focused on evolving VMware's architecture for the data centre, cloud, and edge to address the changing requirements of next-generation applications including AI, machine learning and 5G applications. VMware is collaborating with ecosystem partners to deliver solutions based on Project Monterey, including with Intel, NVIDIA and Pensando Systems as well as the system companies Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Lenovo.

The initiative extends VMware Cloud Foundation to support SmartNIC technology for increased performance, distributed security and consistent operations for all applications. Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo will deliver solutions based on Project Monterey Using SmartNICs from Intel, NVIDIA, and Pensando Systems.

VMware delivers the next wave of Virtual Cloud Network innovation

New VMware Virtual Cloud Network innovations will help customers create a modern network that better supports current and future business initiatives. With advancements across the VMware networking and security portfolio, customers will be able to more effectively manage the rapid shift to remote work, deliver traditional and modern applications faster and more securely, and reduce the cost and complexity of connecting and protecting the distributed enterprise. VMware is delivering new Virtual Cloud Network innovations across three areas — automation that enables the public cloud experience; modern application connectivity and security services; and solutions that re-imagine what’s possible in network security.

VMware and NVIDIA to enable next-gen hybrid cloud architecture and bring AI to every enterprise

The two companies have announced a partnership to deliver both an end-to-end enterprise platform for AI and a new architecture for data centre, cloud and edge that uses NVIDIA data processing units (DPUs) to support existing and next-generation applications. Through this collaboration, the AI software available on the NVIDIA NGC hub will be integrated into VMware vSphere, VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Tanzu.

This will help accelerate AI adoption, enabling enterprises to extend existing infrastructure for AI, manage all applications with a single set of operations, and deploy AI-ready infrastructure where the data resides, across the data centre, cloud, and edge. Some 300,000-plus VMware customers stand to benefit from the unified management of NVIDIA AI software and can tap into the capabilities of the NVIDIA BlueField-2 DPU.

Lumen teams with VMware to expand edge compute capabilities

Lumen Technologies and VMware are collaborating on edge compute, networking, and security. This collaboration will help enterprises expand across the data centre, cloud, and edge, moving business applications that require low latency and efficient localisation closer to digital interactions.

VMware’s cloud, app modernisation, networking, security, and digital workspace platforms form a flexible, consistent digital foundation on which to build, run, manage, connect and protect applications, anywhere. In 2019, the company expanded capabilities in application development and application modernisation with the addition of Pivotal and boosted its security portfolio with the addition of Carbon Black. In 2020, VMware's focus is on innovating and executing across its five key franchise platforms of app modernisation, multicloud, networking, digital workspace, and intrinsic security, and leading in key areas that are critical to its customers’ success.