By Jim Lundy
This week, we’re attending VMworld in Las Vegas and yesterday, VMware made a series of announcements that are designed to make it easier for enterprises to leverage Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds. VMware is positioning Cloud Foundation and Cloud Connections as a new Cloud Architecture. This blog discusses some of the announcements VMware made, including their partnership with IBM.
VMware Cloud Foundation and IBM
Cloud Foundation bundles many of the existing VMware offerings and allows customers to move workloads to Mega Clouds easier than in the past. IBM is the current Mega Cloud provider that VMware Cloud Foundation supports. IBM SVP Robert LeBlanc was onstage with VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger and provided a strong endorsement when they indicated that over 500 customers are using VMWare running on IBM Cloud.
VMware indicated that Cloud Foundation Support for other Mega Cloud providers, Amazon and Microsoft Azure, would be coming later this year. There was no mention of support for Google Cloud.
Cross Cloud Connections: A Work in Process
VMware also announced Cross Cloud Connections, which is a set of SaaS Services for managing applications in multiple clouds. Key capabilities include:
- Discovery and Analytics: discovery, onboarding, and management of public cloud applications
- Compliance and Security: provide security and compliance for applications across clouds using micro-segmentation and monitoring
- Deployment and Migration: providing developers the ability to work cross-cloud, and IT the ability to manage cross-cloud applications with security and compliance
Cross Cloud Connections is still a work in process. VMware indicated privately that many current VCloud Air customers would become beta testers for Cross Cloud Connections. Our take is that VMware needs to move faster in this area, given how fast the Cloud market is evolving.
Michael Dell Endorsement
Michael Dell appeared at VMworld both in public and in private analyst sessions. Publicly, he endorsed VMware and called them “Critical to Dell.” This is partly because Dell is divesting Dell Software Group as part of its move to buy EMC (which owns VMware).
Summary
On Day 1 of VMworld, VMware gave a clearer story of where they fit in the shift to Cloud. VMware needs to be part of the Cloud Conversations that are going on and with this updated approach, they have the opportunity as part of Dell Technologies to be a bigger player in Cloud.