VMworld 2018: IoT, Multi-Cloud, and Blockchain

by Jim Lundy

I attended this year’s VMware VMworld customer conference in Las Vegas and CEO Pat Gelsinger left no stone unturned in VMware‘s quest to be the platform to manage multiple clouds. This blog summarizes a few of the key highlights I experienced at VMworld 2018.

Multi-Cloud: May the Force Be with You

While VMware has been on the cloud path for the last three years, this year, they doubled down. VMware supports the management of cloud workloads on Amazon, Google, IBM, and Microsoft. The big news this year is that VMware will support Amazon’s database, RDS, on private clouds. This seems to be a big deal for Amazon and less fortunate news for Oracle.

In addition to announcing that they are buying cloud management provider Cloudhealth, VMware threw down a gauntlet of new product announcements. These included VMware Cloud Assembly, VMware Service Broker, and VMware Code Stream. In addition, they announced VMware Secure State, a new cloud configuration security and compliance service, and a number of enhancements to VMware Wavefront.

IoT or Bust

VMware also announced that its Pulse IoT Center 2.0, which is VMware’s IoT infrastructure management solution, will offer updated capabilities designed to provide better management, more intelligent capabilities, and better security. To us, there is a clear intersection between IoT management and all of the things the end user computing group is doing.

End User Computing: Automating Windows Updates

The end user computing group at VMware was not to be outdone. They showcased a number of innovations that enable more automatic update management for Windows, MacOS, and mobile devices.

The focus, however, was on Windows 10. While Microsoft is still better at managing Windows server devices, VMware is now one of the de facto services for managing and securing nearly any end user computer device.

Blockchain: Hyping the Future with Project Concord

VMware doesn’t want to be left out of the blockchain technology race by major tech providers—Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM—that also happen to be major VMware partners.  VMware is calling Project Concord a “decentralized trust infrastructure for digital consensus and smart contract execution.”

Besides a blog, VMware trotted out its blockchain story, which is currently led by a research team; it is not a product offering, but it is available to preview as an open-source project. VMware has a ways to go to match its partners in blockchain. While positive, Aragon’s take is that they would be better off to partner on blockchain than to approach it alone.

Overall, VMworld was a huge hit this year. VMware is on its game with a strong portfolio and the support of its customer base for the multi-cloud game. On top of that, its end user computing group hit the ball out of the park with its move to an automated management platform for multiple operating systems. Loyal VMware customers have stayed with VMware through a lot of change. Now, as cloud becomes more dominant, VMware is a go-to option for managing single and multiple cloud deployments.