We're discussing the innovations presented at the conference (we're also broadcasting in our ).
Revolutionary networking solutions
One of the key themes on the second day of the conference was intelligent traffic routing.
Global Wide Area Networks (WAN) are quite unstable. Users often connect to corporate IT infrastructure from mobile devices via public hotspots, which poses certain security risks. Therefore, companies are forced to implement additional security measures: redundancy, load balancing, encryption. Software-defined networking helps to address these challenges.
One of the most significant events of the day was the overview of the SD-WAN networking solution from VeloCloud. VeloCloud is a provider of cloud-based software-defined distributed networks, acquired by VMware . The organization offers a customizable solution that automatically routes, encapsulates, monitors, and limits traffic.
The system includes a software platform and devices installed at the perimeter of the corporate network (in company branches, data centers, etc.). In the latter case, we are talking about the VeloCloud Edge hardware. They allow for building tunnels of various types: Branch-to-Branch, Branch to SaaS, Branch to DC, and there is also support for legacy networks through IPsec.
The system analyzes the type of transmitted packets and the performance of network channels. Based on this data, the most suitable channel is dynamically selected or a decision is made to aggregate several of them. In VeloCloud SD-WAN, the management and transmission layers are separated, which are responsible for the logic of network devices and traffic translation. This approach makes the network more efficient and flexible.
"Forget about jitter β it will no longer exist," β Guido Roberto Frabotti, lead engineer of the SD-WAN division at VMware
The capabilities of SD-WAN by VeloCloud are impressive β during tests, the system reduced the average ping by three times and resolved packet loss issues during UDP connections over LTE. VMware representatives claim that one can now forget about defects in voice and video communication if at least one channel (LTE or Fiber Channel) has sufficient bandwidth.
The solution's performance in production environments has already been evaluated by large organizations. For example, in February of this year, the SD-WAN by VeloCloud system was implemented at the Singaporean telecommunications company SP Telecom. It successfully routes traffic in a network connected to more than one hundred data centers and commercial buildings, linked by a million kilometers of fiber optic cable. Among the users of SD-WAN are also , and .
Keeping a finger on the pulse of IoT
The company is actively entering the growing segment of corporate IoT. In this area, VMware sets the following goals:
- Simplify the management of individual smart devices and their clusters through centralized administration, customizable templates, and detailed, timely notifications of failures (among other things).
- Enhance the security of the IoT infrastructure, especially at critically important corporate sites. As examples, speakers cited VMware's experience with railway companies and healthcare institutions.
- Allow partner companies to implement a flexible and scalable infrastructure without the need to attract specialized administrators.
- Implement native integration with cloud environments of various types.
The company aims to achieve all these objectives with its IoT infrastructure management platform β Pulse 2.0. This solution is designed for monitoring, administration, and protection of Internet of Things devices. The goal of Pulse is to simplify the management of large-scale IoT infrastructure through RESTful API and more advanced over-the-air update procedures.
"It is capable of supporting the operation of 100 million smart devices"
The demonstration of the product's capabilities impressed us. Representatives of the IT giant clearly showed that the setup and mass updating of smart devices can now be done in just a couple of clicks.
Once again, machine learning
Like in , machine learning has become a hot topic. VMware announced that they are doubling their investments in ML technologies every year. Intelligent algorithms are already handling a number of routine operations in products like vSAN, NSX-T, vRealize Operations & Log Insight, Wavefront Analytics, Apteligent, and Skyline.
"AI systems analyze logs and infrastructure performance, provide reports and recommendations to administrators, balance server loads, and even partially automate technical support"
Automating data center operations is one of VMware's top priorities. Company representatives believe that a 'live' administrator should focus only on defining data center operation policies, while their implementation should rest entirely on the shoulders of artificial intelligence systems. In particular, VMware plans to implement a smart firewall that will take on many tasks of regular network administrators.
The second day of the VMware EMPOWER 2019 conference was just as eventful as the first. We will continue to share the latest technology updates from the IT giant on our blog on Habr and in , where we are broadcasting live from the event.
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Source: habr.com
