β¦ But, of course, this is not all that we remember the largest IT conference of the year. Those who follow our social media will probably know that throughout the event we covered key points and interviewed VMware experts. Under the cut is a short list of the most notable VMworld 2020 announcements.
Year of change
It is unlikely that at least one speaker ignored the complexity and unusualness of the outgoing year. Many of the presentations focused on health topics, including the development of a vaccine for COVID-19, safety, remote work and education. The speakers emphasized that in the modern world saturated with technologies, it is IT that allows you to save the accumulated experience and move forward.
Chris Wolf, Vice President of VMware, has redefined the term "endurance" in relation to the business community: now it is not just the ability to cope with increased workloads, but also the ability to adapt to changing conditions while maintaining its integrity. The motto of VMworld 2020 is βTogether, Anything is Possibleβ when we are together.
So, it was technology that made it possible to hold the largest IT event online. More than 900 sessions, dozens of announcements, hundreds of speakers and even a mini-performance with the participation of a Hollywood star. Let's figure it out in order.
Security and networks
This year, the topic of online security has become one of the central topics for the company. Even aside from the huge increase in streaming traffic caused by the pandemic, the amount of data, applications and remote workers in large organizations still exceeds all expected figures. Detailed talk about security - .
VMware SASE Platform
The first product we'll talk about today is the VMware SASE Platform. The task of the solution is to provide employees of companies with network security tools anywhere, wherever they are. VMware SASE Platform is based on VMware SD-WAN, an array of over 2700 cloud nodes at 130 entry points.
VMware SASE Platform is based on the following components and principles:
-
VMware SD-WAN directly.
-
Cloud Access Service Broker (CASB), Secure Web Gateway (SWG), and remote browser isolation.
-
VMware NSX Stateful Layer 7 Firewall.
-
Zero Trust security concept - at the forefront is the identification of the end user and his devices at each connection.
-
Edge Network Intelligence - Machine learning is used for predictive analysis and security for both end users and IoT devices.
Along with the VMware SASE Platform, it's worth talking about the company's other innovations.
VMware Workspace Security Remote
It is an integrated solution for security, administration and remote IT support of end devices. Includes antivirus protection, auditing and troubleshooting, as well as Carbon Black Workload functionality for detecting and responding to threats.
VMware NSX Advanced Threat Prevention
Firewall to protect east-west traffic in multi-cloud environments based on machine learning. Serves to recognize threats and reduce the number of false positives.
Several new solutions from the "network portfolio" of VMware were also announced:
-
VMware Container Networking with Antrea is a product for managing container networking in a virtual environment.
-
NSX-T 3.1 - API-based routing enhancements, automated process deployment with Terraform Provider.
-
VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.0 - Validates and controls network quality based on network performance model.
VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload
The solution was announced as a "planned technology" last year. Its task is to ensure the security of virtual machines on vSphere.
In addition, VMware vCenter will now have built-in risk visualization tools similar to those already in Carbon Black Cloud.
The company also plans to introduce a separate Carbon Black Cloud module to secure Kubernetes workloads.
VMware Workspace Security VDI
VMware Workspace ONE Horizon and VMware Carbon Black Cloud are integrated into a single solution. The solution uses behavioral analysis to protect against ransomware and fileless malware. In VMware vSphere, it is available through VMware Tools. There is no longer a need to install and configure security agents separately.
Priorities in multicloud
Multi-cloud is one of the key vectors of VMware. However, many companies find it difficult to move even to one cloud. Difficulties arise with issues of security and connectivity of various disparate solutions. It is natural that businesses are afraid of the appearance of such chaos in several cloud environments at once. VMware's multicloud strategy is designed to help customers address the challenges of unifying tools and processes.
Azure VMware Solution
The company has already made a significant footprint in major public clouds such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud.
Azure VMware Solution will enable businesses to save money through hybrid use of Azure, integration with Microsoft Office 365 and other native Azure services.
VMware Cloud on AWS
New features also appeared in VMware Cloud on AWS. Among them:
-
VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery.
-
Support for VMware Tanzu.
-
VMware Transit Connect.
-
Automation Improvements: Expanded support for vRealize Operations, Cloud Automation, Orchestrator, Log Insight and Network Insight support.
-
Advanced HCX features: vMotion with replication support, local routing for migrated VMs, and grouping migration.
Project Monterey
Without a doubt, this is one of the most interesting VMware projects announced at VMworld 2020. In fact, Project Monterey is a logical continuation of Project Pacific technology for VMware Cloud Foundation infrastructure, only now with a focus on hardware.
The mission of the project is to refactor and redesign the VCF architecture to integrate new hardware and software features. It is reported that thanks to SmartNIC VCF will be able to support the execution of programs and operating systems without a hypervisor, that is, on "pure" hardware. We highlight the following main points:
-
Increase throughput and reduce latency by moving complex network functions to the "iron" level.
-
Unified operations for all types of software, including bare-metal OS.
-
The ability to isolate applications without compromising their performance through the use of the Zero-trust security model.
If you are interested in the project, we recommend reading (in English).
VMware vRealize AI
Back in 2018, Project Magna was introduced to the community. At the last conference, the main functionality of the project became available as VMware vRealize AI. The solution uses reinforcement learning to self-tune application performance. Read/write cache optimization in vSAN environments with vRealize AI resulted in a 50% improvement in read/write I/O performance.
Inside the Tanzu Portfolio
We are done with the "serious" news, and we are moving on to entertainment content. As part of the Inside the Tanzu Portfolio session, a short "romantic comedy" was shown, which included footage with actress Renee Zellweger. VMware experts decided that the game format would demonstrate the new features of Tanzu and entertain viewers who connected to the conference online. Of course, this broadcast should not be taken 100% seriously - this is not academic material, but a simple explanation of the portfolio of solutions that make up Tanzu.
In short, Tanzu is a new brand with a suite of developer software under its hood designed to make life easier for developers at all stages of the application lifecycle. In particular, Tanzu products address the key issues of application building, management, security, fault tolerance, and are centered around working with Kubernetes containers. We recommend the broadcast for viewing by product specialists and managers of companies.
Virtual Data Therapy
Commvault, a gold partner of VMware, showed a semi-serious video about data protection under the slogan Don't let your data go to the dogs - "Don't let your data go down the drain."
It is noteworthy that after the broadcast of the main video material, a live chat was opened with representatives of the Puppy Love team, a company that transfers rescued dogs to good hands. During the session, almost any viewer from the USA could not only ask technical questions of interest, but also get a four-legged friend.
What is the result?
VMworld 2020 is, without exaggeration, a landmark event in the technology arena. If it did not take place, it would mean that our world began to have really hard days. But, as Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, optimistically states, the game continues. New challenges spur us on to create new ways to deal with them. Life goes on as usual - the pandemic will gradually recede, and the baggage of knowledge and experience accumulated over the months of isolation will remain with us and serve as a reliable tool for creating something new, cool and interesting.
What do you remember most from the last conference? Share your opinion in the comments.
By tradition, we say: stay in touch and be sure to listen to the episodes of our podcast βIaaS without embellishmentβ dedicated to VMworld 2020. , ΠΈ available:
-
VMworld 2020: General session, multiclouds and VMware strategy
-
VMworld 2020: Security Strategy, SD-WAN, SASE, and the Future of Networking
-
VMworld 2020: Kubernetes, Tanzu Portfolio and what's new in vSphere 7
Source: habr.com