VMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software, has unveiled its Virtual Cloud Network, which will enable organizations to create a digital business fabric for connecting and securing applications and users across the entire network.

VMware, a leading innovator in enterprise software, has unveiled its Virtual Cloud Network, which will enable organizations to create a digital business fabric for connecting and securing applications, data, and users across the entire network in a hyper-distributed world.

To deliver on this vision, VMware announced the VMware NSX networking and security portfolio to enable consistent, pervasive connectivity and security for apps and data across software-defined data center, branch, cloud, and telco environments. Global leaders in digital transformation and technology innovation demonstrated support for VMware’s vision and NSX portfolio launch (see below).

The NSX portfolio includes investments of resources to deliver new capabilities that include:

•    VMware NSX SD-WAN integration with VMware NSX Data Center and VMware NSX Cloud
•    NSX Cloud support for applications running in Microsoft Azure
•    NSX Data Center support for containerized cloud-native and bare metal applications
•    Telco/NFV and networking performance optimizations for distributed workloads in NSX Data Center

“The future of networking is software, and the network of the future is the Virtual Cloud Network,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, chief operating officer, products and cloud services, VMware.

“VMware is helping customers today to build tomorrow’s software-defined Virtual Cloud Networks to connect and secure apps and users. And with the new NSX networking and security portfolio, we are helping customers build a Virtual Cloud Network today through a software-based digital business fabric that is flexible, programmable and inherently more secure.”

“As enterprises choose to run more applications in public clouds, the parameters of the datacenter are being redrawn. In practical terms, the datacenter – where applications and data reside – is no longer exclusively an on-premises entity,” said Brad Casemore, IDC's Research vice president, Datacenter Networks, IDC.

“It’s now inherently distributed, and that means the networks that support and deliver increasingly critical applications must be similarly transformed. With its vision for the Virtual Cloud Network, VMware is responding to the growing enterprise need for consistent network and security policy that supports applications regardless of where they reside and irrespective of the infrastructure on which they run and the transports that they use.”

Organizations are embarking on digital transformation to create better experiences for customers, clients, and employees, and drive better business outcomes. These efforts introduce a new level of networking and security complexity as organizations move from centralized data centers, to hyper distributed applications and centers of data at the edge.

The Virtual Cloud Network will enable businesses to connect, better secure, and optimize the delivery of applications and data in an era when a majority of workloads exist outside the data center. With a Virtual Cloud Network, customers will be able to create an end-to-end software-based network architecture that can deliver services to applications and data, wherever they are located.

The Virtual Cloud Network will operate at global scale from edge to edge, and deliver consistent, pervasive connectivity and security for apps and data independent of underlying physical infrastructure or location. The Virtual Cloud Network will enable organizations to streamline the journey to digital business, and take full advantage of digital transformation, by unlocking value from today’s current networking technologies and significantly reducing network complexity.

VMware Advances Business Transformation with Networking and Security in Software
The VMware NSX networking and security portfolio provides a common operating environment to connect, secure and operate a Virtual Cloud Network. The portfolio will include new and enhanced capabilities for data center, branch, cloud and telco environments, and will advance support for traditional and modern application frameworks. With the VMware NSX portfolio, customers will be able to manage consistent networking and security across private data centers, AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud.

•    Network Virtualization: VMware NSX Data Center is the industry’s most widely deployed network virtualization platform for the enterprise data center, adopted by more than 4,500 customers globally. NSX Data Center enables customers to design, build, and operate next-generation policy driven data centers that connect, secure, and automate traditional and modern applications, and help protect applications and data through security that is an intrinsic part of the infrastructure.

With the latest update, NSX Data Center will include new container and bare metal capabilities that will be able to provide consistent networking services to all applications and deployment models. Container integration rapid-releases will enable global security and more to new app platforms (e.g. PKS). VMware is also adding new accelerated performance optimizations for distributed workloads, which will better support telco/network functions virtualization environments.

•    Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN): VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud is the industry-leading SD-WAN solution that combines the economics and flexibility of the best real-time network overlay with the deployment speed, scale and automation of cloud-delivered services. With NSX SD-WAN, customers can deliver better cloud and application performance with full visibility, metrics, control, and automation of all device and user endpoints, with lower overall costs. NSX SD-WAN integrates with NSX Data Center and NSX Cloud, enabling customers to extend consistent networking and security policies from the data center to the branch to the cloud, while providing operational visibility and control end-to-end. NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud provides an extensible platform for enterprises and telcos to integrate both on-premises and cloud services under the same consistent business policy framework. NSX SD-WAN is available to customers in three ways. Customers can purchase NSXSD-WAN as a service from VMware, or from more than 60 communication service providers worldwide. NSX SD-WAN is also available as an on-premises deployable solution. More than 2,000 customers have adopted NSX SD-WAN to date.

•    Multi-Cloud Networking: VMware NSX Cloud provides consistent networking and security for applications running in both private VMware-based data centers and natively in public clouds. NSX Cloud addresses operational challenges inherent with using multiple public clouds, such as inconsistent policies and constructs across clouds; manual operations requiring policy for each cloud, region, and VPC: limited operational visibility into East-West traffic; and operations tools that are specific to each public cloud.

With the latest release of NSX Cloud, VMware will add new native controls for customers that are using Microsoft Azure as part of their multi-cloud strategy.

•    Hybrid Cloud Connectivity: VMware NSX Hybrid Connect enables customers to solve one of the biggest challenges with hybrid cloud– consistent networking. VMware NSX Hybrid Connect enables customers to create a consistent, highly performant, and more secure software fabric that interconnects data centers and clouds while maintaining the same governance and control. With NSX Hybrid Connect, customers can seamlessly migrate workloads from any VMware environment to a modern software-defined data center environment running anywhere—on-premises, in the public cloud, or operated by a VMware Cloud Provider partner.

Network operations, management and visibility

VMware enables customers to create a complete closed loop, intent-based system that delivers performance feedback through operational automation with 360-degree visibility, and fast remediation capabilities through proactive and predictive analytics. VMware vRealize Network Insight provides customers full visibility of all components within deployed services across private and public clouds, and virtual and physical environments. The VMware vRealize Suite enables customers to achieve continuous, near real-time data on the health, performance, capacity of network resources, along with prioritized alert notifications for closed-loop integration into resource and service orchestration workflows.

VMware has also announced that Tom Gillis, currently the CEO and co-founder of Bracket Computing, will be joining the company as senior vice president and general manager of the Networking and Security Business Unit, effective May 14.

Gillis’ background gives him a keen understanding about the direction of cloud, security, and enterprise computing, making him an ideal leader to drive VMware’s networking and security strategy. Prior to Bracket, Gillis was vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Security Technology Group, leading business units responsible for Cisco’s entire Network and Content Security product portfolio. – TradeArabia News Service