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What You Missed: VMware Explore 2022

Michael Colonno
What You Missed: VMware Explore 2022

We are fresh off of our latest trip to San Francisco for VMware Explore 2022!

VMware is one of those technologies that brings up stories in your mind. Where did it begin, when did you first use it, and what’s the first version you used. Many people in IT predate VMware being released but it is one of those technologies that changed everything.

VMware has started a new program for customers to earn points, if you want to earn credit for attending the conference here is the link:

VMware Explore: How We’re Welcoming Back VMworld Alumni – VMware Explore Blog

Let me also shout out and send a huge thank you to the VMUG community! They had a very strong presence at Explore, with a booth, sessions, and an event to attend. If you work with or around VMware, VMUG is a must join.

The VMware C suite has renamed and refocused terms we all know; Hybrid Cloud has been replaced by Multi Cloud and the term cloud adoption has switched to Cloud Smart.

Operating models are being thrown at people whether they want it or not. APEX, Greenlake, and ‘+’, oh my. VMware has vSphere+ , vSAN+ and announced VCF+. Every company is going in aggressively on subscriptions and consumption-based pricing.

My question to you, the person reading this, is that something you want?

We here at CDI have seen a lot of interest with certain companies but it’s not as widely adopted as the vendor marketing would make you think.

Modern Applications / Multicloud Announcements

  • Tanzu Mission Control is gaining additional features such as lifecycle management for EKS
  • Welcome, Aria
    • Fun fact, Broadcom already has an Aria product under the CA banner. Aria is a full Multi Cloud Management platform integrating Cloud Health functionality. Centralize configuration, delivery, and costing. It will also be unifying vrealize, CloudHeath and Tanzu Observability under one portfolio. CloudHealth if you are not familiar is a MUST have for anyone using Public cloud. How do you keep your costs in check? CloudHealth
  • Project Northstar – NSX SaaS with Managers in the cloud
  • Tanzu Application Platform – TAP 1.3 – This platform is a tool kit for developers which allows them to build and deploy software faster. Since it’s modular you can use what you want allowing developers to have a better overall experience. Two of the enhancements include; more security via vulnerability scanning and Dynamic API discovery.

Datacenter folks you weren’t forgotten about with the announcements but you are now the Edge.

VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery (VCDR) – this is one of the few components from Datrium that has been rolled out and is still being enhanced. Customers first started looked at Cloud for a possible disaster recovery location due to not wanting to maintain two full sites of hardware. The main issue was failback, once that was solved the issue became maintaining “Cloud” hardware to fail to, because it’s always running and isn’t “owned”. VCDR solves that by intelligently staging data. Now, this is not new. What is new is some very impressive new security features around ransomware. Yes, I said it – ransomware – the term flooded in every talk and deck. Air-gapped Immutable restore points (snapshots) is already a feature. New features include:

    • On-demand IRE and VM network isolation
    • Ransomware recovery workflows
    • Next-Gen AV + Behavioral Analysis
    • Guided restore point selection

 

vSphere8

  • DPU (Project Monterey) – with these units, you can offload things that would normally function in Kernel, which means CPU overhead. CPU you might need for your important workloads. Though not mentioned, these are solely provided via NVIDIA.
  • SmartNic’s Pensando – I’m sure Broadcom will be sure to follow. This will allow NSX to be aware.
  • Cleaner Tanzu runtime
  • Improved LCM

 

vSAN8

This is HUGE!! The removal of the cache tier of vSAN makes the data path on par with their biggest ‘functional competition’ Nutanix and PowerFlex.

Before you get too excited, for now this will only be approved for greenfield Clusters with a limited Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). I am one of the HCI specialists, so I have to focus on this a little bit more than some of the other sections.

The new Log Structure doesn’t just track meta data better, but also allows for Erasure coding to be as performant as a RAID 1. The Erasure coding is also adaptable based on the number of nodes you have operational, allowing for better resiliency and space efficiency. There are many other interesting advancements I encourage you to read more or reach out to us at CDI. (a few examples below)

Edge Compute Stack

This stack is geared toward retailers, manufacturing, and other smaller sites. This runs a product called ESXi-RT (real-time), which is able to run both VM’s and containers. It is also unique, as it is able to run the SD-WAN and VMware Security products, as well.

 

Summary

As you can see, there were some great announcements and were additional items not captured above.

We all have to wait and see how Broadcom will change the business, as well as focus on technology. I attended several NDA meetings and I can tell you the preconceived notions people have for their ‘playbook’ is not what is going to be executed at VMware.

What is bad timing, however, is the price changes and subscription push because people are looking for a reason to be scared. VMware’s conference closes out the year for major conferences that CDI attends. It was a great year of learning, forging new relationships, and good times!

Michael Colonno

Michael Colonno, AVP, Solutions Architects, CDI

Michael Colonno, AVP, Solutions Architects, is an information technology expert focused on data center and cloud solutions. In his current role, Michael is responsible for providing technical guidance to CDI’s customers, collaborating with account managers, other architects, vendors, and implementation engineers to develop and recommend business continuity and workflow strategies. He excels at providing an architectural perspective based on the industry’s best practices, while acting as a knowledgeable consultant for customers and other CDI team members. Michael is highly-trained in today’s leading technologies with certifications including a double VCP in server and NSX, CCNP data center, and holds many other product specific certifications for design as well as implementation. He holds a BA in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University and in his spare time enjoys weightlifting and spending time with his wife and young son, Jackson.