US software company VMware has unveiled a series of new services, collaborations and acquisitions from its annual VMworld 2020 event. Here are the top five announcements.

1. VMware and NVIDIA look to bring AI to every enterprise

VMware and NVIDIA are teaming up to unleash AI in ‘every enterprise in the world’, targeting data centers, cloud, and edge systems.

“We are partnering with NVIDIA to bring AI to every enterprise. A true democratisation of one of the most powerful technologies,” said Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of VMware.

AI software on NVIDIA’s GPU Cloud will be integrated into its other software applications, including VMware Vsphere, VMware Tanzu, and virtual machines and hybrid clouds on VMware Cloud Foundation.

“AI and machine learning have quickly expanded from research labs to data centers in companies across virtually every industry and geography,” said Jensen Huang, the Founder and CEO of NVIDIA.

By uniting accelerated computing powered by NVIDIA’s solutions and virtualisation from VMware, users will be able to run data analytics and machine learning workloads in containers or virtual machines. 

2. Arrival of Azure VMware Solution

In May, Microsoft previewed Azure VMware Solution, a brand new cloud-based business management solution that allows for increased stability, continuity, and resiliency. Now, Azure VMware Solution is commercially available.

Following this announcement, VMware will also make its services available on every major public cloud, including AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud. 

“The goal of Azure VMware Solution has always been to deliver the best, most secure, most functional cloud of choice for our customers. As a first-party Microsoft Azure service, built in partnership with VMware, we bring the best of both platforms together to deliver a high quality, integrated solution,” wrote Eric Lockard, the Vice President of Azure Dedicated at Microsoft.

Microsoft and VMware engineering teams worked closely together to deliver new functionality to run familiar VMware Cloud Foundation technology, including vSphere, HCX, NSX-T, and vSAN.

3. Enhanced Security with VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload

VMware unveiled VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload, a new security solution designed to reduce cyberattacks and strengthen overall security posture.

“Amid global disruption, the key to survival for many companies has meant an accelerated shift to the cloud and ultimately, bolting on security products in their data centers,” said Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer of VMware’s Customer Operations.

Carbon Black Cloud will be integrated with VMWare’s vSphere application. As workload security is incredibly complex in a hybrid data center environment, this integration offers three main benefits to its users.

First, Carbon Black Cloud utilises the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) to prioritise and zoom in on attacks in a management system. 

Next, Carbon Black Cloud combines industry-leading next-generation antivirus technology (NGAV), workload behavioral monitoring, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) for workloads in the detection of threats. This results in better protection in data center environments. 

Carbon Black Cloud also consolidates and simplifies IT and security stack operations, allowing for greater organisation and higher efficiency. 

“Legacy security systems are no longer sufficient for organizations that are using the cloud as part of their computing infrastructure. It’s time to rethink security for the cloud, organizations need protection at the workload level, not just at the endpoint. The future of cloud must be met with a better way to secure data and applications,” added Mr. Poonen.

Carbon Black Cloud is expected to be available in November 2020. 

4. Project Monterey

VMware announced Project Monterey, an initiative that aims to enhance the performance and reliability of next-generation technology.

Existing challenges in AI, machine learning, 5G, multi-cloud, and hybrid cloud technologies will be addressed by leveraging VMware’s smart network interface controller (SmartNIC), a new technology that offloads the CPU’s processing tasks. SmartNIC will also perform platform re-architecturing and security enhancement tasks.

“Organizations are introducing increasingly sophisticated applications from cloud-native to machine learning to streaming apps that are distributed and data intensive,” said Rajiv Ramaswami, VMware’s Chief Operating Officer of Products and Cloud Services.

Project Monterey will aim to help customers address the shifting requirements of next-gen apps. By re-imagining the architecture of the data center, cloud and edge, VMware expects to offer customers the freedom to run these apps in the best environment.

VMware is also collaborating with Intel, NVIDIA, Pensando, Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Lenovo as part of this project.

5. Acquisition of SaltStack 

VMware revealed its plan to acquire SaltStack, an open-source software that provides event-driven automation and configuration management.

VMware intends to leverage SaltStack’s cross-cloud orchestration and advanced configuration management technologies to allow for a more seamless cloud migration and onboarding experience.

“Once closed, SaltStack will help us to complete our automation story, enabling us to extend our automation capabilities beyond infrastructure to the entire application stack,” wrote Ajay Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VMware’s Cloud Management Business Unit.

VMware HCX and VMware Realise applications allow customers to mass migrate workloads and automate infrastructure in a short amount of time, and VMware intends to further improve the speed and quality of said functions.

“SaltStack offers robust configuration compliance and vulnerability management capabilities, which will enable VMware vRealize to help customers address their SecOps practices, after close.”

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