15 Hot Products From VMware Explore 2022
AWS, Intel and Aisera were among the companies to showcase new offerings on the expo floor.
VMware Explore 2022’s brought together representatives from AWS, Intel, Microsoft and more.
VMware Explore brought together representatives from cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services, semiconductor powerhouses including Intel and even startups such as Aisera to showcase new offerings on the expo floor.
The conference, formerly known as VMworld, was held this week in San Francisco and showed the Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization giant’s continued investment in its products and partnerships—even as it prepares for a $61 billion acquisition by semiconductor company Broadcom.
[RELATED: As VMware Explore Begins, Company President Vows ‘Innovations Are Here To Stay’]
Highlights from the week include VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram unveiling vSphere 8, vSAN 8 and a new multi-cloud management offering called Aria. Raghuram and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described how vSphere 8 prepares the data center for the huge workloads of the future.
Raghuram also said the acquisition of his company by Broadcom is “on track,” and the chipmaker is “super excited” about using VMware’s channel.
Here were some of the coolest products and offerings CRN saw on the expo floor of VMware Explore 2022.
A display from IBM’s exhibit at VMware Explore 2022. IBM, its Red Hat subsidiary and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
IBM And Red Hat
Armonk, N.Y.-based tech giant IBM used VMware’s Explore 2022 conference to unveil an expanded partnership around hybrid cloud environments.
As part of the relationship, IBM Consulting has become a VMware global systems integrator partner, and the companies plan to develop joint services and go-to-market approaches. The joint projects will focus on financial services, health care, public sector and other regulated industries.
IBM and VMware have also extended their joint innovation lab for another three years. The lab was launched in 2018.
Along with these announcements, IBM said that its Cloud Satellite offering now supports VMware workloads in any environment where they run.
IBM subsidiary Red Hat also announced new integrations with VMware during the conference. VMware’s Tanzu Application Platform (TAP) 1.3 will be available on Red Hat OpenShift in vSphere and on bare metal to give users more flexibility for Kubernetes platforms.
The NetApp logo on display at VMware Explore 2022. NetApp and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
NetApp
Part of NetApp and VMware’s joint announcements during Explore 2022 was the availability of VMware Cloud on AWS integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp OnTap.
The new offering with San Jose, Calif.-based NetApp is an integrated, certified and supported external network file system (NFS) datastore for VMware Cloud on AWS. Users can scale cloud storage independent of cloud compute for better costs and to deploy new applications.
Partners can help customers break down cost barriers to migrating enterprise workloads, expand existing cloud services for data-demanding workloads, and reduce risk with new cloud-based extension and protection.
A Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) RS on display at VMware Explore 2022. Hitachi and VMware showcased integrations between their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Hitachi Vantara
Representatives of data storage systems provider Hitachi Vantara were at VMware Explore to show off integrations between the two companies, including how to migrate data from a Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) RS to VMware Cloud on AWS.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Hitachi Vantara also offers a fast automated ransomware recovery from storage-efficient immutable snapshots—with recovered virtual machines (VMs) re-protected before users are re-connected)—and a UCP adviser integration with VMware lifecycle management.
Hitachi and VMware have a cloud-smart framework designed to help organizations with a standard approach to adopting cloud and scaling it to fit their needs.
A display for Lumen Technologies’ new SASE Solutions offering at the telecommunications company’s exhibit at VMware Explore 2022. Lumen and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Lumen Technologies
During Explore 2022, telecommunications vendor Lumen Technologies announced SASE Solutions, its all-digital service for buying, configuring and managing enterprise secure access service edge.
VMware along with Fortinet are the first partners to supply the Monroe, La.-based Lumen, formerly known as CenturyLink, with software and equipment related to the offering.
“Organizations that select Lumen SASE Solutions with VMware can drive faster time to value with a frictionless buying experience in the Lumen Marketplace,” Craig Connors, vice president and general manager of VMware‘s SASE business, said in a statement. “They can then more quickly secure their distributed workforce and network edge and enable people, apps, and devices to communicate from anywhere. The VMware SASE advantage is in delivering a unified edge and cloud service model with a single place to manage business policy, configuration, and monitoring.”
A Vast Data display at VMware Explore 2022. Vast has been expanding its international reach through distributor partners. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Vast Data
Storage infrastructure upstart Vast Data was on the Explore 2022 expo floor this week to discuss its ransomware services and platform for enabling artificial intelligence on graphics processing units (GPUs).
New York-based Vast, founded in 2016, has also been expanding its international reach through the use of distribution partners, inking new deals with Tech Data in Australia and Arrow Electronics in Europe.
In May, Vast announced new versions of its Universal Storage software offering, adding new security features and flexible cloud data management, according to the company.
The Aisera exhibit at VMware Explore 2022. Aisera was founded by a former VMware executive. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Aisera
Fresh off a $90 million Series D round of funding, Aisera was among the startups on the Expo 2022 floor. Aisera’s founder is a former executive at VMware.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Aisera—which provides automation software for IT, sales and customer service teams—announced the Series D round on Aug. 3. The Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Thoma Bravo led the round.
Aisera was founded in 2017 by Muddu Sudhakar, who worked at VMware for two years. He left VMware in 2014 with the title of vice president and general manager of big data analytics and cloud services, according to his LinkedIn. Sudhakar’s resume includes executive roles at ServiceNow and Splunk.
A dashboard on display at a Google exhibit at VMware Explore 2022. Google and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
During Explore 2022, Google ChromeOS devices were added as validated products for health-care users of VMware’s Horizon virtual desktop and application platform.
The offering includes Mountain View, Calif.-based Google’s ChromeOS devices, peripherals, Imprivata Onesign and VMware Horizon, according to a statement.
Rugged Chromebooks for ambulances and scanners and dictation devices for caregivers changing rooms are some of the use cases.
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise ProLiant DL345 Gen10 Plus on display at VMware Explore 2022. HPE and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
Hewlett Packard Enterprise unveild a new ProLiant with VMware’s vSphere Distributed Services Engine offering at Explore 2022.
The offering from Spring, Texas-based HPE allows data processing units (DPUs) to offload services from core processors and improve application performance. It was developed with VMware and AMD Pensando, according to HPE.
The distributed architecture enabled by HPE ProLiant with vSphere Distributed Services Engine is meant to free up compute resources for data-intensive applications instead of networking services.
Advanced Micro Devices’ Pensando Distributed Services cards on display at VMware Explore 2022. AMD and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
AMD
AMD’s Pensando distributed services card is among the first data processing unit services to support VMware’s vSphere 8, as announced during Explore 2022.
The Pensando DPUs from Santa Clara, Calif.-based AMD aim to free up compute resources and add more security by isolating infrastructure services from server tenant workloads, according to the chipmaker.
VMware’s vSphere 8 will become available in the coming months, with AMD Epyc processor support available upon launch, according to AMD.
A Dell Technologies VxRail on display at VMware Explore 2022. Dell and VMware, a former subsidiary, announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies unveiled a host of new offerings in collaboration with its former subsidiary VMware during the 2022 conference.
Some of the Round Rock, Texas-based tech giant’s VxRail systems now support VMware’s new VSAN Enterprise Storage Architecture, according to Dell. VxRail systems support the new VMware vSphere 8 software rearchitected to run on DPUs. The VxRail services should become generally available in the second half of the year.
Dell’s Apex portfolio has received a boost for VMware workloads to speed up cloud-native application development and better allocate compute and storage resources for edge apps, including Apex Cloud Services with VMware Cloud with added managed VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. This offering is generally available now in the U.S. and U.K., among other geographies.
A VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services display at VMware Explore 2022. AWS and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services and VMware plan to make a new i4i.metal instance type available before November, along with an integration with Amazon FSx for NetApp OnTap and Windows 11 support for existing VMware Cloud on AWS software-defined data centers, according to the companies.
Seattle-based AWS also unveiled a preview of IPv6 support for new VMware Cloud on AWS customers with East-West connectivity support. A preview of a bi-directional cross-cloud disaster recovery feature between VMware Cloud on AWS and Microsoft Azure VMware Solution was another announcement this week, according to the companies.
Support for NFS datastores on VMware Cloud on AWS and early access for VMware Cloud Flex Compute option were other joint company announcements from the event.
The two companies have been announcing enhancements throughout the month leading up to Explore 2022, including VMware Carbon Black Workload for AWS, a new way for distributors to buy one-year or three-year prepaid subscriptions on behalf of resellers and customers.
The Intel logo on display at Vmware Explore 2022. Intel and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Intel
At Explore 2022, Intel and VMware unveiled a new partner program to help customers with the Intel vPro and Workspace One integration and expansion of the integration to Intel vPro-based PCs for VMware Workspace One customers.
The partner program with VMware and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel is in use by partners in North America and Europe, according to the companies. CDW is a participating channel partner.
The integration, meanwhile, aims to help with employee on-boarding, managing and updating devices, as well as remote device support, according to Intel.
The Microsoft logo on display at VMware Explore 2022. Microsoft and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Microsoft
Among the biggest announcements at Explore 2022 was the option of buying Azure VMware Solution through the VMware Cloud Universal consumption program.
The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant also announced that Azure VMware Solution is now available in 24 Azure regionst. Public previews of Azure NetApp Files datastores for the solution and Enterprise VMware Cloud Director Services for the solution are available.
New generally available features for the solution include Public IP to NSX Edge in 17 Azure regions, JetStream disaster recovery, VMware vSphere 7 and VMware vRealize Log Insight Cloud.
A display for Oracle Cloud VMware Solution at VMware Explore 2022. Oracle and VMware announced updates to their products during the event, held in San Francisco. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Oracle
Updates to the Oracle Cloud VMware Solution unveiled this week include support for the Tanzu Standard service for running and managing Kubernetes.
The Austin, Texas-based database giant and VMware also made single-host SDDCs available for the joint solution. The new capability can accelerate on-boarding, allow for migration between on-premises and cloud and provides high-bandwidth, low-latency access to other native Oracle Cloud services.
Users can also make desktop pools for clones before scaling SDDCs to a production environment, according to the companies.
Solid state drives (SSDs) by Kioxia on display at VMware Explore 2022. Various Kioxia products work with VMware services. Photo by Wade Tyler Millward.
Kioxia
Kioxia—formerly Toshiba Memory—used Explore 2022 to showcase solid-state drives used for VMware-featured services.
The Japan-based company showed Kioxia CM6 Series Enterprise nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) SSDs used for Dell PowerEdge GPU servers and VMware Greenplum Database on PowerFlex.
Kioxia also brought CD7 Series Data Center NVMe and RM6 SAS (Serial-Attached SCSI) SSDs, which are used in VMware vSAN and Dell PowerEdge servers.