VMware Explore 2023 General Session Recap – Looking forward to an exciting week full of knowledge acquisition and networking, the event has begun with the General Session at VMware Explore in Barcelona. Basically, the keynote provides some very good techie announcements, but it needs to also apply more of a business perspective of how these deliver business value. If you’re in Barcelona for the big event and still have some space to fill in your schedule, be sure to meet Monaco Digital’s teams and talk about Cloud, Edge, Data Protection, and Security.
In the beginning, Raghu Raghuram (Chief Executive Officer at VMware) was on stage at the General Session (Novembre 7, 2023) explaining VMware Explore is the center of the multi-cloud universe. He detailed what it means to take a cloud-smart approach: “Importance of multi-cloud, now augmented by AI and GenAI and Private AI with vCF”. It was also great to hear from Raghu and how the community is key (#vCommunity). CEOs of both Broadcom (and Raghu) also appeared on stage to share thei vision. Customers, VMware Teams and Partners are better together for 25 years “Now it’s the time for a next chapter..”. VMware leadership shared how VMware is helping customers and partners to take a cloud-smart, architected approach to multi-cloud and digital transformation.
Cloud Smart by VMware:
First, Prashanth Shenoy was on stage at the Partner Keynot (November 8, 2023) talking about applications drive infrastructure Innovation. Behind every app are teams of people that make it possible — developers, platform eng, cloud ops, security.. 85M workloads are being managed by enterprise organizations. Another example of complexity. According to VMware, Cloud Smart is replacing Cloud First as the model approach to cloud applications. Cloud-Smart is the core elements of a Cloud smart approach (31% growth adoption for VMware Cloud solution year by year). Note: VMware has been named a leader in the Forrester Wave in Hyperconverged infrastructure Q4 2023.
A Cloud Smart approach lets you choose the right cloud for the right app – based on the needs of the app. Raghu Raghuram shared how VMware is helping our customers and partners to take a cloud-smart, architected approach to multi-cloud and digital transformation.
Cloud Smart by VMware benefits are accelerated app dev, consistent infra, and a better customer experience. That is the aim of all, but having visibility and control will help, but all of this must be underpinned by strong security. Keep in mind, the application determines the location (on-prem, cloud, container, etc.).
VMware Cloud universal now includes all hyperscalers and cloud providers. This brings lots of flexibility to VMware customers looking at the public cloud. VMware Cross-Cloud Services is here to help. Cloud benefits are also needed on-premise and its possible thanks to vSphere+.
Generative IA and Private IA:
What’s new from VMware in cloud, apps, edge, and AI? SVP and GM of our cloud management business group Purnima Padmanabhan shared the latest and greatest at VMware Explore, setting the stage for today’s technology innovation showcase! With the rise of generative AI, there’s growing interest to leverage its capabilities without falling into past technology traps. AI made a BIG splash with the arrival of ChatGPT late last year. While excitement isn’t waning, the reality of AI ethics and responsibility is coming to the forefront. This podcast with VMware head of AI Labs Chris Wolf highlights key considerations for AI stakeholders/users. From AI readiness in Enterprise to defining responsible AI and democratizing AI and AI-assisted code development, our conversation is a journey through innovation.
Messaging so far at VMware Explore is similar to what Broadcom told to justify the acquisition: the importance of multi-cloud, now augmented by AI and GenAI. VMware and key partners IBM, Intel and NVIDIA are bringing Private AI to the enterprise. This expanded ecosystem enables more flexibility and choice for customers and partners.
Data (fuel for AI) + Compute = IA The message is on the importance of privacy. Together with Google Cloud, VMware is announcing an expanded partnership to deliver Google Cloud’s AlloyDB Omni database on VMware Cloud Foundation, starting with on-premises private clouds. Now you can modernize your existing databases and build new gen AI applications with this enterprise-grade PostgreSQL-compatible database.
Privacy needs to be at the center of an AI platform to solve the issue many are seeing globally. But there are several other factors to be considered as Chris Wolf shared
Then, VMware panel of AI experts hosted by Joe Baguley had a fantastic discussion around the future of AI and how we can seemlessly integrate it with our lives to create positive actions, enhance creativity and performance.
Discover the latest in AI, including Generative vs Predictive AI, and integrating AI with #VMware. Learn about embeddings and when to use AI effectively with VMware AI Labs.
Partner Keynote:
Today, Sumit Dhawan was on stage at Partner Keynote talking about partners’ ecosystems: “Single cloud is not the future, Multi-Cloud is the future and Generative AI. It’s the focus of VMware as a company”. New Innovations from VMware: VMware Fundation enhancements, vSAN Max certified ReadyNodes, Sovereign Cloud service innovation and 57 partners, DSM 2.0, AI ML services, ITD, Data, Tanzu and Edge. Global multi-cloud opportunity is around $161B, « You can create your own managed services by using this technology: VMware Cross Cloud Managed Services » explained Sumit. Goal of VMware and Broadcom is to invest in the ecosystem.
Then, Chris Wolf was on stage talking about the architectural approach that balances the business gains from AI with the privacy and compliance needs of the organization: Private IA.
There’s a new battleground in security – lateral security:
Lateral security is a big challenge to organizations. Lateral security is needed to stop attacks going machine to machine, workload to workload. This is where NSX comes in. But NSX goes beyond this, introducing Project NorthStar. It’s SaaS-based networking and security offering a set of on-demand multi-cloud networking and security services with end-to-end visibility and then controls.
Here is the best practice guide for hardening your VMware infrastructure.
Kubernetes adoption and Tanzu:
It’s similar to what we used to have when we moved to virtualization. Take the time to understand and adopt this newer approach.
Unlock your full potential on Kubernetes with Kube Academy.
VMware Tanzu Mission Control:
VMware Tanzu Mission Control is now available on-prem and with support for air-gapped deployments! Tanzu’goal: bridge the gap of rapid innovation & reduction of risk. Not everyone can run with open source and minimal enterprise support.
Tanzu Service Mesh & Mission Control protect east-west within Kubernetes platforms and services! A growing risk.
VMware Aria:
Now you can dev for any environment, how do you deploy them to the best environment? VMware announced VMware Aria Hub Free. VMware Aria is a cost-optimized solution.
VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds helps you visualize, prioritize, and reduce misconfigurations across public clouds and Kubernetes environments. In the Hub Free Tier, VMware Aria Automation for Secure Clouds analyzes your cloud workloads against the CIS benchmark and reports findings.
Sovereign cloud :
Last year, community hero & top blogger William Lam (Senior Staff Solution Architect at VMware) discussed VMware Cloud outcomes and new capabilities as well as VMware‘s efforts and significant updates around Sovereign Cloud.
Today, Sovereign Cloud is a growing demand (57 VMware Sovereign Cloud Providers in the world). Compliance, data sovereignty, etc organizations are examining their supply chain and understanding demand on third parties! Sovereign control with cloud flexibility.
Next, Monaco Cloud (Xavier Bottex and Jean-Charles Harle) was on stage explaining Sovereign cloud from VMware is a software layer that provides the isolation needed and the air gap required to make the cloud truly Sovereign. t’s a hot topic in EMEA. 95% of enterprises view data sovereignty as a business concern.
They highlighted VMware sovereign cloud differentiation, giving customers and partners the flexibility to have sovereign cloud meet them on their terms. VMware also announced new capabilities, global expansion, and ecosystem solutions to help VMware Sovereign Cloud partners empower customers with more agility, better resiliency and faster innovation.
The sovereign cloud initiative from VMware is strategically important to so many organizations. It allows them to have all the features of a private cloud while meeting the strict data sovereignty needs as well.
Check out the VMware recap of all the action and innovation: Here
Everyone who´s attending this great event, have fun, learn a lot, and enjoy all perks & people you can talk to in person again!
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