In this post, I would like to summarize the coolest VMworld 2018 announcements.
Project Magna
Project Magna will make possible a self-driving data center based on machine learning. It is focused on applying reinforcement learning to a data center environment to drive greater performance and efficiencies. The demonstration illustrated how Project Magna can learn and understand application behavior to the point that it can model, test, and then reconfigure the network to a make it more optimal to improve performance. Project Magna relies on artificial intelligence algorithms to help connect the dots across huge data sets and gain deep insights across applications and the stack from application code, to software to hardware infrastructure, to the public cloud and the edge.
vSphere Platinum
VMware vSphere Platinum is a new edition of vSphere that delivers advanced security capabilities fully integrated into the hypervisor. This new release combines the industry-leading capabilities of vSphere with VMware AppDefense, delivering purpose-built VMs to secure applications. For more info read this blog post.
VMware ESXi 64-bit Arm Support.
ESXi will probably run on Cavium ThunderX2 servers. Cavium ThunderX2 has very interesting specifications.
VMware vSAN 6.7 Update 1
vSAN 6.7 U1 will be available together with vSphere 6.7 U1. Here are some highlights:
AWS and VMware Announce Amazon Relational Database Service on VMware. It is a database as a service managed by Amazon. Amazon RDS on VMware will be generally available soon and will support Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB databases. Read announcement or register for preview here.
VVols support for SRM is now officially on the roadmap
It is not coming in the latest SRM version but it is officially in the roadmap so VMware announced the commitment to develop it soon. [Source]
VMware vCloud Director 9.5
The new vCloud Director 9.5 enhances easy and intuitive cloud provisioning and consumption by adding highly-requested capabilities including self-service data protection, disaster recovery, and container-orchestration for cloud consumers, along with multi-site management, multi-tenancy and cross-platform networking for Cloud Providers. 6 Key New Innovations in vCloud Director 9.5:
Introducing VMware Cloud Provider Pod: Custom Designs
VMware announced a new product that will revolutionize the deployment of Cloud Provider environments through the first flexible, validated VMware cloud stack with 1-click deployment: VMware Cloud Provider Pod. Cloud Provider environments are complex to deploy thanks to interoperability, scalability, reliability and performance issues that constantly plague cloud admins and architects. It is a time-consuming process that takes weeks to months. Yes, there are “one-click” deployment products out there, but these are rigid, have stringent hardware compatibility requirements, and end up creating yet another datacenter silo to manage. The Cloud Provider Pod has been designed to deliver three key capabilities:
Project Dimension
On-premise managed vSphere infrastructure in a cloudy fashion. Project Dimension will extend VMware Cloud to deliver SDDC infrastructure and hardware as-a-service to on-premises locations. Because this will be a service, it means that VMware can take care of managing the infrastructure, troubleshooting issues, and performing patching and maintenance. For more info read this blog post.
Project Magna
Project Magna will make possible a self-driving data center based on machine learning. It is focused on applying reinforcement learning to a data center environment to drive greater performance and efficiencies. The demonstration illustrated how Project Magna can learn and understand application behavior to the point that it can model, test, and then reconfigure the network to a make it more optimal to improve performance. Project Magna relies on artificial intelligence algorithms to help connect the dots across huge data sets and gain deep insights across applications and the stack from application code, to software to hardware infrastructure, to the public cloud and the edge.
VMware vSphere Platinum is a new edition of vSphere that delivers advanced security capabilities fully integrated into the hypervisor. This new release combines the industry-leading capabilities of vSphere with VMware AppDefense, delivering purpose-built VMs to secure applications. For more info read this blog post.
ESXi will probably run on Cavium ThunderX2 servers. Cavium ThunderX2 has very interesting specifications.
vSphere 6.7 Update 1
VMware announced vSphere 6.7 Update 1, which includes some key new and enhanced capabilities. Here are some highlights:- Fully Featured HTML5-based vSphere Client
- Enhanced support for NVIDIA Quadro vDWS powered VMs (vSphere vMotion with NVIDIA Quadro vDWS vGPU powered VMs)
- Support for Intel FPGA
- New vCenter Server Convergence Tool (allows migration from an external PSC architecture into embedded PSC architecture and also combine, merge, or separate vSphere SSO Domains)
- Enhancements for HCI and vSAN
- Enhanced vSphere Content Library (import of OVA templates from a HTTPS endpoint and local storage, native support of VM templates)
For more info read this blog post.
VMware vSAN 6.7 Update 1
vSAN 6.7 U1 will be available together with vSphere 6.7 U1. Here are some highlights:
- Firmware Updates through VUM
- Cluster Quickstart wizard
- UNMAP support (capability of unmapping blocks when the Guest OS sends an unmap/trim command)
- Mixed MTU support for vSAN Stretched Clusters (different MTU for Witness traffic then vSAN traffic)
- Historical capacity reporting
AWS and VMware Announce Amazon Relational Database Service on VMware. It is a database as a service managed by Amazon. Amazon RDS on VMware will be generally available soon and will support Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB databases. Read announcement or register for preview here.
VVols support for SRM is now officially on the roadmap
It is not coming in the latest SRM version but it is officially in the roadmap so VMware announced the commitment to develop it soon. [Source]
VMware vCloud Director 9.5
The new vCloud Director 9.5 enhances easy and intuitive cloud provisioning and consumption by adding highly-requested capabilities including self-service data protection, disaster recovery, and container-orchestration for cloud consumers, along with multi-site management, multi-tenancy and cross-platform networking for Cloud Providers. 6 Key New Innovations in vCloud Director 9.5:
- Cross-site networking improvements powered by deeper integration with NSX
- Initial integration with NSX-T
- Additional integration with NSX including e.g. the possibility to stretch networks across virtual datacenters on different vCenter Servers or vCD instances residing at different sites right from the UI.
- Cross-platform networking for Cloud Providers. Makes it possible for NSX-T and NSX-V managers in same vCD instance to create isolated logical L2 networks with a directly connected network.
- Full transition to an HTML5 UI for the cloud consumer
- Improvements to role-based access control
- Natively integrated data protection capabilities, powered by Dell-EMC Avamar
- vCD virtual appliance deployment model
- Container-orchestration for cloud consumers. Deploy both VMs and containers, consumed via Kubernetes.
- Data protection capabilities. EMC Avamar is added to the vCD UI to make it easier for end consumers to manage these tasks. This is made possible based on the extensible tools available via vCD which means you (software vendor, cloud provider) can publish services to the vCD UI as needed. Hopefully, other vendors will follow.
Introducing VMware Cloud Provider Pod: Custom Designs
VMware announced a new product that will revolutionize the deployment of Cloud Provider environments through the first flexible, validated VMware cloud stack with 1-click deployment: VMware Cloud Provider Pod. Cloud Provider environments are complex to deploy thanks to interoperability, scalability, reliability and performance issues that constantly plague cloud admins and architects. It is a time-consuming process that takes weeks to months. Yes, there are “one-click” deployment products out there, but these are rigid, have stringent hardware compatibility requirements, and end up creating yet another datacenter silo to manage. The Cloud Provider Pod has been designed to deliver three key capabilities:
- Allows Cloud Providers to design a custom cloud environment of their choice
- Automates the deployment of the designed cloud environment in adherence with VMware Validated Designs for Cloud Providers
- Generates customized documentation and guidelines for their environment that radically simplifies operations
For more information read VMware blog.
VMworld US 2018 General Sessions & Breakout Sessions Playback
You can watch general sessions and also technical (breakout) session online. General sessions on VMworld US 2018 is available at https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/learning/general-sessions.html
A nice summary list of all VMworld US 2018 technical (breakout) session with the respective video playback & download URLs is available at https://github.com/lamw/vmworld2018-session-urls/blob/master/vmworld-us-playback-urls.md
VMworld US 2018 General Sessions & Breakout Sessions Playback
You can watch general sessions and also technical (breakout) session online. General sessions on VMworld US 2018 is available at https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/learning/general-sessions.html
A nice summary list of all VMworld US 2018 technical (breakout) session with the respective video playback & download URLs is available at https://github.com/lamw/vmworld2018-session-urls/blob/master/vmworld-us-playback-urls.md
