VMware vSphere+ and vSAN+ to Simplify Operations With Centralized Infrastructure Management

VMware, Inc. unveiled vSphere+ and vSAN+ to help organizations bring the benefits of the cloud to their existing on-premises infrastructure with no disruption to their workloads or hosts.

Introduced at VMworld 2021 as a technology preview known as Project Arctic, these offerings will help customers enhance their infrastructure by providing centralized cloud-based infrastructure management, integrated Kubernetes, access to new hybrid cloud services, and a flexible subscription model.

“VMware vSphere+ and VMware vSAN+ represent the next major evolution of those foundational solutions that customers know and trust,” said Krish Prasad, SVP and GM, VMware cloud platform business, cloud infrastructure business group. “Wherever customers are on their digital transformation journey and in executing their cloud strategy, vSphere+ and vSAN+ will help accelerate their transformation by bringing the benefits of cloud to their existing on-premises infrastructure and workloads, along with simplified consumption via a flexible subscription model.”

vSphere+ and VMware vSAN+ are an integral part of the company’s cloud strategy to deliver consistent infrastructure with value-added capabilities across distributed environments. vSphere+ and vSAN+ will enable customers to activate add-on hybrid cloud services that deliver on key use cases for business-critical applications running on-premises, including DR and ransomware protection. Customers of all sizes will be able to consume new capabilities, security and product updates at a faster pace and simplify their operations – without making changes to their existing applications or hardware.

“The transformation of on-premises infrastructure with cloud services is an emerging modernization trend that IDC is seeing draw significant interest from enterprises,” said Gary Chen, research director, software defined compute, IDC. “By enabling the ubiquitous datacenter hypervisor with cloud services, users will be able to onboard innovative capabilities that can be delivered immediately and fully managed from the cloud to address a broad range of pain points such as management efficiency, scale out Kubernetes operations, and DR. The future possibilities of this delivery model, such as with vSphere+ and vSAN+, are endless and can be a key tool for enterprises to modernize existing infrastructure quickly with minimal burden.”

“VMware vSphere+ blurs the line between on-premises and cloud,” said Vishal Gupta, CIO, Lexmark International, Inc. “The combination of cloud operating model with familiar toolsets will be a big win for us.”

Simplify operations with centralized infrastructure management
Under pressure to improve efficiency and productivity, infrastructure operations teams are seeking more efficient ways to maintain and protect infrastructure to support increasingly larger and more complex environments. In many instances, customers’ vSphere environments are distributed across siloed locations, edge sites, and clouds leading to operational complexity and inefficient maintenance experience.

vSphere+ and vSAN+ provide a unified infrastructure management experience for these distributed environments via the VMware Cloud Console. The console features global inventory, configuration, alerts, administration and security status for on-premises deployments. Admins will be able to perform certain operational tasks directly from the Cloud Console such as managing configurations and policies across their deployments. Additionally, customers will benefit from a simplified lifecycle management experience through cloud-enabled automation of updates of on-premises infrastructure components. Customers will also gain from cloud-based remediation and configuration drift capabilities, including security checks to maintain compliance with corporate and regulatory requirements.

Accelerate developer velocity with integrated Kubernetes
Developer teams are focused on modernizing their applications and infrastructure to deliver better software to production, faster. Providing a single workload platform for running VMs and containers orchestrated by Kubernetes, vSphere+ will help transform on-premises infrastructure into an enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform. This includes providing a multi-cloud IaaS consumption experience for developers by extending the capabilities of VMware Tanzu Standard Runtime to enable developers to run and manage Kubernetes at scale with consistency and efficiency across on-premises, public clouds, and edge. The inclusion of VMware Tanzu Mission Control Essentials will provide customers with global visibility across their entire Kubernetes footprint and automate operational tasks.

Extend on-premises with hybrid cloud services
Modern organizations require integrated and expanded cloud services to consistently bolster their security posture, quickly recover from disasters and site outages, and better protect against ransomware. With vSphere+ and vSAN+, customers will continue to use their existing investments, including toolsets and domain expertise, while benefiting from the expanded capabilities of VMware Cloud. Customers will benefit from protection workflows available as add-on cloud services directly integrated into their operating environment including VMware Cloud DR, an on-demand ransomware and DR service. New add-on cloud services are under development and are expected to be delivered in the future providing customers with a streamlined path to the cloud, should they choose to migrate down the road.

Simplified consumption via flexible subscription model
With vSphere+ and vSAN+, organizations will be able to adopt a subscription-based consumption model for their on-premises deployments. Customers will further benefit from a single SKU that includes all necessary components (including VMware vCenter, VMware ESXi, Tanzu Standard Runtime, and Tanzu Mission Control Essentials), and support.

Availability:

vSphere+ and vSAN+ are both offerings and are expected to be available by the end of VMware’s 2FQ23 (July 29, 2022).
Tanzu Mission Control Essentials is a component of vSphere+ and is expected to be available in the company’s 3FQ23.

“3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors are the ideal choice for virtualized environments powered by VMware vSphere, providing the high core density needed to deliver the impressive performance, modern security features, optimal TCO and sustainability our joint customer’s demand,” said Kumaran Siva, corporate VP, software and systems business development, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. “The latest VMWare vSphere+ offering leverages the exceptional per-core performance of AMD EPYC processors, enabling the consolidation of customer infrastructure and workloads.”

“As organizations’ on-premises and cloud infrastructure needs evolve, they can accelerate innovation by focusing on improving system efficiency and maintenance, among other areas,” said Rajesh Pohani, VP, PowerEdge and core compute, Dell Technologies, Inc. “Solutions such as VMware vSphere+ and vSAN+ can help streamline on-premises workloads and centralized governance, simplifying processes for IT administrators and developers.”

Insight Enterprises
“VMware vSphere+ changes the game for IT admins. It gives them a cloud-delivered single pane of glass to manage across their entire distributed vSphere estate – not to mention the benefits of a cloud financial and operating model across any environment,” said Juan Orlandini, chief architect and distinguished engineer, Insight Enterprises. “Additionally, developer services that speed time to value are incredibly important to our clients and something that’s built into vSphere+. With a common set of APIs that developers can learn once and deploy—regardless of where an app or service will be located – businesses are able to innovate faster.”

“Since the first days of virtualization technology, Intel and VMware have been collaborating to disrupt the IT industry, opening new possibilities for increased efficiency and value to our mutual customers,” said Das Kamhout, VP and CTO, cloud and enterprise software, Intel Corp. “Together we have introduced innovative capabilities for IT operators and developers that transformed on-premises infrastructure.  The next leap forward is now here with the vSphere+ and vSAN+ platform that simplifies the complexity of cloud services and provides flexibility to run your workloads and data where you want. Choice, performance, reliability, and security with the well-established, trusted combination of Intel and VMware.”

“Making AI accessible to all industries requires the ability to run Nvidia AI software and infrastructure for developers in a way that’s easy for IT to manage,” said Justin Boitano, VP, enterprise and edge computing, Nvidia Corp.. “VMware vSphere+ introduces enhanced multi-cloud support for flexible, modern computing to advance the work of the customers that NVIDIA serves with VMware and our partner ecosystem.”

“For most enterprises today, vSphere is the de facto on-premises workload platform of choice to support their enterprise applications,” said Brian Connors, VP and GM, software and business development, Lenovo, Inc. “Our customers are transitioning the deployment of software licenses from a perpetual license model to a subscription and SaaS model, so we’re excited to see VMware provide the flexibility in licensing and deployment options of vSphere+ and vSAN+. Combining these new capabilities with Lenovo ThinkAgile VX and TruScale as-a-service capabilities is a great opportunity for our mutual customers to modernize their environments, accelerate developer innovation, and improve overall IT efficiency and security.”