Realize What’s Possible with Advanced Cloud Networking Capabilities 

VMworld 2021 – what a whirlwind. Thank you for attending and making the virtual event a success. With so many sessions and so little time, we thought it was important to point out one of the most notable networking sessions of this year: Automation is Modernizing Networks, delivered by Tom Gills, SVP & General Manager, Networking and Advanced Security. 

In case you missed it, we’re going to catch you up on essential insights, networking news, and more. 

Networking by the Numbers 

 The vision behind VMware’s cloud networking is to centralize policy and networking infrastructure. Today, there are more than 23,000 customers using VMware’s virtual networking products. 96 out of the Fortune 100 have chosen VMware to virtualize their network infrastructure. VMware has replaced more than 12,000 power-hungry, hardware load balancer appliances. There are more than 450,000 branch sites globally, accelerating the digital transformation for enterprises of all kinds. 

Leveling Up  

Taking a step back, we can see how clearly all of these developments are enhancing digital operations for our various constituents. With two strokes of a key, our customers can send applications directly into production. This includes scanning for security/compliance violations, enforcing these security and compliance standards, continuously scanning images through registry, preventing vulnerability and non-compliant workloads, and assessing risk throughout the entire process. With unique controls such as the ability to apply East-West encryption, workload protection, advanced threat protection, and API security, the production pipeline takes off in a matter of minutes.   

If you tried to do that back in 2019? Well, let’s just say it would take about 24 tickets, 42 days, and 26 Red Bulls. VMware’s infrastructure supports business flexibility, speed, and strength—all while saving you time and frustration.  

Bottom line, your enterprise needs the capacity to run beyond development. The power of a software-defined data center allows your team to create VPCs in a private cloud in San Francisco, a cloud in Cape Town, and one in Tokyo. The inter-connection between the clouds is defined in software and configured with high-level, intent-based APIs and VPC constructs. An added bonus? There are East-West security controls that are defined, automated, and deployed with no tickets and in less than one day. As Tom put it during his keynote, “It’s security that’s truly implemented as code.”   

VMware is taking auto scaling a step further with what it calls Elastic Application Security Edge or EASE (pronounced “easy”). This enables the networking and security infrastructure at the data center or cloud edge to adjust as app traffic changes by using a combination of VMware’s data plane services for networking, security, and observability along with its scale-out distributed architecture. 

Hitting the EASE button means less stress for your team and more PTO. 

Best of Breed 

Part of being the best means taking into consideration all of the stand-alone solutions: Network Overlay, East-West security, ADC/LB/WAF [Avi], Service Mesh/HCX, and SASE architecture. In their own right, they’re power players. But putting them together and managing them from a single-set of high-level APIs is truly a game changer, providing simplicity and strength in astronomical ways. 

This is the power of intent based APIs, virtualization in the network infrastructure, and self-service that transforms organizations. 

Putting it All Together 

Not only is VMware’s Cloud Networking about automation, it provides management tools at an advanced level. You’re able to follow the life of a packet from its conception in the database throughout it’s lifecycle all the way to the end-user. With VMware, there’s end-to-end observability without agents. Organizations will be able to have insight into both the physical and virtual, as well as data center and EDGE, all through one looking glass. 

In the end, partial, piecemeal automation may get you from A to B. But shouldn’t the goal be to keep accelerating, transforming, and securing? VMware’s Cloud Networking infrastructure is where that journey begins.   

For more VMware insights, news, and future directions, watch Tom Gillis’ keynote replay now.