February 27, 2024: VMware, recently acquired by Broadcom, announced that we’re returning to the VeloCloud brand for our SD-WAN and SASE solutions. Learn more in our press release and blog, Back to the Future with VeloCloud, the Intelligent Overlay for the Software-Defined Edge.
It was a big year for VMware as a whole and for our SD-WAN, SASE and Edge group. We launched excellent products, established new partnerships and strengthened existing ones, garnered some very cool and prestigious industry recognition, and became part of VMware by Broadcom. As 2023 rolls to a close, jump in the blog wayback machine with us and revisit our favorite stories and highlights about VMware SD-WAN™, VMware SASE™, VMware Edge Compute Stack™, VMware SD-Access™, VMware Edge Intelligence™, VMware Cloud Web Security™, and VMware Private Mobile Network™.
Success stories in finance, retail, farming, IT and public safety
One of the best parts about technology marketing is the chance to share our customers’ and partners’ stories about how they achieved positive business outcomes using VMware technology. Here are our top stories from the past year.
- When you shop at Whole Foods Market, you experience the benefits of VMware Edge Intelligence. Whole Foods runs efficiently and ultimately delights customers using this VMware solution.
- Surrey and Sussex Police demonstrated a groundbreaking combination of VMware SD-WAN and VMware Edge Compute Stack that has incredible potential for police, first responders and any customer requiring a ruggedized device. They showed you how it works with a Tesla at Mobile World Congress, with a Ford F150 at VMware Explore Las Vegas, and with an Audi at VMware Explore Barcelona.
- To grow and serve its community as a truly local independent bank, First National Bank of Long Island made critical investments into upgrading its IT infrastructure with VMware SD-WAN as a managed service from VMware partner Windstream Enterprise.
- Nature Fresh Farms uses advanced technology to grow the best greenhouse produce. The company successfully adopted VMware SD-Access, VMware SD-WAN and VMware Edge Intelligence for secure connectivity and AIOps across their locations, optimizing data processing and monitoring at the edge.
- IT firm Humble Monkey uses VMware SD-Access to provide secure and resilient networking for its clients in the financial sector. Humble Monkey can seamlessly connect distributed locations, monitor networks remotely, and provide reliable connectivity for financial firms that demand speed and uptime.
Product news: The rise of the edge and generative AI
The software-defined edge is a distributed digital infrastructure for running workloads across dispersed locations, placed close to endpoints producing or consuming data. Think hospitals, retail stores, cell towers, even first-responder vehicles. The edge is complex and growing at an incredible rate. VMware is here to make edge compute and networking simpler.
VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator™ (VECO) is an industry-first offering for that will create a friction-free bridge between edge networking, security, and compute. From its origins as the VeloCloud Orchestrator, VECO has grown to help customers plan, deploy, run, visualize, and manage edge environments. Our leader Sanjay Uppal explained how it all comes together in his keynote address from VMware Explore Las Vegas called Everything Everywhere All at Once: Living on the Edge with VMware.
To better express its capabilities and role in the edge, the VMware SD-WAN Client was re-launched as VMware SD-Access. “Client” doesn’t truly express what this software can do. Yes, it can replace a VPN and connect users and systems directly with no backhaul over a high-performance, low latency fabric. But it also will bring IoT devices and OT systems into a single pane of glass, the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator, that will manage massive edge deployments for our customers. Mike Chase, SVP of solutions engineering at VMware partner AireSpring explained how the VMware SD-Access is the ideal way to get SASE software onto enterprise endpoints, including IoT.
Generative AI may or may not save the world, but it has great potential to make IT admins’ work easier. Intelligent Assist for VMware software-defined edge will bring VMware Edge Intelligence together with generative AI to provide intelligent remediation and security for both OT and IT environments.
Even more product news: Advances in security, new hardware, and geeking out with SD-WAN
In 2023, VMware raised the bar by significantly bolstering the security features of SD-WAN and SASE products. VMware SASE attained a SOC2 Type 2 report and ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018 certifications from KPMG, and renewed PCI compliance for VMware SD-WAN with Crowe auditors. Enhanced Firewall Service is now integrated into VMware SD-WAN Edges, allowing customers to leverage the power of NSX security with existing physical and virtual VMware SD-WAN appliances. And SIEM and SOAR are on the horizon as distributed enterprises start to consume security capabilities as a service.
At VMware Explore Barcelona, we debuted the VMware SD-WAN Edge 710. It incorporates cutting-edge technologies including Wi-Fi 6 capabilities. It offers superior price-to-performance value and increased network performance up to 1 Gbps for improved user experience across small, remote branch and work from home deployments.
In the field of VMware SD-WAN, we learned more about improving application performance with per-packet flow processing, the new Hub or Cluster Interconnect feature, how to work remotely with 5G and Starlink satellite, best practices for operating and monitoring an SD-WAN network, VMware Dynamic Multipath Optimization™ (DMPO), and new professional certifications.
Strong partnerships for AI, SSE, manufacturing, and better connectivity
VMware’s partners play an absolutely crucial role in driving the company’s success. In 2023, we brought you news about enhanced offerings with AWS, Lookout, Symantec, Intel, Kyndryl, and Microsoft.
- Adding to our existing security service edge (SSE) partnerships, this year we announced partnerships with Lookout and Symantec by Broadcom that combine VMware SD-WAN for networking with our partners’ SSE offerings.
- At Hannover Messe 2023, VMware showed how to use edge computing to keep wind turbines safe and operational in an exciting demo co-developed with Kyndryl and Bucknell University. Check out this demo video from the Bucknell makers themselves.
- At the same show, VMware and Intel demonstrated a scalable, manageable edge compute solution for manufacturing where high-speed robotics with enhanced cameras leverage Intel OpenVINO to identify objects in real time and produce an action from the data.
- The upcoming launch of AWS Tunnel-less Connect will simplify VMware SD-WAN connections to application workloads in AWS Cloud WAN.
- VMware and Microsoft are partnering to share VMware SASE data with Microsoft Security Copilot for better enterprise security with generative AI. We also announced the integration of Microsoft Teams experience data with VMware Edge Intelligence to give IT deep visibility into the user experience without the need for a physical or virtual “visit”.
Recognized by analysts and customers as a market leader
One of the biggest achievements for VMware in 2023 was the recognition we received from Gartner. The company was named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SD-WAN for the sixth consecutive year. highlight the capabilities of VMware SD-WAN in enhancing network performance, security, and application visibility. But wait, there’s more!
- VMware was positioned as a Leader for the second time in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SD-WAN Infrastructure 2023 Vendor Assessment.
- VMware was named the Leader in the 2023 GigaOm Radar for Software-Defined Wide Area Networks, rated “exceptional” across a matrix of categories.
- VMware received a 2023 Customers’ Choice distinction for VMware SD-WAN in the 2023 Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer for SD-WAN report.
- VMware Secure Access was named a 2022 TMCnet Zero Trust Security Excellence winner.
- VMware placed as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Zero Trust Edge Solutions, Q3 2023.
- VMware SD-WAN was a winner—praised for “innovation, vision and execution”—of the 2023 INTERNET TELEPHONY SD-WAN Product of the Year award.
- TMC honored VMware SASE with a 2023 Unified Communications Product of the Year Award.
- CRN® named VMware to its 2023 Edge Computing 100 list as part of CRN’s 50 Hottest Edge Hardware, Software and Services Companies “that are leading the market this year with no plans on slowing down in 2024.”
VMware made immense progress in 2023 in SASE, SD-WAN, and edge technologies. As VMware by Broadcom, we expect even more innovation to come in 2024. We wish our customers, partners, employees, and blog readers a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. We’ll see you in January!
