There has been speculation that VMware vCloud Director was no longer a priority for VMware—but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With the release of vCloud Director 8.10 this spring, VMware has doubled down on its dedication to enhancing the product, and has even expanded the available training program to keep pace with the evolving needs of vCloud Director users.
vCloud Director fits into VMware’s larger vision for the software defined data center (SDDC), now more than ever before. We have provided answers below to clear up a few of the biggest misconceptions out there today:
- MYTH #1 – vCloud Director is End-of-Life or End-of-Support:
This is actually not the case. In May 2016, VMware released vCloud Director 8.10, the latest version of the product, in response to customer feedback and an industry-wide move to the hybrid cloud. New features in this release includes distributed resource scheduler affinity and anti-affinity for VMs and UI integration of NSX for heightened security.To get customers up to speed with the new release, the team has launched a free vCloud Director 8.10 Fundamentals eLearning course, and after VMworld Europe, we plan to expand these offerings through new vCloud Director Hands-on Labs via the VMware HOL Online portal.
- MYTH #2 – Usage is Lagging:
In fact, the opposite is true. Not only is usage of vCloud Director increasing, but it’s reaching new levels of growth. Look no further than Zettagrid, a cloud computing infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider, which deployed vCloud Director to simplify data center provisioning. Or iland, an award-winning enterprise cloud infrastructure provider that uses vCloud Director to supply greater flexibility and customization to its clients.Furthermore, VMware continues to partner with members of its independent software vendor program group to catalogue and support the most recent products built by ISVs that are compatible with VCD through it through the VMware Solution Exchange. vCloud Director has proven itself a valued partner for customers across industries and hybrid cloud ecosystems, and version 8.10 only solidifies VMware’s continued commitment to the product and its users.
- MYTH #3 – User Interface (UI) is Static:
You spoke, and we listened. A change in direction from previous versions, the release of vCloud Director 8.10 demonstrated a commitment to the UI by exposing all features directly through the UI and achieving feature parity with the API. Features now available on the UI include storage profiling, tenant throttling, and self-service VDC templates that give vCloud Director a more robust and flexible platform for delivering IaaS solutions.
Through a combination feature updates that increase agility, new training opportunities, and an enhanced UI with heightened functionality, VMware continues to actively invest in the vCloud Director user experience.
Rest assured, there’s more to come.