VMware is expanding its entire portfolio with new functions. The VMware Cloud Foundation platform in particular is getting a lot of attention.

VMware expands its portfolio with new functions. There’s no real common thread, but key products are getting relevant new features that should keep them competitive against offerings from hyperscalers and other competitors like Nutanix.

New function

VMware competes directly with the latter via its VMware Cloud Foundation platform. VMware thus offers a central software platform that takes care of computing power, storage and network capacities in a hybrid multi-cloud environment. VMware Foundation is now expanding with three new products.

• NSX+ is generally available. This solution was originally called Project Northstar. It offers large companies a central console from which to set network and security policies. This can be done using traffic analysis across multicloud environments.
• vSAN Max decouples memory from computing power. With this solution, companies can scale their storage to 8.6 petabytes and 3.6 million IOPS, independent of compute clusters in vSphere. This capacity will be generally available in the second half of next year.
• ESXi Lifecycle Management Finally, with vSphere+, IT admins can better manage and update their environment from a single console that spans the entire multi-cloud infrastructure. Early risers can get started with it.

Five flavors

VMware also says it’s restructuring its offering somewhat; Those who want to use VMware Cloud Foundation and VMware Cloud Services together can now do so through five different variants of VMware Cloud: Essentials, Standard, Pro, Advanced and Enterprise.

Essentials is the entry-level offering that doesn’t yet include too many advanced services related to networking and security. At the other extreme is a full HCI multicloud stack, where nearly everything is software-defined and automation is the focus. Until VMware announces that VMWare Cloud on Equinix will be available in the first half of next year. The collaboration with Equinix was announced late last year