VMware Drives Pull Optimized Solutions for the Edge
Day one of Edge Field Day 3 kicked off with a presentation from VMware. This sage of enterprise cloud and expert in workload automation entered the presentation room with a challenge for us to forget about all of that and focus on the edge.
Chris Taylor, Product Marketing Manager and Alan Renouf, Technology Product Manager for the Software Defined Edge group, bring fantastic technical chops to the table. Alan has an extensive background in workload automation from the data center and Chris brings a unique perspective in manufacturing as a mechanical engineer - as well as seasoning in the security arena - to the table.
So what is the state of edge from a VMware perspective? VMware has created an edge compute stack leveraging an intelligent overlay of VMware VeloCloud SDWAN and SASE Security software and the VMware Telco Cloud Platform driving 5G, Fixed and LEOS network support. This software stack provides a horizontal foundation for deployment across edge environments and vertical use cases. Top markets extend across manufacturing floors, retail, energy generation and distribution, logistics operations and more. What drives customers to edge deployments? Too much data sitting at the edge, unreliable or inefficient networking from edge to cloud, and challenges in moving data due to regulatory requirements like data sovereignty are key customer pain points met by VMware customers.
And with this vast market and clear challenge driving deployment, you’d expect that edge implementations would be scaling like a hockey stick. But Chris and Alan pointed to key challenges for deployment sharing a slightly stunning stat from World Economic Forum that 70% of companies investing in industrial 4.0 projects get stuck in the pilot phase.
The challenges that many of these companies face include oversight of the scale and differentiation of myriad edge devices, use cases, and support required. Underpinning all of this is the noted difference in edge as compute that cannot be managed with the exact approach as cloud. After all, data centers are centralized…they’re rich with IT support, and they are, well, clean and orderly.
So what is VMware’s view on management of this wild west? Alan and Chris stated the approach needs to start with a change in workload management away from push architectures of cloud to pull mode. They signaled that the world of mobile app updates provide a parallel to how they’ve architected their edge stack to perform where management checks for updates and pulls updates when there is network capacity and compute cycles to load.
So how is VMware differentiated? Their edge optmization accounts for real time apps and simplified operations and is based on a flexible platform that grows with edge implementation and breadth of apps deployed. They’ve also built in support for both VMs and K8s with zero-touch orchestration delivering provisioning via preconfigured edge HW authorization and profiles established by an edge admin residing in a central location. This allows for plug-and-play deployment, which allows for an edge device to pull desired apps once plugged in without on-the-ground IT support. Edge admins maintain all workloads across edge locations with monitoring and downloads of components to match desired end state, all delivered by VMware’s Edge Cloud Orchestrator (VECO).
So who is tapping VMware for edge management? This is one area that I wanted to hear more as VMware KNOWs the enterprise. While a breadth of customers was not provided, the one customer example referenced was a big one – Audi. Audi is looking to transform their factory floors for Industrial 4.0 – details here.
What’s the TechArena take? With solutions like ESX and VMware’s SDWAN configurations, we expect those IT admins who have trusted VMware in the cloud may also trust VMware at the edge, all questions about the current state of the company now as part of the Broadcom empire notwithstanding. The solutions discussed provide a practical approach to automated edge oversight, and I’d hoped the speakers would take more credit for what is VMware’s ace in the hole: understanding of customers at a very deep level. I would expect that customer discussions on this edge solution would reflect bringing the entire heritage of VMware to the table, and I expect to see other name brands like Audi to join as notable customer deployments for the edge stack solution.
Day one of Edge Field Day 3 kicked off with a presentation from VMware. This sage of enterprise cloud and expert in workload automation entered the presentation room with a challenge for us to forget about all of that and focus on the edge.
Chris Taylor, Product Marketing Manager and Alan Renouf, Technology Product Manager for the Software Defined Edge group, bring fantastic technical chops to the table. Alan has an extensive background in workload automation from the data center and Chris brings a unique perspective in manufacturing as a mechanical engineer - as well as seasoning in the security arena - to the table.
So what is the state of edge from a VMware perspective? VMware has created an edge compute stack leveraging an intelligent overlay of VMware VeloCloud SDWAN and SASE Security software and the VMware Telco Cloud Platform driving 5G, Fixed and LEOS network support. This software stack provides a horizontal foundation for deployment across edge environments and vertical use cases. Top markets extend across manufacturing floors, retail, energy generation and distribution, logistics operations and more. What drives customers to edge deployments? Too much data sitting at the edge, unreliable or inefficient networking from edge to cloud, and challenges in moving data due to regulatory requirements like data sovereignty are key customer pain points met by VMware customers.
And with this vast market and clear challenge driving deployment, you’d expect that edge implementations would be scaling like a hockey stick. But Chris and Alan pointed to key challenges for deployment sharing a slightly stunning stat from World Economic Forum that 70% of companies investing in industrial 4.0 projects get stuck in the pilot phase.
The challenges that many of these companies face include oversight of the scale and differentiation of myriad edge devices, use cases, and support required. Underpinning all of this is the noted difference in edge as compute that cannot be managed with the exact approach as cloud. After all, data centers are centralized…they’re rich with IT support, and they are, well, clean and orderly.
So what is VMware’s view on management of this wild west? Alan and Chris stated the approach needs to start with a change in workload management away from push architectures of cloud to pull mode. They signaled that the world of mobile app updates provide a parallel to how they’ve architected their edge stack to perform where management checks for updates and pulls updates when there is network capacity and compute cycles to load.
So how is VMware differentiated? Their edge optmization accounts for real time apps and simplified operations and is based on a flexible platform that grows with edge implementation and breadth of apps deployed. They’ve also built in support for both VMs and K8s with zero-touch orchestration delivering provisioning via preconfigured edge HW authorization and profiles established by an edge admin residing in a central location. This allows for plug-and-play deployment, which allows for an edge device to pull desired apps once plugged in without on-the-ground IT support. Edge admins maintain all workloads across edge locations with monitoring and downloads of components to match desired end state, all delivered by VMware’s Edge Cloud Orchestrator (VECO).
So who is tapping VMware for edge management? This is one area that I wanted to hear more as VMware KNOWs the enterprise. While a breadth of customers was not provided, the one customer example referenced was a big one – Audi. Audi is looking to transform their factory floors for Industrial 4.0 – details here.
What’s the TechArena take? With solutions like ESX and VMware’s SDWAN configurations, we expect those IT admins who have trusted VMware in the cloud may also trust VMware at the edge, all questions about the current state of the company now as part of the Broadcom empire notwithstanding. The solutions discussed provide a practical approach to automated edge oversight, and I’d hoped the speakers would take more credit for what is VMware’s ace in the hole: understanding of customers at a very deep level. I would expect that customer discussions on this edge solution would reflect bringing the entire heritage of VMware to the table, and I expect to see other name brands like Audi to join as notable customer deployments for the edge stack solution.
