VMware Explore 2024: The Cloud is Moving Towards Private and Hybrid Environments

The CEO of Broadcom, Hock Tan, outlined the main challenges facing companies that have rushed into cloud adoption: complexity, costs, and regulations. While not groundbreaking news, this continues the logical evolution of the “cloud smart” strategy. 

Private and Hybrid Cloud

The overall costs and high complexity associated with hyperscale public cloud providers have led to a phenomenon known as cloud repatriation. According to VMware, around 80% of CTOs plan to optimize their IT strategies next year, bringing some workloads back to on-premises environments. VMware aims to provide a “cure” for this “hangover” by offering a top-tier platform for running private and hybrid clouds. This platform can operate seamlessly on-premises within a company or under the management of local VMware partners, like Geetoo.

The focus is not only on private cloud but also on private data that remains in the respective country, granting companies greater control over IT spending and ensuring data sovereignty. For workloads requiring high elasticity, organizations can still intelligently leverage the power of hyperscale providers. 

Product Innovations

Through VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, VMware is reshaping how its product ecosystem is perceived. The primary goal is to unify and simplify the management of the entire technology stack through a single console with integrated Single-Sign-On (SSO). The product is linked with Aria Operations technologies, ensuring complete visibility across the VMware infrastructure — from Compute and NSX virtual networks to vSAN storage. 

VMware also committed to openness for external vendors, allowing the core VMware functionality to be enhanced with additional management packs for hardware, storage, and other areas.

The platform is moving away from traditional IaaS services toward a comprehensive PaaS portfolio delivered via VMware Aria Automation. Emphasis is placed on user-friendliness and automation, enabled by Aria Automation. While VCF takes inspiration from hyperscale competitors, it also differentiates itself. 

Below, our experts from the Olomouc ICT team share what resonated most with them at this year’s event.

Martin Javorský (Technical Director)

Broadcom’s strategy is simplicity. Instead of hundreds of products, there will essentially be two: VCF (VMware Cloud Foundation) and VVF (VMware vSphere Foundation). The goal is to create a platform that competes with hyperscale clouds, especially AWS and Azure. This platform should provide customers with an integrated and easily manageable solution for running private clouds “anywhere,” whether on-premises in a company’s datacenter or with a local VMware cloud partner. Significant emphasis is placed on private cloud and private data. 

Jan Chlápek (IT Manager)

VMware Explore 2024 highlighted the critical role of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, which will bring transformative changes. VCF 9 will unify all key VMware products into a single technology stack, simplifying management and enabling better integration across the ecosystem. Instead of separate installations and configurations of components like Compute, Storage, or Networking, VCF 9 offers a unified solution, significantly speeding up deployments and simplifying operations. 

This marks a shift from IaaS services to a PaaS model, allowing users to deploy services like databases or application servers directly through an intuitive dashboard. This approach draws inspiration from hyperscale clouds while maintaining the flexibility and control required by private and hybrid clouds. For service providers like Geetoo, VCF 9 represents an opportunity to deliver technologically advanced and easily manageable services. 

Marek Hal (DevOps Specialist)

One of the key technical topics at VMware Explore 2024 was the new version of the Kubernetes platform and the integration of technologies for private AI. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 introduced a completely redesigned approach to deploying and managing Kubernetes through VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS). This service unifies previously fragmented solutions and provides an efficient foundation for deploying cloud-native technologies such as databases (PostgreSQL, MongoDB) and CI/CD tools. 

VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS), directly integrated into VCF, simplifies Kubernetes lifecycle management. VKS updates are now decoupled from vCenter, enabling faster adoption of new versions. Key innovations include support for Kubernetes nodes on Windows and the ability to manage through both GUI and CLI, increasing flexibility for developers and administrators. 

Advanced functionalities can be further extended through Tanzu products like Tanzu Platform (for developers) and Tanzu Mission Control (for administrators). Tanzu Platform provides a self-service portal where developers can deploy applications without in-depth Kubernetes knowledge, using a simplified workflow. In contrast, Mission Control focuses on centralized cluster management and monitoring. 

Another standout topic was the integration of private AI. VMware, in collaboration with NVIDIA, introduced NVIDIA Private AI—a platform enabling companies to run generative AI on their own data, ensuring security and privacy. This model of training directly on customer-specific data is a significant step for business AI use cases without compromising data protection. 

For service providers like Geetoo, NVIDIA Private AI offers the ability to provide not only GPU performance as a service (IaaS) but also advanced AI services, such as deploying and training language models via AI-as-a-Service. This allows customers to easily create and run private chatbots or other AI applications with minimal technical barriers.