With the launch of vSphere 7U1, VMware brings the fastest way to get started with Kubernetes in existing infrastructure, providing even more opportunities for PowerEdge and vSphere customers. The integration and partnership is designed to make running workloads on PowerEdge faster and easier than ever before.
Today’s organizations face countless challenges on their journey to the hybrid cloud. Managing monstrous amounts of data, determining workload placement, running containers, juggling multiple operating models and dealing with infrastructure silos – all while prioritizing security – is no easy feat. Application modernization is often slow and expensive. And for organizations running Kubernetes, developer teams can spend a significant amount of time on infrastructure operations related to networking and storage. This slows down production and takes away resources that could be better used elsewhere.
The shift toward modern applications and container use is most certainly on the rise. In fact, IDC predicts that over the next five years, enterprises will build 500 million logical apps using cloud native tools and methods. For comparison, that’s equal to the total number of apps built over the last 40 years.¹ IDC also predicts that by 2022, 77% of organizations will deploy containers primarily in the data center.²
Modern Applications Require Modern Infrastructure
It’s no secret that modern applications require modern infrastructure. Fortunately, using the right tools and choosing the right IT partners can help you navigate the journey. By consolidating and using existing resources to simplify and accelerate workload deployment, you can better manage your applications and free up staff to focus on other critical tasks.
Today, VMware announced vSphere 7U1, which includes several updated features to help organizations modernize their workloads and infrastructure. One of those key new features is vSphere with Tanzu, which brings Kubernetes to the fingertips of millions of IT admins across the globe.
This update is significant because it provides even more opportunities to help our joint Dell PowerEdge and VMware customers meet the needs of their customers. Building on a 20+ year partnership, together we have a solid foundation of providing integrated solutions that help organizations manage their workloads and navigate their journey to the hybrid cloud.
“VMware vSphere with Tanzu in combination with Dell PowerEdge servers will provide organizations with the fastest path to modernize their workloads,” said Krish Prasad, SVP CPBU and GM vSphere, VMware. “Dell PowerEdge customers will have rapid access to VMware vSphere with Tanzu at general availability—providing them with the latest technologies to kickstart their Kubernetes initiatives and deliver self-service access to application-ready infrastructure to their developers.”
With today’s focus on modern applications it’s now more critical than ever that your hardware and software work together. Not only do you need a modernized approach to applications, but you need modernized infrastructure to run those applications.
So, whether you’re just getting started with virtualization or already using Kubernetes, here are 9 Reasons to partner with Dell PowerEdge and VMware on your journey to the hybrid cloud:
- Simplicity – vSphere with Tanzu simplifies operations of Kubernetes on premises. You can use vCenter for managing Kubernetes workloads by deploying Kubernetes clusters, provisioning role-based access and allocating capacity for developer teams.
- Unified lifecycle management – vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), a new feature in vSphere 7, provides one solution to configure, patch, or upgrade ESXi clusters. With 7 U1, vLCM capabilities patching and firmware upgrades are expanded to vSAN, and NSX-T. Paired with Dell Open Manage Integration for VMware vCenter (OMIVV), you can automate and consolidate key PowerEdge server management tasks in the VMware vCenter console. The time savings is significant. In fact, a recent Principled Technologies study showed that using vLCM with OMIVV to update the hypervisor and firmware on PowerEdge servers in an eight-node cluster resulted in 98% fewer steps and 98% less hands-on time than doing it manually.
* Based on Principled Technologies Study, August 2020, Commissioned by Dell Technologies
- Fast – Developer teams spend a lot of infrastructure operations related to networking and storage for Kubernetes deployment, which takes away time from development and slows down the speed to production. With vSphere with Tanzu, operations can now leverage existing vSphere environment to deliver Kubernetes clusters to the developer teams quickly.
- Flexible – PowerEdge servers can help you flexibly architect your hybrid cloud with a wide variety of form factors, including the PowerEdge MX, which was built for the SDDC with our kinetic architecture. vSphere with Tanzu allows you to BYOS (bring your own storage), and you can choose your own L4 load balancing solutions.
- Use existing resources – With vSphere with Tanzu, you can drop-in enterprise grade Kubernetes into your existing infrastructure. Working within the already familiar vCenter, you can now:
- Provision Kubernetes clusters within minutes using the same familiar, simple tools
- Allocate core infrastructure services and resources using namespaces for developer teams
- Manage and deploy Kubernetes workloads and provision role-based access and allocating capacity
- Manage multiple Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) clusters as namespaces with observability, troubleshooting and resiliency
- Align Dev Ops & IT – IT teams are often challenged with infrastructure silos, and IT struggles to deliver infrastructure for modern applications at the desired pace of Dev Ops teams or LOB; vSphere with Tanzu allows these teams to operate with their existing skillset and deliver a self-service access to infrastructure for the Dev Ops team, while also delivering observability and troubleshooting for Kubernetes to IT teams. Now IT teams can use vSphere tools to deliver modern developer services to developer teams on existing vSphere infrastructure and manage multiple Kubernetes clusters alongside virtual machines through vCenter.
- Scale – PowerEdge servers are designed with scalable business architecture designed for modern workloads. Whether it’s a scale-up or scale-out need, PowerEdge servers are designed to support flexibility on the processors, accelerators, memory, storage and networking. With vSphere 7u1, a vSphere cluster can now support 50% higher number of hosts (compared to a previous release). And vSAN HCI mesh (7 U1) enables you to scale storage and compute separately, improving scalability and resource storage and compute utilization.
- Support – Dell ProSupport offers a single contact with 1,800+ VMware certified Dell support professionals. This means only one call to support both hardware and software, with nearly all calls handled without escalation.
- Prepare for Future Growth – Since vSphere is required to run vSAN, NSX and VMware Cloud Foundation, running them on PowerEdge servers lays a solid foundation for future growth. You can take advantage of the many benefits of Dell vSAN Ready Nodes or use VCF for your hybrid cloud deployments. So, no matter where you are on your journey to the hybrid cloud, PowerEdge and VMware provides customized solution that help you simplify and accelerate your modern applications.
Together, Dell and VMware look forward to our continued partnership as we help our joint customers navigate this rapidly changing world of modern apps along their journey to the hybrid cloud.
To learn more about joint PowerEdge and VMware solutions, visit our solutions page.
¹ IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2020 Predictions, Doc # US45599219, Oct 2019.
² Worldwide Container Infrastructure Software Forecast, 2018–2022, IDC, Dec 2018.
