Tag Archives: Networking

VMware’s Virtual Cloud Network And The Emphasis Towards Networking

Dell EMC world is underway and new announcements and products are expected. Well, seems like we weren’t disappointed with VMware’s announcement introducing the Virtual Cloud Network.

VMware’s Virtual Cloud Network is built on technologies such as NSX and is an agile network and security fabric that connect apps, data and users regardless of their placement. This means apps running on AWS, GCP and private cloud can be brought under one network and security fabric simplifying scope of security and management. VMware is pushing towards the idea of having a singleton network fabric that can extend to multiple clouds and environments. The aim here is to have network evolve into a secure, programmable and a flexible fabric.

VMware’s virtual cloud network suite of products consists of,

  1. NSX SD-WAN – Powered by the recently acquired VeloCloud,  NSX SD-WAN provides the solution for connectivity and security across WAN. With NSX driven SD-WAN, you can now extend segmentation beyond your datacenter and seamlessly into multiple clouds/endpoints.
  2. NSX Cloud – Provides network and security solutions for public and private clouds.
  3. NSX Datacenter – Provides networking solutions for within the datacenter including containers and bare metal environments.
  4. NSX Hybrid Connect – Enables connectivity and seamless mobility between private and public clouds.

The Emphasis Towards Networking – VMware is finally coming in with a complete suite of networking products as it sets its sights on raising its profit margin by dominating the SDN market. For many years VMware was seen as a company that did not get networking right and VMware with the launch of Virtual cloud network is changing that perception. VMware, recently has been noted to have earned significant business with NSX and these investments into networking are a clear sign that network and security are part of the inner circle that is crucial for VMware’s success.

Analysts estimate that the network and security market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.74% from 2017 to 2022 and the market today is estimated to be around $5 billion and growing. With VMware taking the prime spot of being the leader that ties in network and security across multiple clouds, it shouldn’t be a surprise if it takes a bigger chunk of the network and security market.

vCloud Air vApp Networking “Pending” Status – Bug!

Been busy but I tried to squeeze out sometime to play with VMware’s vCloud Air On-Demand. If you been to the VMUG UserCon’s then you would know that VMware was giving away 200$ worth of free vCloud Air usage to test out the product.

I deployed a virtual machine – well actually I uploaded it to my Catalog and deployed it from there. I made sure i added it to the default routed network – which you get assigned by default. It is a /24 subnet that you get for your account.

Although my VM was on it – in the “networking” tab you see a “Pending” Status as shown in the below pic. This tab is part of the vCloud Director console so you will only see it when you manage your environment using vCloud Director.

vcloud-air-pending

VMware vCloud Air support today confirmed that this was a bug with vCloud Director and that it has no affect on network connectivity.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of this so you don’t freak out like I did 🙂