VMware Makes NSX Everywhere Push

VMware today at the Dell Technologies World 2018 conference significantly expanded the number of platforms supported by VMware NSX network virtualization software.

VMware announced that NSX can now support containerized workloads as well as bare-metal applications. In addition, an instance of NSC Cloud is now available on the Microsoft Azure Cloud.

VMware announced it has also optimized NSX to support network function virtualization (NFV) software. Among the first telecommunications carriers to employ NSX in that regard are Telstra and Swisscom.

Finally, VMware is delivering on promised VMware NSX SD-WAN integration with VMware NSX Data Center and VMware NSX Cloud. VMware NSX SD-WAN is based on the SD-WAN platform VMware gained by acquiring Velocloud last year.

Because applications now run everywhere, IT organizations need to extend the reach of NV overlays that are software-defined, especially in the age of the cloud, says Rajiv Ramaswami, chief operating officer for products and cloud services at VMware.

“A lot of the time organizations no longer own the hardware their applications are running on,” says Ramaswami.

That support will also be extended to all distributions of Kubernetes clusters running cloud-native applications based on containers as well as compute resources deployed at the edge within the context of an Internet of Things (IoT) application, adds Ramaswami.

VMware is clearly racing to make NSX as broadly available as possible before rivals such as Cisco can upgrade network infrastructure that comes with SDN functionality built into the switch. Rather than forcing IT organizations to essentially roll out a major forklift upgrade to their network infrastructure, VMware is making a case of a network virtualization overlay that can be deployed on any type of hypervisor or bare-metal server.

It remains to be seen how much success VMware will ultimately enjoy pursuing the approach. But with roughly 4,500 customers and over 60 service providers using NSX, along with 2,000 VeloCloud customers, it’s clear VMware is a force to be reckoned with.