NFV Essentials Week in Review: Dell, EMC, VMware
By This week many people with an interest in next-generation data centers, software-centric networks, and virtualization gathered at the VMworld event.
While VMware was a pioneer in data center virtualization, lately companies like Docker have been moving in on its turf as interest and adoption of containers have grown. Many VMware customers have been experimenting with containers, and the company has been working to ensure it can play a role in helping companies of all types address the hot new container trend.
“VMware’s answer is to bring the benefits of containers with vSphere Integrated Containers, helping with the security anxiety,” Al Hilwa, program director of software development research at IDC, commented. “Additional technologies such as VMware Admiral and VMware Harbor will bring some of the attributes of cloud, like self-service and an enterprise container registry, to private cloud users. This may be just the right ticket for the traditional side of IT to dip its toes in the container world. It may even help the two sides of IT get closer together. What is important to assess is to what degree will VMware bring its customers to the promise land of digital transformation. The signs are good, but the company has to continue to invest to bridge the two sides of IT.”
VMware also served as a stage for Dell, which is close to finalizing its purchase of EMC (and EMC has a controlling share in VMware). Indeed, Dell CEO Michael Dell and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger at the event spoke about the companies’ joint plans and Dell’s intentions to keep the VMware ecosystem open.
“The open ecosystem of VMware is absolutely critical to its success,” said Dell. “We're not going to change it.”
Elsewhere on the virtualization front, NFV Essentials contributing writer Steve Anderson this week wrote about a new report emphasizing the importance of adapting business and operational support systems to address NFV.
