vmworld

What’s announced at VMworld 2015?

This blog contains the most VMworld 2015 announcements summarized. The VMworld 2015 day 1 announcements were all about the Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC), Hybrid cloud and Cloud Native Apps (containers).  This blogpost will be updated with new announcements when available.

VMworld 2015 day 1

VMware EVO SDDC (EVO RACK). VMware EVO SDDC is designed to provide a simple to deploy and updated SDDC at rack-scale, and includes software-defined compute, storage, networking security, and management.

More information: Link

Virtual SAN (VSAN) 6.1. VSAN 6.1 is the third release with the following new features:

  • Virtual SAN Stretched Cluster
  • Virtual SAN for Remote Office / Branch Office (ROBO)
  • Virtual SAN Replication with vSphere Replication
  • Support for Multi-Processor Fault Tolerance (SMP-FT)
  • Support for Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) and Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC)
  • Maximum Performance and Low latencies
  • Virtual SAN Health Check-Plug-in
  • Virtual SAN Management Pack for vRealize Operations

More information: Link

Unified Hybrid Cloud. The Unified Hybrid Cloud platform has the following new services and features:

  • Project Skyscraper (Technology Preview): Live Migration (vMotion) between datacenters. For example between on-premises and vCloud Air.
  • VMware vCloud Air Disaster Recovery.
  • VMware vCloud Air Object Storage
  • VMware vCloud Air SQL
  • VMware vCloud Aur Advanced Networking Services
  • VMware vCloud Aur Hybrid Cloud Manager

More information: Link

vSphere Integrated Containers and Photon Platform. VMware vSphere Integrated Containers will enable IT teams to support any application, including containerized applications, on a common infrastructure. The VMware Photon Platform, which will include future integrations with VMware NSX, VMware Virtual SAN and VMware vRealize Suite.

More information: Link

VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO) 2. The new release is based on the OpenStack Kilo.

VMware Validated Design. VMware Validated Designs are architectures created and validated by VMware experts to build your SDDC.

More information: Link

Other announcements (not in the general session)

NVIDIA GRID 2.0:

  • Double user density up to 128 user per server
  • Blade support for NVIDIA GRID
  • Linux support

More information: Link, YouTube

App-Delivery Decision Maker for Horizon 6. The Decision Maker helps you navigate the wide array of options that Horizon 6 supports to meet your application delivery and user requirements.

More information: Link

End User Computing Best Practices poster.

More information: Link

Site Recovery Manager 6.1.  SRM 6.1 has the following new capabilities:

  • Storage Profile Based Protection. Storage policy-based management to simplify the process of adding and removing protection to virtual
    machines.
  • Stretched Storage and Orchestrated vMotion. Support for stretched storage solutions combined with cross-vCenter vMotion allows companies to
    achieve application mobility without incurring downtime, while taking advantage of all the benefits of
    Site Recovery Manager
  • Enhanced integration with VMware NSX. Enhancements to and integration with NSX 6.2 that simplify both the creation and execution of recovery
    plans and accelerate recovery time.

More information: Link

VMware NSX 6.2. NSX vSphere 6.2 includes the following new and changed features:

  • Cross vCenter Networking and Security
  • NSX 6.2 with vSphere 6.0 supports Cross vCenter NSX where logical switches (LS), distributed logical routers (DLR) and distributed firewalls (DFW) can be deployed across multiple vCenters, thereby enabling logical networking and security for applications with workloads (VMs) that span multiple vCenters or multiple physical locations.
  • Consistent firewall policy across multiple vCenters: Firewall Rule Sections in NSX can now be marked as “Universal” whereby the rules defined in these sections get replicated across multiple NSX managers. This simplifies the workflows involving defining consistent firewall policy spanning multiple NSX installations
  • Cross vCenter vMotion with DFW: Virtual Machines that have policies defined in the “Universal” sections can be moved across hosts that belong to different vCenters with consistent security policy enforcement.
  • Universal Security Groups: Security Groups in NSX 6.2 that are based on IP Address, IP Set, MAC Address and MAC Set can now be used in Universal rules whereby the groups and group memberships are synced up across multiple NSX managers. This improves the consistency in object group definitions across multiple NSX managers, and enables consistent policy enforcement
  • Universal Logical Switch (ULS): This new functionality introduced in NSX 6.2 as a part of Cross vCenter NSX allows creation of logical switches that can span multiple vCenters, allowing the network administrator to create a contiguous L2 domain for an application or tenant.
  • Universal Distributed Logical Router (UDLR): This new functionality introduced in NSX 6.2 as a part of Cross vCenter NSX allows creation of distributed logical routers that can span multiple vCenters. The universal distributed logical routers enable routing across the universal logical switches described earlier. In addition, NSX UDLR is capable of localized north-south routing based on the physical location of the workloads.

VMworld 2015 day 2

Day 2 announcements are about business mobility and End User Computing (EUC).

VMware Project A2,.  A new Technology Preview called Project A2 that offers a new mobile-centric approach to delivering and managing applications and devices for Windows 10 using AirWatch enterprise mobile management (EMM) and VMware App Volumes application delivery technology. This integrated solution enables our customers to accelerate their adoption of Windows 10 with mobile-like management for their devices and applications. Project A2combining #Airwatch and #Appvolumes to deploy applications to Physical endpoints

VMware Identity Manager Advanced Edition. introducing a new identity solution called VMware Identity Manager Advanced Edition that is a standalone identity as a service (IDaaS) solution for simplified access and identity management. Our existing solutions, Horizon and AirWatch already include this key enabling technology platform for delivering a single sign-on experience for Windows, SaaS and mobile applications. We are now announcing the release of this key, proven technology as a standalone product for customers that seek a standalone identity as a service solution.

More information: Link.

VMware Horizon 6.2 and VMware Horizon 6.2 for Linux such offers the following new capabilities:

  • VMware Horizon 6.2 will deliver applications at scale with new features to make the deployment and management of RDSH applications easier and more scalable. View Composer with Linked Clones will allow you to simply deploy and quickly update your entire RDSH farm. Load balancing improvements will allow you to balance applications based on various load metrics (CPU or memory usage) and will include an extensible interface to balance RDSH hosts based on metrics. The solution will also integrate Horizon Apps into the Cloud Pod Architecture (CPA) to allow virtual machines to scale between sites and between datacenters.
  • VMware Horizon 6.2 will also deliver a richer and more seamless user experience for apps and desktops.
  • Delivering rich 3D desktops and apps has never been easier. VMware Horizon 6.2 together with NVIDIA GRID cards will deliver high-end 3D graphics applications with RDSH in addition to 3D VDI desktops. VMware Horizon 6.2 will add support for NVIDIA GRID and NVIDIA GRID 2.0. NVIDIA GRID 2.0, based on NVIDIA’s award winning Maxwell architecture, will offer higher user density with higher performance to more platforms. The solution will support 4K (3840×2160) high resolution desktops and Linux desktops. Finally, vDGA pass through graphics will be extended to support select AMD FirePro GPUs for Windows VDI desktops.
  • It will be easier to work with local files too, with VMware Horizon 6.2. With VMware Horizon 6.2, hosted applications will be easier than ever to use with support for File Type Association with Windows clients, making it easy to open a file with a remote app right from the Windows Explorer. Client Drive Redirection, which allows easy access to files on your computer, will be extended with encryption for greater security, along with new support for Mac clients. In addition, Linux client support will be available as a tech preview.
  • There will also be communication improvements. VMware Horizon 6.2 will support the Skype for Business messaging application (formerly known as Microsoft Lync) on several Windows platforms including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2012 R2 with Windows 10 desktops, and RDSH desktops running on Windows 2008 R2 and Windows 2012 R2 Servers.
  • VMware Horizon 6.2 with latest Horizon Client 3.5 for iOS will also offer the option of using Touch ID for easy login to your apps or desktops. Once enabled by the administrator, end-users can enjoy amazing one-touch access when using an iPhone or iPad.
  • Oh, did I forget Windows 10? Windows 10 is fully supported across the entire VMware Horizon portfolio including Horizon clients, desktops and hosted applications. . This day 0 support of Windows 10 continues our commitment to offering compatibility with the latest innovative technologies. With Windows 10 desktops running on VMware Horizon virtual desktops, end-users have full access to the features and functionality available from Windows 10 and VMware Horizon.
  • VMware Horizon 6.2 is also optimized for the VMware SDDC environment and already supports the latest release of vSphere – vSphere 6 U1. We leverage the new all-flash Virtual SAN to support double the number of users at the same cost, double your density, and supports over four thousand users per cluster. You can take advantage of the vSAN stretched cluster technology to deploy Horizon across multiple sites.
  • There will be more security in VMware Horizon as well. VMware Horizon 6.2 includes a hardened appliance to secure access to the Horizon infrastructure from outside the corporate firewall. Integration with VMware Identity Manager, included with Horizon Advanced and Horizon Enterprise, will provide end-users with secure, customizable access to resources using an expanding set of authentication sources including two-factor and bio-metric fingerprint authentication.
  • For federal government customers, the solution will also be compliant with the FIPS 140-2 regulation for security
  • VMware User Environment Manager (UEM) 8.7, included with Horizon Enterprise, will fully support Windows 10 and will offer even greater efficiency for dynamic updates to the mobile user environment. It will also be able to detect a wide range of connections including PCoIP, Blast, RDP, and Citrix. VMware User Environment Manager natively supports policies based on client name and IP for VMware Horizon connections with improved application profiling. Administrators will have greater visibility and new tools for analysis to understand when and where UEM settings are applied.
  • There will be new advancements in VMware Horizon for Linux as well. VMware Horizon for Linux will support NVIDIA GRID 2.0 to deliver shared and scalable 3D graphics to Linux users with up to 4 displays. VMware Horizon 6.2 for Linux will also offer support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1.

More information: Link

VMware Project Enzo. Offers our customers transformed economics and cloud simplicity for virtual desktops and apps via a modern hybrid architecture and hyper converged infrastructure. Project Enzo will be available as beta.

More information: Link

VMworld Europe 2013– vCloud Hybrid Services (vCHS) and DAAS recap

To deliver IT as a Service, VMware has for the coming year(s) the following focus areas:

  • Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC). See the VMworld 2013 SDDC recap here Link
  • End User Computing (EUC). See the VMworld 2013 EUC recap here Link
  • vCloud Hybrid Services (vCHS)

In this last blog post I dig deeper in vCloud Hybrid Services (vCHS) and DAAS  announcements.

Desktop-As-A-Service (DAAS)

VMware acquired Desktone to enter the Desktop-As-A-Service (DAAS) market. Desktone offers:

  • Self Service of virtual desktops. Simple provisioning from the cloud enables self-service for IT of full VDI, shared session remote desktop service (RDS) desktops and applications without the need to procure hardware or software.
  • Multi-tenancy. Each customer gets a separate virtual environment to ensure security while cloud providers are able to manage multiple customers under one platform.
  • Grid-based architecture for elastic scalability. Advanced architecture enables unlimited scalability across multiple geographies and data centers.
  • Low cost of delivery. Open source based technology eliminates Microsoft licensing fees and third-party software management, resulting in cost savings over competitive desktop virtualization offerings.

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The Desktone broker can scale much larger than a VMware Horizon View broker. So it is much more suitable as multi-tenant solution. Another point is that Desktone supports multiple OSes such as Windows Server, Windows Client and Linux as VDI desktop. These desktops can be managed from a single portal, while customer have there own portal in multi-tenant environment.

With Desktone, VMware partners can offer a Desktop-As-A-Service to there customers.

vCloud Hybrid Services (vCHS)

VMware vCloud Hybrid Service, built on VMware vSphere. This enables customers to extend the same applications, networking, management, operations and tools across both on-premises and off-premises environments (private cloud).  vCHS is the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) public cloud service from VMware. 

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You can choose two flavors:

  • Dedicated Cloud. This option is fully isolated. You get your own vCloud Director instance. 
  • Virtual Private Cloud. This option runs on physical servers with VMs from other tenants. It is fully isolated from each other.

See the picture below what are the minimum starting resources:

image_thumb7

When you choose for example a dedicate cloud you start with 30GHz vCPU, 120GB vRAM, 6 TB disk space etc. You pay for Compute, 24 x7 support, persistent disk(s) and the bandwidth you use. Services as firewalls, load balancers, VPNs, DHCP. NAT and redundancy such as HA are free.

VMware will offer a private beta of vCloud Hybrid Service in the United Kingdom  (Slough) in Q4, with general availability (GA) planned in Q1 2014.

VMware vCloud Management Marketplace (CMM)

VMware vCloud Management Marketplace (CMM) is a single place were VMware and partners can put there solutions such as Orchestration Plug-ins, Management Packs, Blueprints and Content Packs . Customers can browse and download these tested and validated solutions in there environment.

The Marketplace can be found here link.

VMworld Europe 2013– End User Computing (EUC) recap

To deliver IT as a Service VMware has for the coming year(s) the following focus areas:

  • Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC). See the VMworld 2013 SDDC recap here. Link
  • End User Computing (EUC)
  • vCloud Hybrid Services (vCHS)

In this blog post I dig deeper in End User Computing (EUC) announcements . In the next blog post I will cover the vCHS and DAAS announcements.

End User Computing (EUC)

The VMware Horizon Suite has three main components:

  • VMware Horizon View
  • VMware Horizon Mirage
  • VMware Horizon Workspace

In the Horizon suite VMware vCenter Operations Manager for View will now be included and Horizon Workspace will support Citrix XenApp. The other announcements were only on Horizon View and Horizon Mirage.

VMware Horizon View

VMware Horizon View 5.3 is announced.  Some new features are:

  • Support for Virtual SAN (VSAN) beta. One use case for Horizon View  is definitely VSAN. It would be great if VMware could include the VSAN license when it Generally Available (GA) in the Horizon View!
  • 3D graphics with virtual Dedicated Graphics Acceleration (vDGA).  For graphical demanding apps such as 3D CAD you can use a dedicated GPU card such as the NVIDIA GRID K1 and K2 card.
k1 k2
  • Support for Windows 8.1 VDI desktops. Using the latest Windows Desktop OS as VDI desktop.
  • Use Windows 2008 as VDI desktop OS. Using Windows 2008 as VDI desktop simplifies the licensing when connecting with non-Windows devices.
  • View Agent Direct Connection (VADC).  This can be handy for branch ROBO offices to connect to the VDI desktop(s) without a broker.

For more new features see the “What’s New in VMware Horizon View 5.3 “ information. Link

ThinApp

ThinApp 5.0 is announced. Back in March, VMware let our customers know that we planned to consolidate ThinApp licensing into the Horizon Suite and bundles After partners and customers complaining about this. VMware now announced that they will continue to deliver ThinApp as a standalone SKU!  Great news!

Other new features are:

  • Supports 64-bit applications
  • Support for Office 2013 and Internet Explorer 10
  • Improved ThinDirect management with new ADMX & ADM policy files

VMware Mirage

Horizon Mirage version 4.3 is announced.  When combining View with VMware View 5.3, administrators can now manage View persistent desktop pools with full clones. Application and base images can be updated without affecting users installed applications    and  personalization. Other new features are:

    • New CVD Policy Features . Horizon Mirage 4.3 introduces some CVD policy features that will help speed up deployments. A new image management policy allows centralization of CVDs to occur with little to no data upload. This feature also helps in Windows 7 migration deployments because there is less data that gets uploaded to the Horizon Mirage Server. Optimization settings for LAN environments allow for faster centralization phases. IT also now has more control over throttling of the Horizon Mirage client on each endpoint.
    • Windows 7 Migration Enhancements – During a Windows 7 migration project, user downtime is a critical component to how successful the project will be. In Horizon Mirage 4.3, during OS migration we’ve introduced the ability to deploy Windows 7 applications layers along with the base layer. This helps in getting applications to users in a quicker manner.
    • Web Console Enhancements. A new role in the Horizon Mirage Web Console has been introduced. The Protection Manager role helps IT administrate endpoints from a single pane of glass. Endpoint centralization status, trends and endpoint errors are provided in a dashboard view. The Protection Manager can edit upload policies, build collections, restore endpoints,and much more.
    • Centralization Calculator.  Endpoints typically get centralized while end users work. Now, estimating how long the centralization process can take is made possible with the new Centralization Calculator. Simply fill in the values that your environment is comprised of, such as total number of endpoints and CVD size, and the calculator will estimate the centralization time phase. This is applicable to any environment of any size.