| Guided reading | VMware has another new version of vSphere for virtualization administrators, vSphere 6.7, which isn't a major release, a bit confusing but important at the same time. |
VMware has another new version of vSphere for virtualization administrators, vSphere 6.7, which isn't a major release, a bit confusing but important at the same time.
First, it's important because this release shows how much confidence VMware has in the hybrid cloud. This is reflected in the new "vCenter Hybrid Linked Mode," which allows one version of vCenter running on-premises or in the cloud to run other versions of vCenter -- even completely different versions. This means VMware users don't need to keep their deployments in sync, avoiding the big bang upgrade approach to building a hybrid cloud.
VMware also added the Hybrid Cloud Extension to the Core VMware Cloud on AWS Service late last week. The extension, which was previously priced, is now available to customers for free. This is done to make VMware-on-AWS more hybrid cloud friendly, which in turn gives users a good reason to run vSphere on-premises.
Another reason this release is significant is that it reflects the accelerated release cadence VMware is working on developing vSphere-on-AWS. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll see VMware offering more 0.2-increment versions of vSphere, though, but it reflects VMware thinking of ways to catch up to AWS.
What's confusing us now: VMware has spent months alerting vSphere 5.5 users that support will end in September and that it will push users to vSphere 6.5.
VMware's explanation is that many users will appreciate the new features in 6.5, especially those upgraded from 5.5. VMware expects that the additional features in 6.7 -- mostly hybrid cloud -- will attract some users.
If hybrid cloud wasn't exciting enough, there are others. The ability to suspend workloads on virtualized Nvidia GRID GPUs is intended to allow users to deploy high-cost cards for user-centric applications like VDI, then switch to analytics or other workloads overnight.
For those who like the Optane packaged mainframe, they'll also like the non-volatile memory. 6.7 also halved the number of VMs that needed to be restarted after a patch or upgrade. Now all it takes is a dummy CTRL-ALT-DEL to get back up and running.
Support for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 and its virtual variants is an uncomplicated asset, as are the many tweaks to the vSphere HTML 5 client that allow it to manage vSphere, VSAN, and NSX.
VMware has brought a security surprise with a new version of AppDefense that can run outside of a hypervisor.
It's a surprise because the product's codename, "Project Goldilocks," reflects VMware's belief that hypervisors are the ideal place to observe workloads and perform least-privilege secure execution services.
This new version of AppDefense is able to enforce least privilege policies on containers. To do this, AppDefense will run in a least-privileged container -- initially only Aqua Security offered this, but VMware is already implementing this with other container vendors.
VMware says it knows the result is making virtual machines less siloed -- a shared operating system won't help -- but applying a strategy to both types of abstraction will not only win more partners, it will also impact customers .
Address of this article: https://www.linuxprobe.com/two-vmware-vsphere.html