VMware announced VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2.
The release features updates to help customers further improve the
storage, networking, management and security of large-scale virtual
machine and container deployments on the platform. VMware also announced
the availability of the vSAN Data Persistence platform,
including Cloudian HyperStore and MinIO Object Storage plug-ins.
Together, these offerings provide a unified, hybrid cloud-ready storage
platform for modern and traditional applications with operational
consistency and simplicity.
New VMware Cloud Foundation Release Delivers Broad Platform Enhancements
VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 introduces new features and enhancements
to further help customers deliver developer-ready infrastructure, scale
their infrastructure without compromise and simplify operations. This
new release features:
- vSAN Data Persistence platform: Manage S3-compatible object
storage for unstructured data with the industry-leading HCI platform via
support for Cloudian and MinIO offerings.
- vSAN HCI Mesh: Software-based approach for disaggregation of
compute and storage resources. It helps customers reduce CAPEX by
sharing capacity across vSAN clusters. It also lowers OPEX by reducing
the amount of storage resources managed through efficient scaling.
- NSX-T 3.1 Federation: Cloud-like operating model for network
administrators, simplifying the consumption of networking and security
constructs. This includes centralized management, consistent networking
and policy configuration with enforcement, and synchronized operational
state across large-scale federated NSX-T deployments. With NSX-T
Federation, customers can use stretched networks and unified security
policies that span multi-region VMware Cloud Foundation deployments,
providing workload mobility and simplifying disaster recovery.
- SDDC Manager Security Hardening: Secure communications
between SDDC Manager and underlying components to minimize threats to
VMware Cloud Foundation during all operational phases.
VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 is expected to become available in VMware's Q1 FY22. Read more about VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2.
A Closer Look at VMware vSAN Data Persistence Platform
Unveiled in September 2020,
the vSAN Data Persistence platform is a framework for ISVs to integrate
modern stateful services, like object storage and NoSQL databases, with
the underlying infrastructure. Through co-engineering efforts with
partners, such as Cloudian and MinIO, the platform enables customers to
run their stateful services with increased agility, lower TCO and
simplified operations and management. In conjunction with partners, the
platform enables customers to:
- Allow developers to use Kubernetes APIs to provision and scale
stateful services on-demand in a self-service model with minimal
administrator intervention.
- Deliver integrated service health and capacity monitoring through dedicated dashboards in VMware vCenter Server.
- Leverage service-aware infrastructure operations to enable service
availability during infrastructure changes, including maintenance and
lifecycle management.
- Run stateful services with optimal storage efficiency.
VMware offers customers two different deployment options for the platform:
- Standard vSAN Deployment: A fast and convenient way to get
started running stateful services on vSAN. Customers can run stateful
services and traditional apps on the same vSAN cluster to optimize
resource utilization. Customers can select the vSAN Support for Shared
Nothing Architecture (vSAN-SNA) storage policy to use the availability
features that come with stateful service and turn off replication in the
vSAN layer for space savings.
- vSAN Direct Configuration: Deploy stateful service on
hardware optimized for application needs and use the availability,
efficiency and security features built into the stateful service layer.
Additionally, it provides access to the underlying direct-attached
hardware for optimal storage efficiency and near bare metal performance.
It also supports hardware on the vSAN Hardware Compatibility List
(HCL). In addition, VMware provides recommended hardware configurations
that are tested and validated by VMware, Cloudian, MinIO and select OEM
partners for use cases of capacity-optimized object storage and
performance-optimized object storage.
In both scenarios, vCenter helps customers benefit from unified
storage management for modern and traditional apps. Read more about the
vSAN Data Persistence Platform here and the partner solutions here.
Object Store Offerings on VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu Now Available
Cloudian HyperStore and MinIO Object Storage are both available for
VMware Cloud Foundation with Tanzu through the vSAN Data Persistence
platform integration. VMware and its partners enable customers to deploy
object stores directly from vCenter in a few clicks. Customers can now
use:
- Cloudian HyperStore: An enterprise-class, infinitely
scalable, multi-tenant storage solution with military-grade security,
geo-distribution and fully native S3 compatibility that supports both
modern and traditional applications from a single platform. Learn more about Cloudian.
- MinIO High Performance Object Storage: A high-performance,
Kubernetes-native, S3 compatible object store, MinIO is designed to
deliver exceptional scale, security, resilience and throughput across a
range of workloads including AI/ML, analytics, archival and cloud-native
web/mobile applications. Learn more about MinIO.
Customers can purchase the object storage offerings directly from Cloudian and MinIO.