VMworld 2022 US: Day 1 Highlights – Cloud Foundation, vSAN, and NSX-T

The first day of VMworld 2022 US has come to an end, and it was filled with exciting announcements and demos. As a vCloud Foundation (vCF) enthusiast, I was eager to attend the workshop on Cloud Foundation, which provided a comprehensive overview of the solution. Here are my highlights from Day 1:

Cloud Foundation Workshop

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The workshop on Cloud Foundation was a great way to start the day. Gabe Rosas, the product manager for vCF, presented an overview of the solution and its benefits. He discussed how vCF automates the construction and maintenance of a private or hybrid cloud using an appliance called Cloud Builder* and a spreadsheet of configuration. Additionally, he highlighted the importance of SDDC Manager in maintaining, operating, and scaling the SDDC.

One thing that surprised me was the lack of a demonstration for the initial deployment. However, we did get to see demos of deploying a new Workload Domain (WD) vSphere+vSAN and a Workload Domain Horizon. These demos showcased the ease of deploying and managing workloads in a vCF environment.

HCX and Legacy Workload Integration

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Gabe also discussed the possibility of using HCX (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure) to migrate legacy workloads to a WD vCF. While this may seem like an attractive option, I find it disappointing that there is no clear path for integrating existing workloads into the vCF ecosystem.

vSAN and vSphere

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The day also included presentations on vSAN and vSphere. Hicham (he-sham) Mourad presented a session on the vRealize suite of products, which includes vSphere, vCenter, and NSX-T. The session covered the benefits of these products and provided hands-on exercises for attendees to try out.

NSX-T Workshop

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The highlight of the day was the workshop on NSX-T, which was presented by Hicham Mourad. The workshop covered the advantages of NSX-T, including its ability to provide load balancing and automate network services. Hicham also discussed the new features of NSX-T, such as the ability to manage multiple tenants in a single NSX-T deployment.

One interesting tidbit that came out of the presentation is that VMware has acquired AVI Networks, which specializes in load balancing solutions. This acquisition could potentially improve the load balancing capabilities of NSX-T.

Infrastructure Design and Automation

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The day also included discussions on infrastructure design and automation. VMware demonstrated its support for Terraform and Ansible for automating vCF deployments. These tools can help streamline the deployment process and provide a more consistent and repeatable infrastructure.

Conclusion

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Overall, Day 1 of VMworld 2022 US was an exciting start to the conference. The Cloud Foundation workshop provided a comprehensive overview of the solution, and the presentations on vSAN, vSphere, and NSX-T were informative and engaging. The lack of a clear path for integrating existing workloads into the vCF ecosystem was a slight disappointment, but I am hopeful that this will be addressed in future updates.