Version 5.2 of VMware Cloud Foundation is on its way. It is the first new release of VCF with VMware under Broadcom’s ownership. The update promises to make the offering simpler than ever.
VCF 5.2 introduces several features that will make things easier for end users. For example, VCF Import will allow compute, vSAN storage and NSX networking to be managed through a single VCF deployment. This will eliminate the need to update these components separately, as The Register points out. Version 5.2 is expected to launch in July or August. VMware vSphere Foundation will also receive an update.
Furthermore, it will allow live patching of the VMware ESXi hypervisor. In addition, Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) will be completely decoupled from VCF, a logical consequence of the fact that Tanzu is now a separate division within Broadcom and not under VMware.
Fulfilling promises
Prior to Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, CEO Hock Tan promised that its offerings would be greatly reduced and simplified. More than fifty discrete products soon became two: VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and vSphere Foundation (VVF). Tanzu, Carbon Black, VMware EUC (now Omnissa) were divested and no longer belong to VMware at all. Other previously separate software offerings of VMware’s suite have now been bundled with either VCF or VVF.
Speaking to The Register, Prashanth Senoy, VP of Marketing, Cloud Platform, Infrastructure & Solutions, stated that the 5.2 update is “a first step” toward further innovation and simplification. CEO Hock Tan previously stated that VMware is intended to become a “hardware agnostic” platform. However, this simplicity comes with a hefty price tag, as we recently discussed with Jeff Ready, CEO of VMware alternative Scale Computing.
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