After some actual, physical downpours at the beginning of VMware Explore in Barcelona, Broadcom is also making it rain metaphorically this week. It announces several enhancements to its VeloCloud SD-WAN portfolio. Chief among them is the announcement of VeloRAIN, a network architecture specifically aimed at AI workloads. There are also some new edge devices on the horizon and Broadcom is introducing a new partner program. We break down the new components of VeloCloud for you below.
Broadcom has traditionally felt at home in the networking world. As such, edge and SD-WAN feel like natural environments for the company. However, it also sees that with the rise of GenAI workloads, it needs to improve the network. After all, after compute, that is the most important component in any AI stack. Hence, Broadcom is equipping the VeloCloud portfolio with VeloRAIN, where RAIN stands for Robust AI Networking.
Broadcom VeloCloud gets VeloRAIN foundation
For Broadcom, VeloRAIN is the foundation for all the networking innovation the company is doing in the field of AI. It should boost the entire portfolio. At least that’s what Sanjay Uppal, the VP and GM for the VeloCloud division at Broadcom, says. By this he means not only distributed inferencing workloads, but also agentic applications and heavy Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) tasks. It is intended to improve not only the user experience in such workloads, but also security.
Broadcom VeloRAIN (the company no longer seems to use the prefix VMware in conjunction with VeloCloud) consists of several components. First, VeloRAIN uses AI and ML to detect AI applications. This was not possible or difficult to do until now due to the fact that this traffic was encrypted, among other things. That made it difficult to effectively identify AI applications and then also be able to provide them with appropriate prioritization on the network. Without that prioritization, it is hard to to guarantee performance. In other words, the Quality of Service was not as it should be.
The second part of VeloRAIN is concerned with optimizing the use of the network. It brings new features for intelligently estimating how to deploy and utilize channels of wireless links such as 5G and satellite. The goal is to be able to provide “fiber-like” Quality of Service over these wireless links. Not only that, these new features should also allow organizations to more easily and quickly set up and deploy a network at (edge) locations where they want it.
Finally, there’s the third component of VeloRAIN. This is not so much concerned with the network, but with setting up policies for prioritizing applications. For this, Broadcom uses AI, which should prioritize new applications automatically. It should also ensure that critical applications get the attention they deserve without the need for manual intervention. It also involves so-called DABS, or Dynamic Application-Based Slicing. This makes it possible to give applications an optimal Quality of Experience, regardless of the complexity of the underlying network. So that can include multiple networks.
New VeloCloud Edge 4100 and 5100
In addition to a new network architecture with VeloRAIN, Broadcom also has news in the hardware space. It also announces the VeloCloud Edge 4100 and 5100 appliances today. These are designed for large branch sites, regional hubs and data centers. They should provide organizations with the SD-WAN, security and AI networking they need in their most demanding environments.
The VeloCloud Edge 4100 offers up to 30 Gbps of throughput and can set up to 12,000 tunnels. That’s an improvement of up to 300 percent over its predecessor, the 3400- and 3800/3810-series appliances, according to Broadcom. The VeloCloud Edge 5100 takes this up a notch, with a throughput of 100 Gbps and the ability to set up up to 20,000 tunnels. This is not a replacement for an existing device, but a completely new product that can be seen as a new high-end offering. By greatly increasing the throughput and number of tunnels in general, organizations need to deploy fewer devices. That makes for a simpler network architecture, is the idea.
Titan: a new partner program for VeloCloud
The latest announcement Broadcom is making today at VMware Explore regarding VeloCloud is that there will be a new partner program. This program has been named Titan, or the Broadcom Advantage Partner Program for VeloCloud. Again, we see the VMware name being erased, as this program was always called the VMware VeloCloud Partner Program. According to Broadcom, the new program is built with MSPs in mind and consists of three tiers: Pinnacle, Premier and Registered. Other than that, it looks broadly like other partner programs we’ve seen. An interesting component, as far as we’re concerned, is that there will be a “white label” offering for partners in the highest tier. They can grow VeloCloud through regional and specialized channel partners with this offering.
All in all, Broadcom gives VeloCloud a substantial update today. VeloRAIN in particular catches our eye, and piques our interest. With it, Broadcom aims to move its SD-WAN offerings into the AI era. With the new VeloCloud Edge devices, Broadcom is also making the edge part of the larger AI story more than it did until now. That is, the desire in the market to do AI at the edge at organizations can now also be better fulfilled. The idea that this can be done without increasing (and perhaps even while decreasing) complexity is also certainly interesting. Finally, the new partner program should bring everything to market optimally.
We currently have no information on when the architecture, devices and programs announced today will be available.