VMWare Enhances Edge Orchestration, Previews Private Mobile Networks

Enterprises and service providers alike are looking to the edge as the next frontier for digital transformation. Edge deployments today are proprietary integrations of custom hardware and software. These are giving way to the new software-defined edge that is intelligent, programmable, and scalable. VMware announced new capabilities, solutions, and services to help customers accelerate their digital transformation at the edge. These include:

• New VMware Edge orchestration capabilities to orchestrate and manage multiple edge services at scale.

• A soon to be available VMware Edge managed connectivity service enabling wireless service providers to deliver private 4G/5G services to enterprises.

VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator

Enterprises are looking to transform both the value they are delivering to their customers as well as how they deliver this value. The challenge in achieving the goal of leveraging the edge effectively is the complexity across people, processes, and technology. 

This includes a lack of reliable connectivity with a central data center or cloud location, a lack of IT expertise on-site at disparate sites, and the need to scale deployments to thousands of sites, often across domains and geographic boundaries.

To help address these challenges, VMware is introducing new and enhanced orchestration capabilities for the edge. VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator (formerly VMware SASE Orchestrator) will provide unified management for VMware SASE and the VMware Edge Compute Stack—an offering designed to bridge the gap between edge networking and edge compute. Enhancements to the orchestrator will help customers plan, deploy, run, visualize, and manage their edge environments in a friction-free manner—allowing them to run edge-native applications focused on business outcomes. The VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator (VECO) will deliver holistic edge management by providing a single console to manage edge compute infrastructure, networking, and security.

VMware defines the software-defined edge as a distributed digital Infrastructure that runs workloads across a number of locations, close to endpoints that are producing and consuming data. It extends to where the users and devices are—whether they are in the office, on the road or on the factory floor. Enterprises need solutions to connect these elements more securely and reliably to the larger enterprise network in a scalable manner. VMware’s approach to the software-defined edge features right-sized infrastructure (shrinking the stack to the smallest possible footprint); pull-based orchestration (security and administrative updates are “pulled” by the workload); and network programmability (defined by APIs and code). 

VMware Edge Compute Stack 

Building off the VMware Edge Cloud Orchestrator launch, VMware unveiled new orchestration capabilities for VMware Edge Compute Stack based on Project Keswick. Keswick is available as a Technology Showcase today and allows edge administrators to work with VMware to develop use cases. Customers will benefit from simplified lifecycle management of virtual machine (VM)- and containers-based applications and infrastructure. The technology offers pull-based configuration with zero touch provisioning and supports GitOps principles for desired state management. With scalable deployment and operations capabilities, it will also help customers automate security updates across edge infrastructure and enable edges lacking a stable inbound network connection.

VMware Edge Compute Stack’s support for new and existing applications enables customers to consolidate hardware and modernize applications at their own pace. The low-latency architecture helps operate high-speed robotics as well as share GPU resources across applications. This reduces infrastructure and management overhead enabling customers to scale their edge operations for innovations today and in the future. 

VMware Private Mobile Network

VMware also announced that the VMware Private Mobile Network, a managed connectivity service to accelerate edge digital transformation, will become initially available in the current quarter. VMware partners with wireless service providers to help remove the complexity associated with private mobile networks and enable enterprises to focus on their strategic business outcomes. Built on VMware Edge Compute Stack, VMware Private Mobile Network offers service providers VMware technology seamlessly integrated into existing IT management platforms, enabling rapid deployment and effortless management and orchestration. VMware is working with Betacom, Boingo Wireless, and Federated Wireless as the initial beta wireless service provider partners for this new offering.