VMware Cloud Foundations delivering Economies of Scale

Why VMware Cloud Foundation v4 will change IT as we know it!

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Well, I have to admit, that’s a pretty bold title. But it’s true. We can discuss it a little more in-depth as we proceed!

For those of you who are not familiar with VMware Cloud Foundation, or VCF – It’s certainly not something new. I’ve written about it numerous times over the past 5+ years, and if you remember VCF from its earlier SDDC birth under the EVORAIL nomenclature or vendor iterations like EMC’s VSPEX Blue, it is everything it was in the past, but nothing like it was in the past. It’s definitely transformed substantially with everything we hoped that vision could have ever possibly been.

What I’ll be sharing below is an mixture of Official VMware-messaging on the VMware Cloud Foundation story, but also my views and perspectives as a practitioner who has been around the block and seen this grow from a mere idea to the truly advanced version of the solution as it is today. Honestly, in the beginning it was more of a licensing model more than anything else, with big dreams, and I’ll tell you, those dreams have come true! I’m trying to think of some kind of analogy of VCF as a Disney Princess… Perhaps Cinderella in some kind of rags to rich story, where the Admins are the mice who are helping … okay this has gone off the rails! Let’s get to the Foundation!

Foundation First!

This is where the true gold of the solution comes out. And now to mention amazing VM rockstar Glenn Sizemore @glnsize put this video out -3- days ago at the time of this writing, which is a must-watch for VCF aficionados, or “I’m new to VCF!” It’ll give you a refresh on where we are at with VCF, but more importantly … it’ll start to let you dip your toe into the water of truly understanding how Kubernetes, Microservices and Service Meshes can not only be a part of your Infrastructure, but also wholly eliminate the barrier to entry!

Automation? DID YOU SAY AUTOMATION!!?

Erk, I’m not sure I said automation yet, I mean the video kind of implied it, but since we let that cat out of the bag…

Yes… VCF actually enables automation as part of your vSphere operations existence, and then some actually. I mean, let’s peel back the onion a bit on how VMware (vSphere) as well as many of the other components is delivered today.

At it’s core VMware is typically deployed in a manner of ways,

  • The CORE HCI approach where vSphere (and sometimes VSAN) is deployed manually or using scripts, leveraging localized tribal knowledge
  • The CORE HCI approach where vSphere and other applications are deployed following the VMware Validated Designs
  • The VMware Cloud Foundation approach where you deploy vSphere, VSAN, Lifecycle Manager, vRealize, NSX, Kubernetes, PKS and more via SDDC Manager
  • Or various Hybrid Cloud Approaches like VMware Cloud on AWS, or VMware Cloud on Azure, or VMware Cloud on GCP, or VMware Cloud on Oracle or … (something something the word Cloud something something another company) I think you get the vision…

But deployment being one piece of the puzzle … Okay, NOW I’m going to say Automation … For anyone out there who has managed a single vCenter … or 1000+ vCenter’s as I have in my time … Automation is key. And when you do NOT have automation or the capability within your environment, then things can become time-consuming and do open the door to being error prone. That’s one piece of the puzzle about VCF that was part of the dream, the vision, which frankly is a reality and has been for quite some time. Imagine a world where not only can you say “Hey, go get me these updates” where it will install the updates and keep things current. It’s madness, madness I know, but it’s amazing. Quite truly amazing! That piece of the puzzle is pretty amazing.

In the early days of SDDC the automation was limited solely to ‘deploying quickly’ and deploying, we’re really just talking ESXi would deploy quickly. I’m not too sure how many people would feel that was particularly difficult, but it is what it is, or “It’s what It’s!” 🙂

But now, we truly live in a world where ALL of the components mentioned above, vSphere, VSAN, Lifecycle Manager, vRealize, NSX, Kubernetes, PKS, (I’m definitely leaving a number of things out) can be configured and deployed and ready for production use in hours to minutes instead of weeks to months. And I’m being rather aggressive on that “Months” figure, I’ve seen some of those pieces when rolled by hand taking far longer to achieve. So the point is, VCF helps take the Operations Burden and minimize to eliminate it, so more time can be spent managing operations and keeping the lights on and not just trying to find the light switch to turn on in the first place.

Container What? Kuber-Who!? Laying out in the sun and getting a Tanzu!?

Wait a minute, didn’t I just mention Kubernetes a moment ago in “easy to deploy, manage and use?!” Yea, I think I did. That’s actually some of the very exciting stuff in the VCF 4 release is all of the joy of the investments made within the past year or two are coming to fruition. That’s lightning speed at how quickly this stuff has come to market. I know the folks who’ve been working at “Making Kubernetes Easy” within VMware and they’ve done an amazing job. Contrast that to trying to get K8s setup on the daily, make it best practice, functional and useful and so much more … Just having it up and running and deployed, well this may very well be one of the most exciting pieces of the VCF 4 + vSphere 7 + EVERYTHING that’s come out recently in the release family! I’m really excited and I highly encourage checking out the 4 Part series on the VMware Blog on Kubernetes on VCF!

Whoa! That’s a lot to take in!

Yea you’re telling me. I mean seriously, I’ve said it a dozen times so far but VCF is not something NEW, it’s been around but it continues to improve and become better and better with every version. It’s not a 1.0 release anymore, not even a 4.0! (It’s 4.0.1 right now :))

That said though, Gone are the days where this was merely a marketing tool, or a licensing model or any number of a dozen other things. It truly has transformed the product suites, the integration pieces and the datacenter. Each piece of the Infrastructure puzzle binds together to make the Datacenter and Applications – The Compute, Storage, Network, Management, Security and Automation and have tied this all together. VMware Validated Designs are nice, but imagine NOT having to do nearly as much legwork to get the same or better outcome. That is some solid gold right there. Not to mention (but here I go!) throwing Containers, Service Meshes and AI/ML (both for scientists, researchers with Bitfusion, but also the Security aspect, CarbonBlack and such!) and you can even do EUC? Okay, I better stop, you’re gonna lose your mind! But seriously.

Those of you who have already been flying the VCF flag, I get it. Those of you who have heard inklings of it, but just weren’t sure about it, hopefully this AND the resources below will be able to give you a better vision of things. And for those of you completely new to VCF, Welcome to the family! The time has come for true Datacenter Transformation! Call it a Convergence (OMG did I make a HCI pun?! :))

What are some resources where I can get started?

Below are some cited places to get more information and check some things out, but I have to admit, the VMware Cloud Foundation information at StorageHub is the most comprehensive collection of getting started with VCF and all of the components contained, including “Guided” Lab examples, which I find to be better (well, very similar to) the HOL version. Contrasted to the BUILD YOUR OWN LAB using nested ESXi video by vExpert, Charles Chow! @CharlesChow4 of the blog: ThinkCharles – Okay, well, look to the resources! 🙂

VMware Cloud Foundation @ StorageHub!

VMware Cloud Foundation “Hands on Lab”

How to build a private cloud at home in 3 hours with VMware Cloud Foundation!

Deep dive into VMware Cloud Foundation – Part 1 Building a Nested Lab

Deep dive into VMware Cloud Foundation – Part 2 Nested Lab deployment

What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 4

Hands-on with VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0

I hope you found this at all helpful and useful! Leave your thoughts and reflections in the comments below and otherwise stay safe and stay learning! 🙂