Last week, Broadcom announced its intention to acquire VMware. That has our industry wondering: what is the future of VMware? We know many RackN customers rely on VMware products, so we wanted to take a moment to explain how RackN helps secure and even strengthen your VMware position.
tl;dr we’ve got your back.
How are you feeling about the future of VMware?
Since VMware vSphere has been the leading hypervisor for a long time, you probably have it deployed in some form in your organization. So it’s only natural to feel a little nervous about this type of acquisition. Most people are asking themselves “what are Broadcom’s intentions for the future VMware? How can I be sure my investment in VMware isn’t lost?!”.
RackN customers currently operate global VMware footprints that run on tens of thousands of servers. We’ve helped them make VMware easier to operate, and we’ll be there no matter the future with Broadcom.
When was the last time VMware operations were easy to use?
If we’re being honest, VMware operations are not always straightforward. Think about the times you’ve had to update versions. How many times did you stumble over undocumented steps? How many times did you wait to upgrade because it was so disruptive that staying on older versions was just easier?
If the hypervisor layer is now a required part of infrastructure, it should be managed in a cloud-like manner. That means vSphere needs things like zero touch provisioning, day 2 operational automation, etc. It needs to be run as code. Who knows, maybe this acquisition will help with that gap!
In the meantime, RackN can already do all of those things for VMware. The customers I mentioned before already use RackN Digital rebar to build unmatched provisioning, security and workflow integrations for vSphere. These integrations start from the bare metal and extend into Day 2 operations support.
What if you could manage VMware as Code?
What if the future of VMware is tied to infrastructure as code? RackN makes it easy to manage VMware as Code. Here are specific examples of how we are currently helping customers:
- Get servers ESXi ready (including VCF deployments)
- Drive VCF to deploy vSphere clusters
- Many more – check out our Digital Rebar content packs for VMware
RackN is an end-to-end Infrastructure as Code automation platform. As you can see, we already have pre-built content packs to help you run VMware as code.
One great side effect of our IaC platform is that it can eliminate the risks that come with relying on a single vendor. With Digital Rebar, you can create agnostic, portable infrastructure pipelines that make it possible to change hypervisors, swap operating systems, and infrastructure suppliers (cloud, edge and metal). Not only does this enable decoupling vendor-specific tooling so you can leverage a range of hardware platforms, it also enables you to explore vendor alternatives.
What can I do now?
The future of VMware is in the hands of Broadcom. For now, we’ll all have to wait and see what will happen as a result of this acquisition.
We also anticipate Broadcom will expand VMware innovation in hypervisor and DPU/SmartNIC integration after the dust settles. The benefits to improved control, performance and security clearly connect with other areas in the Broadcom portfolio. Our unique dynamic management approach improves control in this new computing paradigm and we look forward to collaborating with them after the acquisition completes.
While any acquisition has the potential for disruption, we are committed to ensuring RackN customers have a smooth transition. We will both continue partnering with VMware/Broadcom as deeply as possible and welcome discussions around contingency planning for customers who need to consider alternatives.
In the meantime, you can contact us for a demo. We can show you how to run VMware as code, and then you can try Digital Rebar yourself for free. Use that nervous energy to learn something new as you await the future of VMware.
