DEVOPSdigest

VMware announced new releases of the VMware NSX network virtualization platform to meet the diverse and evolving needs of both IT and developers.

With the release of VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3 and VMware NSX-T 1.1, VMware is advancing support for the most critical IT use cases -- automation, security and application continuity -- while offering development organizations an agile software-defined infrastructure to build-out cloud-native application environments.

With more than 2,400 customers, VMware NSX delivers networking and security focused on the application independent of the underlying infrastructure. VMware NSX for vSphere is the network virtualization platform for vSphere-based deployments. VMware NSX-T is a network virtualization platform for new application frameworks and architectures that have heterogeneous endpoints and technology stacks. VMware NSX is fundamental to VMware's strategy to drive network transformation in the industry. The NSX network virtualization platform is a cornerstone of VMware's Cross-Cloud Architecture, and a key component of VMware Cloud Foundation, Cross-Cloud Services and VMware Cloud on AWS. More than 11,000 professionals have participated in VMware NSX training and more than 7,000 professionals have achieved an NSX certification to date.

"VMware NSX is the industry's most widely deployed, production-proven network virtualization platform," said Milin Desai, VP of Products, Networking and Security Business Unit, VMware. "With this update, we continue to focus on delivering value in support of key NSX use cases while further simplifying ongoing operations at scale. We are also continuing to invest in NSX as a network virtualization platform that addresses heterogeneous environments, enabling our customers the flexibility to choose new application frameworks or move to public cloud with confidence."

Customers adopt VMware NSX for vSphere to gain the agility and efficiency of the software-defined data center, applying the benefits of compute virtualization to the entire data center. With the release of VMware NSX for vSphere 6.3, NSX now supports VMware vSphere 6.5, and new enhancements are designed to deliver new levels of operational simplicity, security and scale, while reducing future platform upgrade times by up to 5X.

Security: New Application Rule Manager and Endpoint Monitoring features provide unique visibility from OS-level activity to network flows, resulting in automated policy and rule updates and making micro-segmentation easier to implement and more capable.

Application Continuity: New enhancements deliver consistent and dynamic security policies for customers scaling SDDC environments across multiple data centers and multiple VMware vCenters.

SDDC to Branch Connectivity: NSX now allows customers to extend a unified virtual network infrastructure with consistent performance security controls to remote endpoints from a central location, enabling enterprises to connect an SDDC to branch locations.

Service Provider/NFV Deployments: Enhanced support for VMware vCloud Director provides advanced self-service NSX capabilities for multi-tenant service provider deployments and NFV initiatives.

VMware NSX-T 1.1 offers customers an agile software-defined infrastructure to build-out cloud-native application environments.

With the release of VMware NSX-T 1.1, VMware is announcing:

- Support for VMware Photon Platform, an enterprise cloud-native infrastructure platform optimized for containers and modern applications that is purpose-built for use in API-driven, multi-tenant and high-scale environments.

- Expanded support for multiple KVM distributions from Canonical and Red Hat.

- Updated support for OpenStack Newton and Mitaka

- A new beta program for customers interested in container networking and security for application frameworks that support the Container Network Interface (CNI) project. Interested parties should contact their VMware sales representatives.