During VMware Explore 2023, VMware announced many service updates. In addition to announcing a renewed in-depth collaboration with NVIDIA, it also emphasized a major leap into the development of generative artificial intelligence, and even added artificial intelligence applications to the Tanzu product portfolio that has been continuously updated in recent years. On the other hand, it announced the expansion of edge computing integration applications, which seems to be significantly different from the past development concept that focused on cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategy.
However, VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram emphasized that the company is still based on its existing cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategy, and the idea of helping enterprises simplify more workflows remains at the core of its development.
Continue to play a role in helping to simplify corporate workflows
This major announcement of entering the field of automatically generated artificial intelligence technology is not only due to the current market trends, but also because of the optimism behind the possibilities behind the application of artificial intelligence technology. It is believed that such technology can help reduce tedious tasks that previously had to be solved by manpower.
For example, the intelligent assistance function added to the Tanzu product portfolio allows enterprises to manage containerized application services in a simpler way through artificial intelligence assistants. It can also automatically analyze the service operation status through artificial intelligence and proactively remind administrators whether workload adjustments are needed. It can even automatically complete adjustments before problems occur, thereby reducing the need for enterprise manpower to frequently intervene in maintenance.
VMware expects that by entering the field of self-generated artificial intelligence, it will drive greater development opportunities, especially for many companies that want to accelerate their adoption of artificial intelligence technology but don't know where to start, or may not be able to easily build useful artificial intelligence application services due to limited funding.
Therefore, in terms of the application of artificial intelligence, VMware's role will be similar to its past position of advocating cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategies, allowing enterprises to embrace the application of artificial intelligence technology more quickly and enable enterprises to use artificial intelligence technology more smoothly to promote service growth.
VMware will not play a role in setting standards, but will continue to pursue cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategies.
Chris Wolf, VMware vice president and head of AI Labs, explained that VMware will not be a rule-setter, but will instead provide assistance based on market trends and enterprise needs, and simplify enterprise investment and development workflows through its existing service portfolio.
The current development model for AI applications hinges on how data is used and the appropriate models are trained. The currently promoted cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud development model make it easier for businesses to aggregate and access the data they need. Furthermore, VMware has selected suitable model frameworks for the newly proposed Private AI architecture, enabling businesses to rapidly implement applications.
Even in response to the current need for greater computing power resources for AI computing acceleration, when enterprises do not have sufficient capabilities to purchase large numbers of CPUs and GPUs, they can still use VMware virtualization solutions to utilize virtualized CPU and GPU computing resources in conjunction with cloud computing. This can accelerate AI model training through cloud collaborative computing and deploy applications in actual application services.
To meet these demands, VMware has also proposed corresponding supporting measures, including the Tanzu product portfolio, which has been updated significantly this year, as well as services such as vSAN Max and NSX+. These measures aim to simplify the management complexity of cloud services for enterprises, ensure the flexible scheduling of large amounts of data storage space required for artificial intelligence training, and protect cloud data from malicious attacks, and even enable rapid recovery from attacks.
Therefore, from an overall perspective, VMware's current development has not deviated from its original cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategy, as well as the concept of "Cloud Smart". Encouraging enterprises to move to the cloud and helping them simplify more workflows remain VMware's development focus.
VMware aims to leverage its multi-cloud strategy to drive the growth of AI applications.
VMware explained that, as previously emphasized in its cloud development efforts, it is collaborating with various public cloud providers. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) allows businesses to more easily access different public cloud services, and even allows data to flow between different public and private clouds, without having to build all services themselves from the ground up.
The Private AI architecture launched in the field of artificial intelligence and the VMware Private AI Foundation With NVIDIA service, which is a collaboration with NVIDIA, actually simplify the workflow for enterprises to embrace artificial intelligence. The company also revealed that it will cooperate with multiple industries in the future and integrate more suitable model architectures, allowing enterprises to introduce artificial intelligence technology applications without spending too much effort.
Simply put, there are many ways for enterprises to build artificial intelligence services, and with the help of VMware, they will be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort, and even include more technical application resources by having VMware act as a "hub."
For enterprises, although they can build AI applications from the ground up, not all companies have sufficient resources and technical talent to accomplish this goal. Therefore, rapid implementation through VMware solutions can actually achieve greater benefits, and VMware can also profit from this business model. Therefore, for VMware, the current development trend of AI technology will be a new growth opportunity.
In addition, the current market boom in edge computing also provides VMware with greater room for development. The reason is that although public cloud providers such as Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud have all proposed edge computing solutions, most of them are built on public cloud environments. If enterprises want to build edge computing in private cloud environments, they will still be somewhat limited. Even though some public clouds have already proposed dedicated public cloud services for fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, and finance, they are still affected by local laws and regulations.
However, building services in a private cloud environment has always been VMware's strength. In addition, it has already cooperated with many public cloud operators to break down the barriers to cross-cloud integration, making it easier for enterprises to enter multi-cloud development. Combined with the increase in the provision of edge computing application services, this means that VMware will be able to benefit from responding to market trends and demands in this area.
What's next for VMware?
As Broadcom's $610 billion acquisition is nearing completion, VMware has clearly determined its next development direction, which will be to move towards more diverse artificial intelligence applications and also to the more valuable edge computing.
But returning to the core, cross-cloud integration and multi-cloud strategies will remain VMware's focus. It will also continue to play a role in helping enterprises simplify workflows and provide the most appropriate solutions based on users' actual needs.
Related links:
• Broadcom: Once the acquisition is completed, it will invest $20 billion annually in VMware
