VMware unveils new Virtual Cloud Network

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software, unveiled its vision for the future of networking at its annual Evolve Forum in Kuala Lumpur. The company launched the Virtual Cloud Network, a new network approach that will empower businesses in Malaysia to achieve their digital transformation goals by unlocking value from today’s networking technologies amidst an increasingly complex environment.

Malaysia’s has an internet penetration rate of 85.7 percent as of 2017 , with an increasing number of users preferring to use mobile phones and devices to access the Internet. Frost and Sullivan predicts that by 2020, there will be 280 million 5G subscribers across Asia Pacific . As more IoT devices are introduced, 5G is set to be a key enabler in boosting the telecommunications infrastructure standard to transport high volumes of data for a more interconnected world.

Sanjay K. Deshmukh, Vice president and Managing Director, SEAK, VMware says, “Everything of value is connected to and through the network. This is accelerated through the increasing use of IoT, 5G, AI, and other emerging technologies as Malaysians are showing an increasing preference for using mobile devices in addition to desktop and laptop computers. To be future-ready and leverage this opportunity, businesses in Malaysia need to be equipped with the right network foundation.”

As organisations strive to offer more touchpoints across different devices, they face increasing network and security complexities. The network must evolve to deliver an everything-to-everything connected architecture, that provides a common operating model delivering multi-cloud networking, security, and management capabilities across private data centers, public clouds, telecommunications networks, branches, and endpoints.

“A digital foundation built on VMware, enables organisations to flex and harness new technology at the speed which it evolves without disrupting business operations. Today, I’m excited to announce the software-defined Virtual Cloud Network, a new network approach for the next 20 years that will provide organizations with a robust and more secure connected infrastructure,” said Deshmukh.

With applications and data now residing everywhere, companies can no longer rely solely on a hardware-based network deployed inside their data center to run their business. With a Virtual Cloud Network, businesses will be able to create an end-to-end software-based network architecture that can deliver services to applications and data irregardless of wherever they are located.

The Virtual Cloud Network will be able to operate at global scale from edge-to-edge and deliver consistent, pervasive connectivity and intrinsic security for apps and data that is also independent of underlying physical infrastructure or location.

Cybersecurity breaches represent a growing threat in Malaysia – the number of cases reported to Malaysia Computer Emergency Team (MyCERT) have more than doubled in the last eight years, with 7,962 cases in 2017 compared to 3,564 cases in 2009 .

While no degree of protective measures can provide a guaranteed defense against the rising tide of malicious attacks, organizations can take steps to contain the attack when it does happen. Applying piecemeal security patches are at best a temporal solution. The more important step is to implement a flexible, architecture-based defense that, once a breach takes place, automatically identifies, mitigates, and contains the attack, without even having to notify IT.

To this end, VMware announces the VMware NSX networking and security portfolio which provides a common operating environment for customers to connect, secure and operate a Virtual Cloud Network.

The portfolio enables consistent, pervasive connectivity and intrinsic security for apps and data across software-defined data center, branch, cloud, and telco environments. Customers will be able to manage consistent networking and intrinsic security across private data centers, AWS, Azure, and IBM Cloud.

The VMware NSX networking and security portfolio includes:

  • VMware NSX Data Center, one of the industry’s most widely deployed network virtualization platform for the enterprise data center, adopted by more than 4,500 customers globally.
  • VMware NSX SD-WAN by VeloCloud, the industry-leading Software-Defined Wide Area Networking solution that combines the economics and flexibility of the best real-time network overlay with the deployment speed, scale and automation of cloud-delivered services.
  • VMware NSX Cloud provides consistent networking and security for applications running in both private VMware-based data centers and natively in public clouds.
  • VMware NSX Hybrid Connect enables customers to solve one of the biggest challenges with hybrid cloud– consistent networking.

“Powerful applications are now critical in sharpening a business’ competitive edge or to boost up the quality of public sector services. As Malaysia steps up its digital adoption rate, we are committed to equipping organisations here with the best solutions to ramp up their innovation and productivity in an environment that will only get more competitive,” said Deshmukh.