VMware and Nvidia have expanded their alliance to make it easier for enterprises to run GPU-accelerated AI applications in existing data centre infrastructure.

The virtualisation giant announced the expanded alliance with Nvidia Tuesday, saying that the GPU maker has exclusively certified VMware’s vSphere 7 Update 2 to support the new Nvidia AI Enterprise offering, a software suite of enterprise-grade AI tools and frameworks that enables Nvidia GPU-accelerated applications to run in virtual machines and containers.

VMware’s vSphere 7 Update 2 is also introducing support for Nvidia’s A100 Tensor Core GPU and its multi-instance GPU feature, which will allow data centre operators to split up individual A100s into as many as seven distinct instances for use by multiple users.

Nvidia said it developed Nvidia AI Enterprise alongside VMware as part of a first-of-its-kind industry collaboration that will allow enterprises to move AI applications from bare-metal servers to virtualized environments with very little performance impact. The suite includes solutions that support a broad range of industries, from health care and manufacturing to financial services.

Justin Boitano, vice president and general manager of Enterprise and Edge Computing at Nvidia, told CRN USA that the vSphere exclusivity agreement means that the Nvidia AI Enterprise offering is not available on any other virtualization platform. He declined to say when the exclusivity agreement would expire.

“We’re working together to make this as easy to consume as possible for enterprises that want to go on this journey of using AI to improve efficiency,” he said in a briefing with journalists last week.

The new software certification work means that Nvidia AI Enterprise is primed to run on servers from Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Supermicro and other server makers that has been certified through the GPU maker’s recently launched Nvidia-Certified Systems program.

Lee Caswell, vice president of marketing of VMware’s cloud platform business unit, said the new collaboration around Nvidia AI Enterprise “is going to be incredibly powerful in reducing both real and perceived risk” when it comes to running AI applications in data centres.

“We’re doing the work behind the scenes to reduce the real risk through certification, integration, testing, and then perceived risk is how we come to market together to show that our companies are both ready to support the joint solution,” he said.

Boitano said Nvidia AI Enterprise can significantly reduce the amount of work required for companies to deploy AI applications into production environments. For instance, he said, Nvidia’s Transfer Learning Toolkit, which is available in the suite, can reduce the amount of time it takes for a company to build an AI model from 80 weeks to eight weeks.

“We’re taking this cloud-native deployment to heart in trying to make sure everything’s containerized and can be orchestrated in cloud native ways going forward to make setup and deployment easy,” he said, adding that support for Nvidia Enterprise AI will eventually come to vSphere Tanzu for running AI applications in containers from the virtualization platform.

Nvidia AI Enterprise is now available as a perpetual license at US$3,595 per CPU socket, and enterprise business standard support for the software suite is US$899 a year per license

For decades, traditional data centres have been the most predictable and controlled infrastructure to house high-risk and proprietary assets, such as personal information, medical records, and financial information. Yet, today’s modern infrastructures allow organisations to extend their data centres into cloud services, and this change does come with a unique set of risks. Keeping these risks in check requires businesses to reassess their data centre security and even partner with a modern solution provider. However, choosing the right solution isn’t easy – every business is different, and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.

Over 388,000 professionals have used IT Central Station research to inform their purchasing decisions. Its latest paper looks at Trend Micro Deep Security and VMware NSX, two of the highest reviewed solutions in the cloud and data centre security market.

Below is a brief summary of the report, highlighting what real IT Central Station users think of each solution – from their most valuable features, to how they’ve improved individual businesses, as well as what each solution could do better.

Trend Micro Deep Security
Protects applications and data and prevents business disruptions, while helping meet regulatory compliance

With an average rating of 8.9 from nine reviews, Deep Security is one of the most popular solutions currently available. Deployed largely throughout the healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing industries, the solution enjoys market share with organisations of all sizes. 46% of reviewers are from organisations with over 1000 employees, whilst small and medium size organisations make up 31% and 23% of reviewers.

When evaluating the solution, users highlight the excellent customer service and technical support that it provides. The product’s advocates also believe that it integrates well with the cloud, making it a very valuable feature along with the virtual path function that it offers. However, Deep Security does falter slightly in the eyes of reviewers, with critics arguing that its setup can be too complex and difficult, and it also lacks an EDR function for the servers.

VMware NSX
The network virtualisation platform for the Software-Defined Data Centre (SDDC)

Achieving an average rating of 8.1 from 11 reviews, VMware NSX is one of the most frequently reviewed products on the market with reviews coming from a range of industries and business sizes. Retail, government, and financial services firms prove the most popular industry users alongside large businesses which account for 59% of reviewers. Small and midsize companies make up the remaining share of reviewers with 23% and 18% respectively.

Many of VMware NSX’s users are impressed with the solution’s micro-segmentation and integrated security options which offer tangible benefits when compared to other products in the market. NSX is also considered one of the most scalable products of its type, which is further complimented by its low cost and excellent security features. There are only a few areas where critics believe the solution could be improved. Some users would like to see automation capabilities implemented in the deployment process, whilst others would like to see improvements made to the technical support it offers.

One of the most revolutionary technologies developed after the internet is cloud computing. Without the introduction of cloud computing, the internet wouldn’t be the same, our computing needs would be different, and several tech giants wouldn’t be where they are today. The dependency on cloud services enabled faster access to resources, made our lives simpler, and carved a way for further technological advancements. According to LinkedIn Global Skillset Survey, cloud computing is the most important skill set that companies are seeking.

Whether big or small, every business is leveraging cloud resources to build their digital presence and remain alive during Covid. The havoc wreaked by Covid-19 has caused companies to understand the long-term benefits of cloud service, other than just remotely managing the workforce. According to Research and Markets study, the global cloud computing industry is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2026, at a 17.5 per cent CAGR. This number is sufficient to explain the drastic transformation cloud computing is about to bring across industries. No wonder, it is one of the few recession-proof careers today.

As a domain, cloud computing has a lot to offer in terms of business scalability as well as high-paying employment opportunities to skilled learners. According to PayScale, a fresher with cloud computing skills and an AWS certification annually earns an average of ₹5 to ₹7 lakh, and with over five years of experience, they earn an annual average of ₹12 lakh in India. This number keeps increasing with the years of experience and a more in-depth understanding of the industry.

However, one of the major concerns learners face in their initial stage of upskilling is selecting the resource that would be best for them. According to several experts, some of the key skills that companies nowadays seek in a cloud professional are cloud migration and deployment within a multi-cloud ecosystem, database skills, programming skills and DevOps.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular cloud computing job roles in the market today:

Cloud engineer

With more businesses turning towards cloud services, there is a high demand for technical professionals with sound knowledge of cloud who can help enterprises design, plan, deploy, implement, and maintain cloud-associated projects. To become a cloud engineer, learners need to develop core skills in programming, database management, operating system, and development operations.

Cloud architect

Just like an architect builds physical infrastructure, cloud architects do the same in the cloud environment. They are responsible for designing and building a strong, agile and robust cloud infrastructure that works effectively for a business’s day-to-day functioning.

Cloud administrator

Cloud administrator is basically a cloud expert, with sound practical experience in the cloud ecosystem. They are responsible for system management, troubleshooting within multiple cloud ecosystems, as well as virtualisation. The cloud administrator job role requires expert-level knowledge of concepts such as operating system, configuration management, monitoring the cloud environment and scripting languages.

Cloud security specialist

Security is one of the major concerns businesses and individuals are trying to tackle. Not every business can afford to build their own cloud infrastructure, so they rely on cloud service providers to fulfil their cloud computing requirements. Using a cloud service is not very different from leasing a car, which means that businesses do not have much control over the cloud services they are using. However, it is also their responsibility to keep the data secure. They require cloud security experts who can keep the cloud repository safe, keep track of changes made on the cloud configuration from the service provider, and other cloud security related operations.

The cloud computing domain has ample opportunities for fresh graduates and working professionals. The minimum academic requirement to enrol in a cloud computing certification is a graduation degree with at least 50 per cent marks. Not only does a job in cloud computing come with high remuneration, but the domain is also going to take some giant leaps in the future.

Virtualisation solutions vendor VMware, has announced its ‘2030 Agenda’, a decade-long commitment to address critical challenges facing the global community.

The company has created 30 measurable goals to achieve by 2030 (30×30) that are focused on three outcomes relevant to its technology and business operations: Trust, Equity and Sustainability. The vendor’s 2030 Agenda builds on VMware’s long-standing commitment to innovate for a better future.

“This year has created an even greater sense of urgency to take action on global and societal challenges so we’ve set bold goals that are core to our business and will have significant impact,” said Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer, VMware, Inc. “In many ways, Digital Transformation is the backbone to building a better world. It not only creates a resilient global healthcare system, but also helps us overcome the digital divide and decarbonises the planet. At VMware, we’re committed to building technology on a foundation of digital ethics that serves all stakeholders. We will work with our ecosystem to redefine what it means to be a force for good.”

With its technology leadership and expansive global reach, VMware is dedicated to driving tangible, measurable impact focused on three outcomes: Trust, Equity and Sustainability.

Trust: VMware envisions a future where all stakeholders are effectively safeguarded from cyberattacks threatening the digital world. By approaching innovation from a foundation of digital ethics and stewardship, and focusing on intrinsic security, privacy-by-design and transparent business practices, VMware will build and protect trust among our people, customers, partners, shareholders and communities.

Equity: VMware firmly believes that technology will play a critical role in building a digital future that is equitable, accessible and inclusive for all. From the diversity, equity and inclusion commitments to its digital workspace technologies, the company is redefining the workplace of the future. VMware is enabling distributed workforces to empower employees with equal opportunity, inclusive leadership and increased flexibility within our company and beyond. Through partnerships with academic institutions and non-profit partners, VMWare will help close the digital skills gap and make Digital Transformation more accessible for all.

Sustainability: Sustainability is core to VMware’s values and future success. As a global corporate citizen, we have an opportunity and responsibility to innovate for a more resilient world by decarbonising digital infrastructure across the customer ecosystem, value chain and its own operations. Through the collective efforts to drive net-zero emissions in its operations and intrinsic sustainability in its solutions, VMware will inspire the next generation of sustainable digital infrastructure.

“Our 2030 Agenda is transformative because our 30×30 goals are owned by our business leaders and built into everything we do—from the way we develop software and bring our solutions to market, to the way we build a culture of inclusion—and in this way we are aligning our core purpose with doing our part to create a more sustainable, equitable and resilient world,” said Nicola Acutt, Vice President, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), VMware. “To demonstrate our commitment, we are setting up an ESG office to partner with our business leaders and help manage our progress.”

IBM and AMD today announced a multi-year joint development agreement to enhance and extend the security and artificial intelligence offerings of both companies. This joint development agreement has been planned to expand this vision by building upon open-source software, open standards, and open system architectures in order to drive confidential computing in hybrid cloud environments. It would also support a broad range of accelerators across high-performance computing, and enterprise-critical capabilities such as virtualisation and encryption.

According to Dario Gil, Director of IBM Research, “The commitment of AMD to technological innovation aligns with our mission to develop and accelerate the adoption of the hybrid cloud to help connect, secure and power our digital world.”

He further stated, “IBM is focused on giving our clients choice, agility and security in our hybrid cloud offerings through advanced research, development and scaling of new technologies.”

“This agreement between AMD and IBM aligns well with our long-standing commitment to collaborating with leaders in the industry,” said Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and CTO, AMD. “AMD is excited to extend our work with IBM on AI, accelerating data centre workloads, and improving security across the cloud.”

Securing highly sensitive data has still continued to be a challenge for many companies. According to data from IBM’s Institute for Business Value, this has led to cybersecurity being the top barrier for adoption as well as the top criteria for selection of cloud providers.

According to Gartner, confidential computing potentially omits the remaining barrier to hybrid cloud adoption for highly regulated businesses or any organisation concerned about unauthorised third-party access to data in use in the public cloud.

Confidential computing is a technology, enabled by hardware, that allows the data associated with a running virtual machine to be encrypted, including while workloads are running. This capability helps prevent would-be attackers and bad actors from accessing confidential information, even in the event of a break-in. Confidential computing for hybrid cloud unlocks new potential for enterprise adoption of hybrid cloud computing, especially in regulated industries such as finance, healthcare and insurance.

Engagement between AMD and IBM researchers on joint development activities under the agreement is now underway.

The managed service provider (MSP) market is extremely competitive and fraught with challenges. MSPs need to offer competitive pricing to make their offerings attractive to customers, but at the same time require the agility to develop and deliver solutions that support the customer journey into the cloud. MSPs also need to meet and exceed service level agreements (SLAs) to maintain their customer base. They also need to avoid vendor lock-in, which may isolate potential customers, simplify their solution stack to streamline management and operations, and ensure their technology is always up to date. Achieving all of this can be impossible without the right foundation in place, which is where software-defined storage (SDS) comes in.

Standardising hardware is the key

SDS is the ideal supporting platform to help MSPs build and deliver solutions and easily manage and operate them. By decoupling hardware and software, SDS allows MSPs to take advantage of their choice of server technology and server architecture. This ensures a vendor-agnostic approach, while at the same time enabling MSPs to standardise on their hardware, using commodity servers, cloud architecture or a combination of the two.

By unifying block, object and file for hypervisors, containers, backup and cloud workloads, the result is a scale-out, resilient and distributed architecture that maximises availability and protects against hardware failure. Essentially, SDS brings significant simplicity into the framework for enhanced predictability in an elastic solution that can scale to thousands of nodes as demand increases, without disrupting service.

The ultimate goal is to establish a fabric that can support a variety of workloads, including virtualisation, containers and backup, and meet today’s data infrastructure challenges through a single domain.

Ideal for MSPs

The backbone of SDS is highly supportive of a multi-tenancy environment and simplifies management of the technology stack that goes with it, regardless of the storage or workloads that are being run. SDS also supports all providers, ensuring there is no vendor lock-in, giving ultimate flexibility in the choice of hardware, development and deployment options.

A single management and presentation layer not only simplifies complexity, it also collapses storage silos into a single management interface to eliminate mass data fragmentation. By deploying a software-defined layer on top of commoditised hardware, across various clusters including virtualised, bare metal, containers and the cloud, a truly agile infrastructure can be created. This also mitigates the risk of technology refreshes, which can be absorbed without creating disruption or downtime.

Virtual disks deliver a utility storage framework on the back end, for granular provisioning of volumes with enterprise storage functionality. This elastic infrastructure eliminates downtime across the spectrum. It also further delivers on agility by automating management of the underlying hardware and infrastructure, removing this from day-to-day administrative tasks.

Focus on customers, not tin

Using SDS, MSPs can solve new infrastructure challenges in a distributed way, enabling seamless cloud integration and adoption, supporting the hybrid cloud journey and allowing for enterprise data protection through data distribution.

SDS provides storage for virtual environments, seamlessly integrates with various container orchestrators, and serves as a single backup storage target, regardless of which backup software solution is in use. This improves efficiency, allowing MSPs to extend their service offerings easily, scale without performance degradation and support their clients’ multi-cloud strategy with persistent, high-availability storage.

MSPs are able to maximise their total cost of ownership, simplicity and scale, which lends itself to multiple use cases. From agile container footprints to micro-services and virtualisation, MSPs are able to drive a single data centre model across regions that provides absolute uptime and high availability. SDS essentially transforms commodity hardware into an elastic, resilient, modern storage solution that allows MSPs to focus on customers and application sets, rather than on the underlying hardware needed to deliver services.

BCS previously ran a server room with six servers and enterprise storage, to support a full software stack required for three-tier applications. The migration to a Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure has meant it now runs a single cluster.

The application, hosted on VMware, includes a web development environment, SQL server database, telephony services, Linux servers and a test environment. The BCS also hosts a number of its web services on-premise, as well as its legacy customer relationship management (CRM) system.

During the migration, BCS plans to move more than 60 virtual machines (VMs) from VMware to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor and complete the virtualisation of its remaining physical servers. This will deliver scalability and savings in terms of hypervisor licensing.

Dugal Williams, a network engineer at BCS, took advantage of Nutanix’s professional training programme to prepare for the migration. Preparation involved a week of online training. Williams will be taking the Nutanix Certification Programme exam at the end of October.

According to Nutanix, the training is designed to provide IT staff with the skills and knowledge needed to successfully implement, manage, optimise and scale Nutanix multi-product software. It has recently been expanded with an “Associate” certification (NCA), which Nutanix said provides a foundational programme for building a career in multicloud technology.

The course covers the key differences between AHV and VMware and how to manage and implement server virtualisation using Nutanix tools. “You learn about the whole environment, from the operating system to the hypervisor,” said Williams.

The Nutanix tools simplify the process of migrating away from VMware. “The good thing about Nutanix is it has a move/extract tool that supports the VMware hypervisor. The migration tool takes a VMware virtual machine and moves it to the Nutanix AHV environment,” said Williams.

BCS is also using the Nutanix Prism dashboard, which enables his team to manage the health of the AHV environment.

BCS’s Dugal said the Nutanix Prism dashboard is user-friendly and provides a knowledge base to help IT administrators identify errors.

The migration to Nutanix is part of a planned relocation of the industry association’s Swindon headquarters. BCS is also using Nutanix Xi Leap to provide secure backup and disaster recovery (DR) via the Nutanix cloud, which eliminates the need to equip and manage a second DR installation.

The Nutanix software is being deployed on HPE Proliant DX Gen10 appliances. According to BCS, this will enable it to move forward with its digital transformation plans and, at the same time, replace end-of-life servers and storage networks with a single Nutanix cluster, saving valuable rack space while also reducing power and cooling costs.

“We originally planned to look into DR options once the move to the new offices and infrastructure migration were over,” said Williams. “However, when we found we could do it so quickly and simply with Xi Leap, and without having to buy or run additional hardware, it quickly became a no-brainer and something we could also use to help with the migration itself.”