Nature Abhors a Vacuum
Empty spaces, like a garden bed or a market gap, don’t stay empty. Life or competition quickly fills the void. In IT, the absence of products triggers a race as businesses strive to dominate, mirroring nature’s struggle for control in overgrown fields. The battle for space is constant.
Whether a freshly tilled piece of land or a market segment, empty space abhors a vacuum. Leave it unattended, and in no time, something will occupy it. A clean garden bed will teem with life in no time. Moreover, even if that area becomes overgrown, there’s a continuous struggle for dominance. The same rule applies to the IT market - lacking products creates competition to fill the void.
The start of 2024 marked a significant shift, as the “big red Asian tiger” swallowed the Palo Alto “turtle.” This undeniably shook the market, given that these organizations could hardly be more different. The tiger—an aggressive predator, ready for rapid action and hungry for growth—contrasted starkly with the turtle, representing a slower, steadier approach backed by a protective shell of stability and security. This collision of worlds initially led to some indigestion for the tiger and alarm among the turtle’s clients, who were accustomed to a different style of communication, operational pace, and approach to business. Broadcom has been redefining VMware for nearly a year, and one could say the transformation is now complete. The result? A redefined licensing structure is organized into three main product groups: VSS, VVF, and VCF.
In this triad, VCF plays the lead role, aiming to enable companies to create infrastructures in their data centers that support a cloud-based operational model. Why? Many of us remember that not so long ago, on-premises infrastructures resembled days-old spaghetti Bolognese splattered against the wall—offering similar functionality, scalability, and resilience. Managing these setups at scale was a nightmare, leaving businesses with two primary options: an energy-intensive complete overhaul or a more straightforward shift to the cloud. Guess which option most companies chose?
Time has passed, the world has evolved, and with it, we’ve adopted new tools and accustomed ourselves to modern infrastructure usage. Consequently, on-premises environments needed to transform. We now expect software-defined solutions across the board and aim to consume infrastructure in the same streamlined way the cloud has accustomed us to. VMware’s VCF aims to provide software that enables organizations to build a technology stack where local resources can be utilized as seamlessly as public cloud offerings. However, this requires migrating from “VMware past” to “VMware present,” both in terms of licensing and architecture—a challenge for customers that also opens the door for competitive discussions.
No space remains empty for long, and while VMware’s VCF offers an intriguing proposition, its adoption will necessitate significant adjustments for most customers. Additionally, almost a year passed, and the competition did not waste this time and built solutions that could also be chosen. But luckily for VMware VCF is more than just a hypervisor - it’s a package that includes storage, firewall, load-balancing, monitoring software, a log aggregator, and more. These functions are bundled into the VCF price, and whether we want them or not, they’re included. The choice lies with us: will we migrate our current architecture, often incorporating other solutions, to align with VCF’s offerings? Completeness has its cost - a price no one wants to pay twice.
October 2024, Santa Clara, Cloud Field Day 21, thoughts based on https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tech-field-day_vmware-presents-at-cloud-field-day-21-activity-7255263995991855104-Ub__