VMware Announces VMware Tanzu Portfolio to Transform the Way Enterprises Build, Run and Manage Software on Kubernetes


•   VMware Tanzu portfolio to enable customers to build modern apps on Kubernetes and manage all of their clusters from a single control point
•   Project Pacific to enable IT operators and developers to accelerate innovation by running modern applications on VMware vSphere with native Kubernetes

SAN FRANCISCO , Aug. 26, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VMworld U.S. 2019 – Today at VMworld 2019, VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), unveiled VMware Tanzu, a new portfolio of products and services to transform the way enterprises build, run and manage software on Kubernetes. This includes a technology preview of Project Pacific—focused on transforming VMware vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform in a future release; and VMware Tanzu Mission Control—a single point of control from which customers will manage all their Kubernetes clusters regardless of where they run. With the recently announced definitive agreement to acquire Pivotal, VMware will be positioned to deliver the most comprehensive enterprise-grade Kubernetes-based portfolio for modern applications.  

“Organizations are seeking a partner to meet them where they are today and guide them as they move to modern applications,” said Raghu Raghuram, chief operating officer, Products and Cloud Services, VMware. “We’re positioned to help customers succeed along each step of their journey—building their applications with the addition of Pivotal’s developer platform, tools and services; running their applications with the groundbreaking Project Pacific which will transform vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform; and managing their growing Kubernetes footprint across environments from a single control point with VMware Tanzu Mission Control.”

VMware to Enable Enterprises to Harness Full Potential of Kubernetes

VMware Tanzu products and services will help enterprises build modern applications, run Kubernetes with consistency across environments, and manage all their Kubernetes clusters from a single control point. Capabilities will span:

  • Build Modern Applications with a Modern Software Supply Chain
    VMware has made significant investments to offer a comprehensive portfolio of developer tools and a modern software supply chain. This will include:
    ° Pivotal – VMware recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Pivotal. Pivotal offers a comprehensive platform and deep connection to the developer community. Every month, Spring Initializr is used by developers to start 1.5 million new projects, and Spring Boot is downloaded more than 75 million times. Pivotal Application Service (PAS) has more than 750,000 enterprise production instances running globally, and Pivotal has announced that PAS and its components, such as the Pivotal Build Service and Pivotal Function Service, are being developed to run on Kubernetes.
    ° BitnamiBitnami provides the largest catalog of pre-built, scanned, tested, and continuously maintained application content for Kubernetes clusters to an audience of 2.5 million developers. VMware today introduced Project Galleon—a beta offering that will enable enterprise IT to deliver customized, up-to-date application stacks and formats to their end developers, that are multi-cloud ready.
    ° ISV Ecosystem – VMware continues to expand its broad ISV ecosystem to offer value-add services through Kubernetes and build applications on Kubernetes that can be made available via the Bitnami Community Catalog. VMware has also significantly grown the number of partners that have completed the VMware PKS Solution Competency.

  • Run Modern Apps Leveraging Kubernetes
    The introduction of VMware Tanzu was anchored on the announcement of Project Pacific, focused on transforming VMware vSphere into a Kubernetes native platform—unlocking its potential for the hundreds of thousands of vSphere customers. This breakthrough re-architecture of the platform will enable enterprises to accelerate development and operation of modern apps on vSphere while continuing to take advantage of existing investments in technology, tools and skillsets. Project Pacific will deliver the following capabilities:
    ° vSphere with Native Kubernetes
    Embedding Kubernetes into the control plane of vSphere will transform the platform—enabling it to converge containers and VMs onto a single platform. Project Pacific will also add a container runtime into the hypervisor. New ESXi native pods will combine the best properties of Kubernetes pods and VMs to help deliver a more secure and high-performance runtime for mission-critical workloads.
    ° App-focused Management
    Project Pacific will enable app-level control for applying policies, quota and role-based access to developers. With Project Pacific, IT will have unified visibility into VMware vCenter Server for Kubernetes clusters, containers and existing VMs, as well as apply enterprise-grade capabilities such as High Availability (HA), Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS), and vMotion at the app level.
    ° Dev and IT Ops Collaboration
    IT operators will use vSphere tools to deliver Kubernetes clusters to developers, who can then use Kubernetes APIs to access SDDC infrastructure. With Project Pacific, both developers and IT operators will gain a consistent view via Kubernetes constructs in vSphere.

Enterprises that want to start down the path of Kubernetes on vSphere today can adopt VMware PKS now. VMware PKS is the company’s flagship Kubernetes offering, used by many of the largest and most complex enterprises worldwide, helping them to deploy, run and manage Kubernetes for production across multiple clouds.

  • Manage Multi-cloud, Multi-cluster Infrastructure
    VMware Tanzu includes a tech preview of VMware Tanzu Mission Control. With VMware Tanzu Mission Control, customers will have a single point of control to manage all their conformant Kubernetes clusters regardless of where they are running—vSphere, public clouds, managed services, packaged distributions and do-it-yourself (DIY) Kubernetes. The new service will offer broad capabilities powered by VMware’s extended product portfolio. Capabilities will include:
    ° Administrator Visibility of All Kubernetes Clusters
    VMware Tanzu Mission Control will provide administrators with observability of all Kubernetes clusters, including assessment of cluster and component health. Customers seeking greater diagnostic or full stack detail will be able to drill directly into Wavefront by VMware via VMware Tanzu Mission Control.
    ° Operator Control of Policy
    VMware Tanzu Mission Control will make it simple for operators to apply policies for access, quotas, back-up, security and more to individual clusters or to groups of clusters that span environments. This is consistent with VMware’s commitment to supporting customer choice in cloud, helping customers run Kubernetes everywhere.
    ° Developer Independence
    VMware Tanzu Mission Control will enable developers to access resources via workspaces—collections of namespaces—through self-service methods, powered by Kubernetes APIs.

A core principle of the VMware Tanzu portfolio is to make best use of open source software. And so, VMware Tanzu Mission Control will leverage Cluster API for Lifecycle Management, Velero for backup/recovery, Sonobuoy for configuration control and Contour for ingress control. VMware is now a top three contributor to Kubernetes. 

Supporting Quote
“While enterprises are increasingly adopting Kubernetes and cloud native infrastructure, most are early in their journey,” said 451 Research Principal Analyst Jay Lyman. “Kubernetes can help organizations achieve consistency and drive developer velocity across a variety of infrastructures, but enterprises also require effective control, policy and security capabilities. Building on its acquisitions, organic innovation and open source contributions, VMware has staked out its place as a leader in this rapidly evolving cloud-native industry.”

Additional Resources
•  Read Paul Fazzone’s blog post “VMware Tanzu Completes the Modern Applications Picture”
•  Read Craig McLuckie’s blog post “Introducing VMware Tanzu Mission Control to Bring Order to Cluster Chaos”
•  Read Joe Beda’s blog post “Project Pacific: Kubernetes to the Core”
•  Read Kit Colbert’s blog post “Introducing Project Pacific”
•  Read Jared Rosoff’s blog post “Project Pacific—Technical Overview”
•  Learn more about VMware Tanzu
•  Learn more about Project Pacific
•  Connect with VMware on Twitter and Facebook

News at VMworld
•  Read a summary of today’s news from Chris Wolf: VMworld 2019 and Our Relentless Pursuit of the Possible
•  VMware Delivers a Hybrid Cloud Platform Powering Next-Generation Hybrid IT
•  VMware Unveils Innovations Across Its Industry-Leading Workspace ONE Platform to Help Organizations Grow, Expand and Transform Their Business
•  VMware Cloud On AWS Helps Customers Migrate and Modernize Applications with Consistent Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure and Operations

About VMware

VMware software powers the world’s complex digital infrastructure. The company’s cloud, networking and security, and digital workspace offerings provide a dynamic and efficient digital foundation to customers globally, aided by an extensive ecosystem of partners. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough innovations to its global impact. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html.

VMware, VMworld, Tanzu, vSphere, Tanzu Mission Control, Bitnami, vCenter, vCenter Server, vMotion, ESXi and Wavefront are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.

Media Contacts
Eloy Ontiveros
VMware Global Communications
1.650.427.6145
eontiveros@vmware.com

Emily Mullen
Archetype for VMware
1.212.331.8422
navmware@archetype.co

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding the proposed acquisition of Pivotal Software by VMware, such as the growth opportunities and expansion of VMware’s offerings associated with each acquisition and potential benefits to VMware and its customers and partners. These forward-looking statements are subject to applicable safe harbor provisions under federal securities laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (1) the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions to closing the proposed acquisition (including the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals) in the anticipated timeframe or at all; (2) uncertainties as to the outcome of the vote by Pivotal stockholders to approve the Pivotal acquisition; (3) the possibility that the acquisition does not close; (4) the possibility that competing offers may be made; (5) risks related to the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the proposed acquisition, including the possibility that the expected benefits from the proposed acquisition will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; (6) the risk that the business will not be integrated successfully; (7) disruption from the transactions making it more difficult to maintain business and operational relationships; (8) negative effects of this announcement or the consummation of the proposed acquisition on the market price of VMware’s common stock, credit ratings and operating results; (9) the risk of litigation and regulatory actions related to the proposed acquisition; (10) other business effects, including the effects of industry, market, economic, political or regulatory conditions; and (11) other unexpected costs or delays in connection with the acquisition. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including VMware’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Additional Information about the Pivotal Acquisition and Where to Find It

This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed merger with Pivotal (the “Pivotal Merger”). This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy VMware securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval. The proposed Pivotal Merger will be submitted to Pivotal’s stockholders for their consideration. In connection with the proposed transaction, Pivotal intends to file a proxy statement and other relevant materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in connection with the solicitation of proxies by Pivotal, the Company and Dell Technologies in connection with the proposed transaction. The definitive proxy statement will be mailed to Pivotal’s stockholders.

BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS OF PIVOTAL ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The proxy statement, any amendments or supplements thereto and other relevant materials, and any other documents filed by Pivotal with the SEC, may be obtained once such documents are filed with the SEC free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

In addition, Pivotal’s stockholders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC through the Investors portion of Pivotal’s website at pivotal.io/investors or by contacting Pivotal’s Investor Relations Department via e-mail at ir@pivotal.io.

Pivotal, VMware, Dell Technologies Inc. and certain of their respective executive officers, directors, other members of management and employees, may under the rules of the SEC, be deemed to be “participants” in the solicitation of proxies from Pivotal’s stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information regarding the persons who may be considered “participants” in the solicitation of proxies will be set forth in Pivotal’s preliminary and definitive proxy statements when filed with the SEC and other relevant documents to be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction, each of which can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above when they become available. Information regarding certain of these persons and their beneficial ownership of Pivotal’s common stock is also set forth in Pivotal’s proxy statement for its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders filed on May 3, 2019 with the SEC, which may be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.

Note: There is no commitment or obligation that technology preview or beta features will become generally available.