VMware Prepping Cloud Foundry PaaS For Business Customers

VMware also is planning to launch a private cloud version of Cloud Foundry next year aimed at businesses, Gelsinger said in his opening keynote at the event.

Cloud Foundry, along with VMware's recent acquisitions of DynamicOps and Nicira, are key parts of VMware' s push to support customers with multicloud environments. Cloud Foundry currently works with VMware and Amazon clouds, and VMware will add support for others in the future, Gelsinger said in his keynote.

DynamicOps brought VMware management of public and private cloud resource "pools," while Nicira catapulted VMware into the fast-emerging software-defined networking space.

[Related: VMworld: VMware Ditches vRAM Licensing, Unveils Cloud Suite, Changes CEOs ]

Cloud Foundry, which VMware launched last year as a commercial service and as an open-source project, is VMware's answer to the challenges of running Web applications in the cloud. It lets developers write Web apps using whichever tools they prefer, and in VMware's view, this flexibility prevents them from getting "locked" into a particular platform.

The idea of VMware managing other vendors' clouds would have seemed surprising to attendees at last year's VMworld. But, as Gelsinger said in his keynote, the reality today is that many customers see benefits in running different types of cloud infrastructure.

"It's a multicloud world -- we heard you clearly," Gelsinger said.

In a bid to get more customers using the rest of its cloud software stack, VMware unveiled vCloud Suite 5.1, an integrated bundle that includes vSphere and several of its management, networking, security and storage products.

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus edition customers will get a free upgrade to the vCloud Suite 5.1 as part of a promotion that runs through the end of the year.

PUBLISHED AUG. 28, 2012