Today VMware hit us with a deluge of announcements about their Kubernetes platform, VMware Tanzu. There have been a lot of name changes and even a few new features since we covered their announcement of Tanzu and the incorporation of NSX Service Mesh last year. VMware is the biggest name in virtualization and cloud computing, so most readers are probably aware that it was founded in 1998.
Today VMware hit us with a deluge of announcements about their Kubernetes platform, VMware Tanzu. There have been a lot of name changes and even a few new features since we covered their announcement of Tanzu and the incorporation of NSX Service Mesh last year. VMware is the biggest name in virtualization and cloud computing, so most readers are probably aware that it was founded in 1998.
Since August, the company has been releasing pieces of Tanzu. Currently, the three most significant pieces are Kubernetes Grid, Mission Control, and Application Catalog. All three of these modules are already available. VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is yet another of the rapidly proliferating Kubernetes runtimes. Kubernetes Grid is built on open-source technologies, and as such, can be downloaded directly from this link. VMware is also offering 24×7 support through VMware Global Support Services (GSS). The second piece, VMware Tanzu Mission Control, was previewed back in August 2019. Tanzu Mission Control is a centralized management platform for operating Kubernetes infrastructure across multiple clouds. The third and final piece, VMware Tanzu Application Catalog, has been renamed from Project Galleon. Tanzu Application Catalog is a frontend for selecting open source software from the Bitnami catalog. VMware recently purchased Bitnami, and this is how the company has chosen to integrate their newly acquired technologies.
Speaking of renaming their recent acquisitions, Pivotal’s Application Service (PAS) has been renamed as well. Now known as Tanzu Application Service, it has been rolled into the Tanzu juggernaut as well. Confusingly, not even VMWare’s own products have escaped the tidal wave of name changes. Wavefront by VMware has undergone a name change to become Tanzu Observability by Wavefront. Even the well-known NSX Service Mesh could not escape Tanzufication, and it is now referring to it as Tanzu Service Mesh, at least when discussing other Tanzu components.
It seems that nothing is beyond the reach of Tanzu’s tentacles. Even the company’s flagship Cloud Foundation software has been affected. VMware Cloud Foundation 4 with Tanzu, is slated for release by May 1st, 2020. Cloud Foundation 4 will feature not one, but two Kubernetes runtimes. The first is Tanzu Kubernetes Grid, which we’ve already touched on in this article. The second is a hybrid infrastructure service provided by VMware vSphere 7. Existing customers will no doubt be pleased that they can continue using the Kubernetes runtime and APIs they are already familiar with. Still, the decision to include two runtimes for the same service in the same product is a curious one.
Availability
- VMware Tanzu – Immediately
- VMware Cloud Foundation 4 (with Tanzu) – May 1, 2020
- VMware vSphere 7 – May 1, 2020
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