VMware opens beta for its midrange vSphere Foundation suite • The Register

VMware has revealed another big upgrade is on the way, this time for its vSphere Foundation suite.

The virtualization pioneer and Broadcom business unit on Wednesday announced the opening of a beta program for version 9 of the bundle, which suits orgs that don’t need a full private cloud but do want software-defined compute and storage capable of running VMs and containers.

To make that possible, vSphere Foundation incudes the vSphere server virtualization suite, vCenter VM manager, vSphere Kubernetes Services, and the VSAN virtual storage tool.

VMware’s lesser offerings, vSphere Enterprise Plus and vSphere Standard, don’t include virtual storage or the ability to run containers natively. We’ve seen no hints they will soon be the subject of beta programs that signal upgrades, but expect upgrades are in train given VMware is now working on version 9 of its two higher-end product and the core hypervisor and other components will also be useful in its smaller suites.

No details on new features in the vSphere Foundation beta have been revealed. The Register’s virtualization desk fancies the upgrade will deliver many of the same improvements coming to version 9 of VMware’s flagship Cloud Foundation bundle, namely improved lifecycle management and deployment tools.

We would also not be surprised if the product improves its hybrid cloud capabilities, as while Cloud Foundation remains VMware’s hero product the big businesses that buy it may have smaller sites where it’s not practical to run the full suite. Better integration of vSphere Foundation and Cloud Foundation – perhaps across shared pools of public cloud resource – could make for easier edge and remote office deployments. It could also head off VMware’s rivals that emphasize hyperconverged infrastructure.

Applying to join the beta seems a fine idea if you’re running vSphere or VSAN 7x, as those products exit support in October – a fact of which VMware recently reminded its customers.

Siemens lawsuit stalls

In other VMware news, the virty giant’s lawsuit against Siemens for allegedly using unlicensed software has slowed down after the April 11 deadline for Siemens to respond was extended until June 10th.

Siemens has not responded to The Register’s past requests for comment and the most recent filing in the case makes no mention of settlement talks. We’ll keep watching the case.

VMware, meanwhile, is celebrating its fifth consecutive award as Google Cloud’s Infrastructure Modernization Partner of the Year for Virtualization. Congratulations! ®