VMware Unveils New Kubernetes Container Offering at VMWorld

VMware today announced it has partnered with Pivotal Software, Inc., and Google Cloud to launch a new Kubernetes container offering.

Pivotal Container Service will enable managed services providers (MSPs) and large enterprises to deliver Kubernetes on VMware vSphere hypervisor and Google Cloud Platform.

The new offering will be available sometime in Q4 of this year.

“VMware has partnered with Pivotal and Google, industry leaders in the application development platform space, to deliver an enterprise-ready Kubernetes solution integrated with VMware’s software-defined data center infrastructure,” Sanjay Poonen, VMware’s chief operating officer for customer operations, said in a statement.

“Pivotal Container Service is purpose-built to deliver Kubernetes that is easy to deploy and operate, ready for developer consumption, while addressing the operational needs of IT,” he continued. “This new solution is unique in its ability to enable developers and IT to work as one.”

The announcement came on Day 2 of VMWorld 2017, which is currently underway in Las Vegas.

VMware and Pivotal will sell the offering through their channels. VMware will also sell it through it cloud provider partner program, and VMware’s parent company, Dell EMC, will offer the product on VxRail Appliances and VxRack Systems.

“Acquiring the technical capabilities and the transformative culture associated with modern software companies is a matter of competitive urgency for most enterprises,” Pivotal CEO Rob Mee said in a statement.

“To adapt, organizations need to provide their developers modern application development platforms to enable them to ship code continuously,” he went on. “Pivotal and VMware, in partnership with Google Cloud, bring you Pivotal Container Service, a powerful new way to deploy and operate Kubernetes.”

Pivotal Container Service provides constant compatibility with Google Container Engine.

“We see an open hybrid cloud ecosystem forming based on many technologists and providers coming together on Kubernetes, and Pivotal Container Service is a great way to run containers and Kubernetes on premises,” Sam Ramji, Google Cloud’s vice president for product management of developer platforms, said in a statement.

“It gives you native access to Google Cloud services, and it’s on the same release cadence as Google Container Engine,” he continued. “With Pivotal Container Service plus Google Container Engine, you get constant compatibility, and your services, and workloads are deployed the same way, anywhere you need them.”

Also today, VMware announced enhancements to its Workspace ONE digital workspace platform, making it the industry’s first unified end user experience, management and security solution for all endpoint platforms.

“Customers will now have the ability to use Workspace ONE as a single solution to enable unified endpoint management (UEM) and unify the end user experience across all endpoint platforms including Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, iOS, and Android,” VMware said in a statement. “In addition, Workspace ONE will now uniquely integrate application programming interfaces (APIs) from major endpoint platform providers to stay in lock-step with the latest innovations in devices and applications.”

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