VMworld 2017: VxRack SDDC 2.0 and VMware Cloud Foundation 2.2

[UPDATED 8/29/2017 6:40am PT – minor, but important typo corrections]

VxRail’s “bigger sibling” VxRack SDDC just also got better, stronger.

In a simple sentence: VxRack SDDC is for customer who have standardized on VMware, are ready for network transformation with NSX and the physical network all in the system and lifecycle management (LCM) scope.

When I say “bigger sibling” – I don’t mean scale.  We have VxRail customers with hundreds upon hundreds of appliances in a single datacenter.   HCI Appliances can scale as big as you want.   “Bigger” in this context means that it’s for customers ready for NSX, and ready to look at the network as part of their system. 

Yes, there is a correlation with scale and customers thinking about network as “in scope”, but it’s not causal.

VxRack SDDC is built on top of VMware Cloud Foundation.  It is the “consume” choice for VCF as the “DIY choice” (read here to understand what I’m talking about).   VxRack SDDC doesn’t stop with VCF, but it has VCF at its heart.   So what’s new in VxRack SDDC 2.0?

1) VMware Cloud Foundation 2.2.  This means a lot.

a) vSphere 6.5U1

b) vSAN 6.6.1

c) NSX 6.3.3

d) Support for automated install of Horizon 7.2, as well as support for customers to install vRA 7.3, and vROPs 6.6.1 and later.

e) a series of important architectural changes, including: a new HMS service inside SDDC Manager, shrinking the SDDC Manager element to 2 simple VMs; Backup / restore of SDDC mgt. components

I want to reiterate how important the simpler concepts of a management domain and tenant domain are, as well as moving hardware management services out of the networking switch.   This means that scaling up VxRack SDDC configs just got a lot simpler.

It’s also a critical step for the next major releases of both VMware Cloud Foundation and VxRack SDDC.   More on this later – and I’ll need to tiptoe around roadmap.

Beyond the VMware Cloud Foundation goodies, there are more hardware options (up to 40 total node types):

There are some updates to the networking domain also:

VxRack SDDC 2.0 will be orderable… NOW.  In fact, it’s orderable as of 8/10.   GA for net new customers will be 9/20 as we gear up the factory and Release Certification Matrix for the new system build, and upgrades for existing VxRack SDDC customers will be in Q3.

VxRack SDDC is ready, selling, and being deployed at customers around the world.

We have customers running in 6 of 7 continents (darn Antarctica) – and they have gone in smoothly.   We’re working hard to apply all the learnings of VxRail support and sustaining as the business ramps.

...Now what’s most interesting to me is what we have in store for VxRack SDDC NEXT.

• We have about two orders of magnitude more VxRail customers than VxRack SDDC.   This is somewhat natural, for two reasons: 1) not every customer is ready to transform their network; 2) VxRack SDDC as an HCI Rack-Scale System starts much larger than VxRail, which is a HCI Appliance.   Imagine if we could bring the hardware support of VxRail and VxRack SDDC to be one.  That would mean that customer could start with VxRail, and move to VxRack SDDC when they are ready.
• Clearly the needs for customers for integrated hardware lifecycle management, integrated ESRS, integrated hardware/software stack views is needed.   VxRail manager does this for VxRail.  Imagine if we could do the same thing with VxRack SDDC – maybe even with a common software model.
• The customer needs for integrated data protection, cloud storage, filesystem capabilities are no different for VxRack SDDC customers than they are for VxRail customers.  Imagine if we could make common sets of capabilities.  After all – the needs for data replication at scale are MORE important for larger deployments, not less.  We have RecoverPoint for VMs (integrated with VxRail) customers
• While vSAN covers many use cases today, there are some times where having the choice of additional storage stacks for “side car” use cases that need something specific would be powerful.  We have many customers who have large 2-tier ScaleIO deployments, and want the ability to share ScaleIO across vSphere clusters and get the extreme horizontal pooled scaling/IOps that they get with ScaleIO.  We have many customers who while they see the path forward being 90% vSAN for their VMs, have some that need specific data services.  Imagine if we could make that an “and” choice – without breaking the incredible simplification they get with VxRack SDDC and VCF.
• There’s clearly an opportunity to use more powerful open networking choices in VxRack SDDC.  Imagine if we could bring 50/100GbE at the same price points we can in the system today, with NSX integration like you have never seen.  And imagine if we could integrate it with our datacenter fabric systems into a single lifecycle for the entire datacenter.  Cool.
• There’s clearly an opportunity to refine the VxRack supply chain (for both VxRack SDDC and VxRack FLEX) in the same way we have with VxRail.   As the new Dell EMC, we’ve cranked on VxRail on this topic for a year, and it’s improved speed and velocity by an order of magnitude.   Furthermore, if we can tap into the power of the Dell EMC PowerEdge 14G platforms imagine what that would do.
• We have made VxRack SDDC a fully supported option for the Enterprise Hybrid Cloud (which builds on the VMware Validated Design program) and early access for Native Hybrid Cloud deployments.   Interestingly, we’re standardizing on VxRack SDDC for our VMware and Pivotal Ready System offers – which take the base “cloud foundation” of VxRack SDDC and VMware Cloud Foundation and aim to make the vRealize suite and Pivotal Stacks (both PCF and Kubo – more on this tomorrow), simpler to deploy and lifecycle.   While today those need to be two things – based on use case support and lifecycle questions… that’s not intrinsic.   As VMware, Pivotal and Dell EMC increasingly align here – there’s the power to do something really cool.  Radical simplification.

That gets your mind spinning.   It’s not the idle musing of your neighborhood Virtual Geek – but rather the things that the teams are working on furiously, and you can expect to come to a VxRack SDDC at a theater near you in the near future.

It’s the same team at Dell EMC that works on VxRail and VxRack SDDC – and their mission in life is simple.  Be the BEST HCI Appliance and Rack Scale systems for customers who have standardized on VMware.   In total lockstep, in total alignment.

People may wonder the fit for VxBlock and VxRack FLEX.

Dell EMC must of course must have the most facemeltingly awesome CI/HCI choices for customers who prefer a “horizontal” approach to infrastructure (VMware and non-VMware) – with all the openness and composability that means, and that’s what VxBlock and VxRack FLEX are for.   For more on our thinking on this, please read this post.  VxRack FLEX and Vxblock compete and win in the market where people favor flexibility and stack choice over the simplest vertical stack integration (VxRail, VxRack SDDC). 

For the VMware faithful, the VxRail and VxRack SDDC team are a machine, aligned with VMware and partnered with the VCF team, ultimately aligned with you.