VMware and the National Science Foundation Announce Academic Awards for Public Research in Sustainable Digital Infrastructure
VMware and the National Science Foundation Announce Academic Awards for Public Research in Sustainable Digital Infrastructure
MAY 20, 2021 — VMware, in collaboration with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), announced funding awards for the new research program “NSF-VMware Partnership on Next Generation of Sustainable Digital Infrastructure (NG-SDI).”
The goal of the initiative and joint solicitation with NSF is to foster novel, transformative research in fundamental and systematic approaches that bring dramatic increases in the environmental sustainability of digital infrastructure and leading to practical methodologies and tools. This collaboration is in line with VMware’s 2030 Agenda, which outlines the company’s 10-year commitment to building a more sustainable and resilient world.
The joint NSF-VMware awards, which total US $6,000,000 in research funding grants over three years, are made for two multi-university research teams. Get more details here.
Get Ready for Spring Flings!
Get Ready for Spring Flings!
APRIL 9, 2021 — Flings are experimental tools or scripts that are developed by VMware’s internal community and released externally for use by VMware’s ecosystem. Flings are free to download and allow you to quickly provide feedback on your experience to the Fling developers. Here’s what’s new with the Flings program.
New website
Flings has a new website! Log in to the site for your personalized front page to help you track the Flings you download, as well as responses to your comments and bug reports in the “Latest Activity” box. Flings now have “New” or “Updated” labels with dates and the site sports a cleaner look that we hope you will enjoy. Lastly, we are featuring a Fling with a video each month in the upper left of the front page in the “Highlights” box.
New Flings
- vRealize Automation Code Stream CLI — vRealize Automation Code Stream CLI is a command-line tool written in Go to interact with the vRealize Automation Code Stream APIs.
- Hillview: Distributed Data Visualization — Hillview is a simple cloud-based spreadsheet program for browsing large data collections.
- Workspace ONE Access Migration Tool — Workspace ONE Access Migration Tool helps ease migration of Apps from one WS1 Access tenant to another (on-premises-to-SaaS or SaaS-to-SaaS) and use cases that require mirroring one tenant to another.
- Sample Data Platform Deployment on Virtualized Cloud Infrastructure — With this Fling, you will leverage your VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 with vRealize Automation deployment and set up a sample data platform based on vSphere Virtual Machines in less than 20-minutes comprising of Kafka, Spark, Solr, and ELK.
- VMware Cloud Foundation Powernova — VMware Cloud Foundation Powernova is a Fling built on top of VCF that provides the users the ability to perform Power Operations (Power ON, Power OFF) seamlessly across the entire inventory.
- Code Stream Concourse Integrator — The Code Stream Concourse Integrator (CSCI) Fling provides integration between a vRealize Automation Code Stream and Concourse CI tools with which users can trigger Concourse CI pipelines from Code Stream pipelines without any additional tooling/scripting.
- Community Networking Driver for ESXi — This Fling is a collection of ESXi Native Drivers which enables ESXi to recognize and consume various PCIe-based network adapters.
- SDDC Import/Export for VMware Cloud on AWS — The SDDC Import/Export for VMware Cloud on AWS tool enables you to save and restore your VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) networking and security configuration.
- Desktop Container Tools — Desktop Container Tools is a free tool that allows you to do basic management of vctl (a CLI tool shipped with VMware Fusion) container engine on macOS for running containers and Kubernetes clusters.
- Community NVMe Driver for ESXi — This Fling is a collection of ESXi Native Drivers that enables ESXi to recognize and consume various NVMe-based storage devices.
Updated Flings
In the first quarter of this year, there were 37 updates to existing Flings — too many to list here. But keep an eye on the “Updated” label to keep apprised of updates to the Flings you’re using.
That said, there were some notable updates:
- VMware OS Optimization Tool – version b2002 — March 31, 2021
- ESXi Arm Edition – version 1.3 — April 02, 2021
- DoD Security Technical Implementation Guide(STIG) ESXi VIB – version 7.0_1.0.0 — March 29, 2021
- Horizon Cloud Pod Architecture Tools – version 1.1 March 19, 2021
- vRealize Build Tools – version 2.12.5 March 18, 2021
Follow VMware Flings on Twitter @vmwflings and on Facebook
The Power of Modern Apps
The Power of Modern Apps and Cloud Transformation: 3/31 & 4/1
MARCH 31, 2021 & APRIL 1, 2021 — Organizations everywhere are focused on seizing innovation opportunities compatible with their growth goals. With cloud technologies evolving at a dizzying rate, it can be difficult to make sense of the options and how they fit into their strategies.
CTOs everywhere are having lively discussions about the pain points they face. For example, there’s the debate over which operation should be performed first: migration or modernization. Also, there’s the multi-cloud conundrum: Is multi-cloud a strategy or does the difficulty of running every app on one cloud make multi-cloud inevitable?
VMware executives will weigh in on these issues at “Leading Change: Accelerate Your App and Cloud Transformation.” CTOs Kit Colbert and Joe Baguley will discuss a new vision for apps and cloud and the transformation of apps, DevSecOps, and cloud infrastructure. Attendees of this 35-minute virtual event will learn how to harness the power of any cloud for a new generation of modern apps.
Joe Baguely explains more in this video preview.
Register to attend on March 31 at 11am PDT in the Americas, on April 1 at 11:30am SGT in APJ, and on April 1 at 11am CEST in EMEA.
Seven Principles to Nurture Innovation
Seven Principles to Nurture Innovation
MARCH 29, 2021 — Since our founding in 1998, VMware’s culture has always been about delivering innovations to meet our customers’ evolving needs. Growing from a lean startup to become a company of over 34,000 team members worldwide with almost $12B in annual revenues, we are faced with a new challenge: how can we maintain our culture of innovation and keep that startup spirit alive within a large global enterprise?
One of VMware CTO Greg Lavender’s beliefs is that innovation does not come from a culture of consensus. In fact, it arises from an inherent tension between opposite points of view. When nurtured in a respectful way, this approach usually leads to superior solutions, he explains in a recent blog about the seven principles that have inspired him in his quest to create a culture of perpetual innovation.
“As CTO of VMware, I know that perpetual innovation is the lifeblood of a technology company,” he writes. “I have learned that innovation happens everywhere and can come from anywhere.”
VMware’s Social Impact on Behind the Impact Podcast
VMware’s Social Impact on “Behind the Impact” Podcast
MARCH 14, 2021 — Last December, VMware announced its 2030 Agenda — a 10-year commitment to reach 30 goals focused on three business outcomes: Trust, Equity, and Sustainability. Being a force for good is ingrained in everything we do at VMware and this commitment was strengthened with the establishment of a new Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Office within the Office of the CTO.
This evolution has been the culmination of nearly a decade of social-impact efforts at VMware. Meriem Bekka, Sr. Manager of Social Impact at VMware, was recently interviewed on the “Behind the Impact” podcast to share about VMware’s social-impact programs. She discusses her background and journey to social impact, how VMware’s social impact has evolved over time, VMware’s commitment to nonprofit digital transformation, and unique Citizen Philanthropy approach, as well as the ways that these programs have been impacted by the global pandemic.
Listen to the episode on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Get Ready for PI Day!
Get Ready for PI Day!
MARCH 14, 2021 — Pi Day is Sunday, 3/14 (March 14), and we at VMware could not be more excited. We like to “geek out” and celebrate this auspicious occasion in our own unique way. Instead of using the day as a good reason to eat pie or order pizza (although, why not?), we use it as a moment in time to celebrate the way our culture differentiates us as a company — as our EVP and Chief People Officer Betty Sutter describes it in this post, “with innovation and choice.”
On Pi Day, VMware celebrates the infinite possibilities of VMware’s culture of service, which propels us towards VMware’s 2030 Agenda. Like the digits in Pi (3.14159265359…), the opportunities to give back to the world are unlimited.
Every year on March 14, VMware encourages its employees to give back to the community and the cause of their choice via the method they choose, keeping with the Pi theme. It could be spending 3.14 hours delivering meals to the elderly. Contributing $314 to a charity near and dear to their hearts. Emailing 314 of their closest friends and encouraging them each to drop off one bag of groceries at a local food bank. The possibilities truly are endless.
Of course, cititzen philanthropy at VMware doesn’t happen just on Pi Day. It’s a continuous practice that includes many opportunities to give back, including every employee receiving $3.14 to $3,141.59 in VMware matched funds for the nonprofits of their choice.
How can you join in our PI Day celebration? Use your imagination (or read this article, which details 41 creative ways to give back) and learn more about VMware’s Pi Day initiatives here.
Making the Environment Top Priority
Making the Environment Top Priority
FEB. 8, 2021 — VMware is committed to being a role model in the technology community, putting sustainability at the top of our agenda. We achieved carbon neutrality in 2018 and continue to set higher goals for ourselves in this area.
Our efforts have not gone unnoticed: we’ve earned a spot on CDP’s Climate A List for leadership in environmental transparency — a key milestone in effective climate action and one of our 2030 goals.
Additionally, VMware has been acknowledged by the 2020 Carbon Clean 200™, which ranks publicly traded companies based on their green energy revenues.
Read more about this global recognition.
Continuing our Relentless Focus on LBQT Equality
Like every group within VMware, OCTO is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). That’s why we are so proud to announce that VMware has achieved 100% on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2021 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) and named one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality,” for the fourth consecutive year.Read more about this incredible honor and check out a selection of our blog posts about DEI.
VMware Blockchain Recognized by Forbes
We are excited to share the news that VMware Blockchain has been named to this year’s Forbes Blockchain 50 2021 list. We announced the initial availability of our Enterprise-grade Blockchain Platform in November, 2020. Read more about this distinction, another example of OCTO’s innovation.
