VMware has continued along an acquisition plan to ensure it provides the most advanced security tools to its clients. When operating in the cloud, there are layers of risks that have to be considered to adequately protect and serve. In August of 2018, the company acquired CloudCoreo, a public cloud security startup, and six months later acquired CloudHealth, a multi-cloud management startup.
CloudHealth has become the cornerstone to VMware’s multi-cloud strategy and has 5,000 customers. According to Jason Needham, head of product for Cross-Cloud Services at VMware, VMware is in the process of integrating both recent acquisitions to create a united multi-cloud offering.
“Customers are really struggling with the cost to keep up with cyberthreats and manage their risks,” Needham recently commented. “Security is a dimension to what we do, but we also provide the core systems — cloud, management tools. As much as we can we want to help our customers integrate and back in security form the start.”
VMware had dubbed its security offering “Secure State” – it launched the beta version in August 2018 and today it supports thousands of production cloud accounts across Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud is to follow.
The uptake in public cloud adoption in large part is driven by the advances in technology and expertise in professionals solely dedicated to public cloud management ensuring client system environments are running smoothly on a continuous basis. Compare this to on-premises environments hosted by internal IT teams with varying degrees of expertise and training on the latest available technologies.
Furthermore, VMware announced plans to acquire Avi Networks, a software company that provides multi-cloud application delivery services. Needham states, “Both Avi Networks and Secure State support VMware’s mission to revolutionize how companies are addressing their hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and modern apps strategies – they are complementary, and both support our cloud strategy.”
Needham expands on the Secure State offering, “And Secure State adds the environmental checks and the cloud infrastructure insight, so when you are running those application and networks on public cloud you aren’t blind to the infrastructure vulnerabilities you may have. It’s really a focus from applications to containers, to network segmentation, to cloud infrastructure.”
