Server Virtualization

VMware Enhances vSphere with Nvidia AI Software Support

With the arrival of vSphere 7 Update 2 in early March 2021, VMware took a significant step into the world of artificial intelligence and machine learning, and now support for Nvidia AI software has arrived on its flagship platform.

This wasn't entirely surprising. Nvidia and VMware announced a collaboration during September's online VMworld event, intending to have Nvidia's AI Enterprise software accessible on VMware's platform for deploying and managing virtual machines.

With this latest release, vSphere is "exclusively certified" to run Nvidia's AI Enterprise applications and frameworks, which have now been containerized and can be run through an organization's infrastructure rather than in a silo. This, of course, means more support for Nvidia GPUs, which are needed to run the software.

"It opens up for both of us a good opportunity," Lee Caswell, vice president of marketing at VMware, told ITPro Today. "We're looking to go and help AI become mainstream in the enterprise. They're looking to open that up for all of our 300,000 vSphere customers, who can now have access to these new capabilities."

Access to this market is vital for Nvidia because it will improve revenues in their data center division, which generated $6.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Obtaining a position in the emerging enterprise AI market is also essential for VMware, which has spent the last few years expanding its offerings beyond the virtualization technology it pioneered, mostly by acquisitions; in 2018, VMware added cloud-native technology to its portfolio with the purchase of the Kubernetes startup Heptio, and about a year later bought back Pivotal a cloud-native platform. Access to this market is vital for Nvidia because it will improve revenues in their data center division, which generated $6.7 billion in the previous fiscal year.

Obtaining a position in the emerging enterprise AI market is also essential for VMware, which has spent the last few years expanding its offerings beyond the virtualization technology it pioneered, mostly by acquisitions; in 2018, VMware added cloud-native technology to its portfolio with the purchase of the Kubernetes startup Heptio, and about a year later bought back Pivotal a cloud-native platform.


Nvidia and Vsphere
Caswell explained that traditionally, AI software has been run on bare metal to prevent possible performance loss associated with moving compute-heavy workloads to VMs or containers. The issue with this approach is that bare metal deployments are not portable. As a result, AI workloads are limited to silos, which is a problem for enterprises who want to use AI on-the-fly throughout their IT infrastructure.

VMware and Nvidia were able to containerize Nvidia's AI Enterprise software with almost the same benchmarked performance levels as operating on bare metal by using properties inherent in vSphere's hypervisor. This makes Nvidia AI software easily available across an organization's infrastructure, resolving the issue of ensuring portability while sacrificing substantial efficiency.

To function properly, AI software must be able to take advantage of GPUs, which take most of the load off of a server's CPUs by doing much of the heavy lifting. VMware has added support for Nvidia's A100 Tensor Core GPUs, which are used in Nvidia-Certified Systems, Nvidia-tested and licensed server designs sold exclusively by eight equipment manufacturers, including ASUS, Dell EMC, HPE, and Supermicro.

In addition to running AI workloads, GPUs can be used for other vSphere features, such as Multi-Instance GPU, which enables GPU cycles to be shared by many users, and Distributed Resource Scheduler for automated workload placement to prevent performance bottlenecks.

"Up to seven VMs can now share a single GPU," Caswell said. "That's a more cost-effective way to deploy at the enterprise

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Leostream Enhances Security and Management of vSphere Hybrid Cloud Deployments

Business Wire | January 29, 2024

Leostream Corporation, the world's leading Remote Desktop Access Platform provider, today announced features to enhance security, management, and end-user productivity in vSphere-based hybrid cloud environments. The Leostream platform strengthens end-user computing (EUC) capabilities for vSphere users, including secure access to both on-premises and cloud environments, heterogeneous support, and reduced cloud costs. With the Leostream platform as the single pane of glass managing EUC environments, any hosted desktop environment, including individual virtual desktops, multi-user sessions, hosted physical workstations or desktops, and hosted applications, becomes simpler to manage, more secure, more flexible, and more cost-effective. Significant ways the Leostream platform expands vSphere’s capabilities include: Security The Leostream platform ensures data remains locked in the corporate network, and works across on-premises and cloud environments, providing even disparate infrastructures with the same levels of security and command over authorization, control, and access tracking. The Leostream platform supports multi-factor authentication and allows organizations to enforce strict access control rules, creating an EUC environment modeled on a zero-trust architecture. Multivendor/protocol support The Leostream platform was developed from the ground up for heterogeneous infrastructures and as the connection management layer of the EUC environment, the Leostream platform allows organizations to leverage vSphere today and other hypervisors or hyperconvergence platforms in the future as their needs evolve. The Leostream platform supports the industry’s broadest array of remote display protocols, including specialized protocols for mission-critical tasks. Consistent EUC experience The Leostream platform enables IT to make changes to the underlying environment while ensuring the end user experience is constant, and to incorporate AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or OpenStack private clouds into their environment without disruptions in end-user productivity. By integrating with corporate Identity Providers (IdPs) that employees are already familiar with, and providing employees with a single portal they use to sign in, the Leostream platform offers simplicity to users too. Connectivity The Leostream Gateway securely connects to on-prem and cloud resources without virtual private networks (VPNs), and eliminates the need to manage and maintain security groups. End users get the same seamless login and high-performance connection across hybrid environments including corporate resources located off the internet. Controlling cloud costs The Leostream Connection Broker implements automated rules that control capacity and power state in the cloud, allowing organizations to optimize their cloud usage and minimize costs, such as ensuring cloud instances aren’t left running when they are no longer needed. The Connection Broker also intelligently pools and shares resources across groups of users, so organizations can invest in fewer systems, reducing overall cost of ownership. “These features deliver a streamlined experience with vSphere and hybrid or multi-cloud resources so end users remain productive, and corporate data and applications remain secure,” said Leostream CEO Karen Gondoly. “At a time when there is uncertainty about the future of support for VMware’s end-user computing, it’s important to bring these options to the market to show that organizations can extend vSphere’s capabilities and simultaneously plan for the future without disruption to the workforce.” About Leostream Corporation Leostream Corporation, the global leader in Remote Desktop Access Platforms, offers comprehensive solutions that enable seamless work-from-anywhere environments for individuals across diverse industries, regardless of organization size or location. The core of the Leostream platform is its commitment to simplicity and insight. It is driven by a unified administrative console that streamlines the management of users, cloud desktops, and IT assets while providing real-time dashboards for informed decision-making. The company continually monitors the evolving remote desktop landscape, anticipating future trends and challenges. This purposeful, proactive approach keeps clients well-prepared for the dynamic changes in remote desktop technology.

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