VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 Hits GA

The general availability of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 4.3 is now here, adding the latest innovations in full-stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure as a Hybrid Cloud Platform. The new release is also highlighted by networking automation and enhanced backup, multi-cloud management, security operation features.

The general availability of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 4.3 is now here, adding the latest innovations in full-stack Hyperconverged Infrastructure as a Hybrid Cloud Platform. The new release is also highlighted by networking automation and enhanced backup, multi-cloud management, security operation features.

We previously covered and tested this platform in our Dell Technologies Cloud article earlier this year and found that VCF on VxRail was 86% faster to deploy than the do-it-yourself model. Moreover, lifecycle updates (both hardware and software) with VCF also demonstrate tremendous value to their customers, as it is 15% faster and consists of fewer steps. A big reason for this efficiency is only having to visit one place to find and install the available updates. They also install in order–a welcomed difference compared to other solutions, which often require a certain revision before allowing an update.

Needless to say, our weeks of hands-on experience mean any updates to VCF are welcomed with some degree of anticipation.

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 – What’s New?

The VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 release includes the following:

• Enhanced workload domain deployment and lifecycle management to support large-scale VM and container architectures, robust pre-checks for vLCM for faster time to value.
• Integration with vSphere 7 Update 2, including VM Service support, AVI load balancer, security enhancements through a native key provider and confidential containers.
• Integration with vSAN 7 Update 2, provides enhancements to the vSAN Data Persistence Platform for improved cloud-native storage and persistent services support, as well as enhancements to the vSAN file system support and troubleshooting.
• Enhanced Multi-Cloud Management VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 now supports vRealize Suite 8.4, including the ability to automate the deployment of vRealize Suite LifeCycle Management (vRSLCM) and provide a more complete cloud management experience.
• Networking Automation provides faster expansion and better scaling of NSX Edge Clusters with enhanced guidance for Federated multi-site networking deployments.
• Enhanced Security Operations includes stronger security mechanisms to improve the management and administration of security settings within VMware Cloud Foundation, plus adds new support for FIPS 140-2 within SDDC Manager.

VCF 4.2 also added guidance for Day-N operations in NSX Federated VMware Cloud Foundation environments, which allows users to centralize NSX-T Data Center environments across VMware Cloud Foundation instances. With it, customers can:

• manage federated NSX-T Data Center environments using a single pane of glass,
• create gateways and segments that span VMware Cloud Foundation instances, and
• configure and enforce firewall rules consistently across instances.

Security and data protection is also a focal point with this release, as 4.2 also provides guidance for password rotation, certificate management, backup and restore, and lifecycle management for federated environments. In addition, you will now be able to configure an SDDC Manager backup schedule and retention policy from the SDDC Manager interface.

VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 includes the following Bill of Materials:

• VMware SDDC Manager 4.3
• vSphere 7 Update 2a with Tanzu
• vCenter Server 7.0 P03
• vSAN 7 Update 2 supporting enhanced cloud native storage, integrated file services.
• vRealize Suite provides numerous enhancements to vRealize log insight 8.4, vRealize Operations 8.4, and vRealize Automation 8.4.1.  Note: VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 deploys vRealize Lifecycle Manager (vRSLCM) 8.4.1, then vRSLCM deploys and provides ongoing life cycle management of other vRealize Components.
• NSX-T 3.1.3, supporting new networking and security features including NSX-T Federation.
• VMware Workspace ONE Access 3.3.5

VMware Cloud Foundation

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