VMware is redesigning NSX networking for the cloud

SAN FRANCISCO -- VMware is working on a version of NSX for public clouds that departs from the way the technology manages software-based networks in private data centers.

In an interview this week with a small group of reporters, Andrew Lambeth, an engineering fellow in VMware's network and security business unit, said the computing architectures in public clouds require a new form of NSX networking.

"In general, it's much more important in those environments to be much more in tune with what's happening with the application," he said. "It's not interesting to try to configure [software] at as low a level as we had done in the data center."

Four or five layers up the software stack, cloud provider frameworks typically have hooks to the way applications communicate with each other, Lambeth told reporters at VMware's RADIO research and development conference. "That's sort of the level where you'd look to integrate in the future."

Todd Pugh, IT director at Sugar Creek Packing Co., based in Washington Court House, Ohio, said it's possible for NSX to use Layer 7 -- the application layer -- to manage communications between cloud applications.

"If we burst something to the cloud on something besides AWS, the applications are going to have to know how to talk to one another, as opposed to just being extensions of the network," Pugh said.

Today, VMware is focusing its cloud strategy on the company's partnership with cloud provider AWS. The access VMware has to Amazon's infrastructure makes it possible for NSX to operate the same on the cloud platform as it does in a private data center. Companies use NSX to deliver network services and security to applications running on VMware's virtualization software.

Pugh would not expect an application-centric version of NSX to be as user-friendly as NSX on AWS. Therefore, he would prefer to have VMware strike a similar partnership with Microsoft Azure, which would give him the option of using the current version of NSX on either of the two largest cloud providers.

"I can shop at that point and still make it appear as if it's my network and not have to change my applications to accommodate moving them to a different cloud," Pugh said.

Nevertheless, having a version of NSX for any cloud provider would be useful to many companies, said Shamus McGillicuddy, an analyst at Enterprise Management Associates, based in Boulder, Colo.

"If VMware can open up the platform a bit to allow their customers to have a uniform network management model across any IaaS environment, that will simplify engineering and operations tremendously for companies that are embracing multi-cloud and hybrid cloud," McGillicuddy said.

VMware customers can expect the vendor to roll out the new version of NSX over the next year or so, Lambeth said. He declined to give further details.