Last Thursday, I wrote about VMware’s definitive agreement to acquire Pivotal. We’re really excited to fully join forces, but as I foreshadowed it is one element in our larger strategy to help customers build modern applications, run Kubernetes consistently across environments and manage it all from a single point of control.
On Monday at VMworld, we put a name to that strategy—VMware Tanzu is our portfolio of products and services to transform the way the world builds software on Kubernetes.
In the VMworld general session keynote, Pat Gelsinger and Joe Beda made one major announcement for each of the three major pieces in the VMware Tanzu portfolio. And now I get to spell all that out here as a complete picture:
1. VMware helps customers BUILD modern applications
The acquisition of Bitnami and pending acquisition of Pivotal super-charge the products and services we can bring to market through VMware Tanzu. VMware now has a far deeper connection to the developer community and can offer developers a complete modern application supply chain.
Bitnami packages and delivers applications for Kubernetes—with incredible reach. Today, the Bitnami Community Catalog offers 180 applications and components that are installed more than 1 million times every month. We announced Project Galleon to bring Bitnami capabilities to the enterprise to offer customized application stacks to their end developers.
Pivotal is a strong steward of one of the most popular application frameworks in the world (Spring) and offers customers a leading commercial application platform (Pivotal Application Service). Pivotal has fully embraced Kubernetes—they’ve been building Kubernetes native technologies for years and recently announced that PAS and its components—including Pivotal Build Service and Pivotal Function Service—are being evolved to run on Kubernetes.
Collectively, Bitnami and Pivotal reach nearly 5 million developers. This is amplified by VMware’s ISV ecosystem; VMware’s partners are building applications and offering value-add services on Kubernetes and integrating with the VMware SDDC stack.
2. VMware ensures customers RUN a consistent implementation of Kubernetes
VMware intends to be the leading enabler of Kubernetes for our customers and a safe haven for ecosystem partners in the challenging landscape of public cloud. With that objective in mind, we are excited to share that we are anchoring the introduction of VMware Tanzu with a tech preview* of Project Pacific—an effort to embed Kubernetes in vSphere. The integration of Kubernetes and vSphere is happening at the API and UI layers, but also the core virtualization layer as ESXi will run Kubernetes natively.
[Read Joe Beda’s blog on Project Pacific to dig deeper into this announcement]
Project Pacific will put Kubernetes capabilities at the fingertips of hundreds of thousands of vSphere customers and potentially millions of administrators. But importantly, it will also make our flagship vSphere product better—uniting VMs and containers to offer a single application platform for the future. Operators will gain access to Kubernetes capabilities through a familiar set of tools and scripts, while developers will be able to access cloud resources using Kubernetes APIs.
Customers that are excited about this vision don’t need to wait. Our current Kubernetes offering, VMware PKS is entirely aligned with VMware Tanzu, including Project Pacific. All of VMware’s offerings build from a common core of open source Kubernetes with integrated lifecycle and cluster management. And, customers that want to run Kubernetes with consistency across clouds will choose VMware PKS. In short, customers starting down the Kubernetes path with VMware will want to take the first step now by buying and deploying VMware PKS.
3. VMware enables customers to MANAGE their entire Kubernetes estate from a single point of control
As we make Kubernetes more available across environments and development teams begin to leverage the service to support their modern application development, your footprint will become more complicated to manage. We want to give our customers a way to operate Kubernetes consistently across clouds, clusters and teams to provide maximum operational efficiency matched with an enterprise toolkit. That’s why we also introduced VMware Tanzu Mission Control as part of the VMware Tanzu portfolio.
[Read Craig McLuckie’s blog on VMware Tanzu Mission Control to explore this technology preview]
With VMware Tanzu Mission Control, customers will manage ALL their Kubernetes clusters—across vSphere, VMware PKS, public clouds, managed services, packaged distributions or even DIY—from a single point of control. They will provision new Kubernetes clusters in these environments from VMware Tanzu Mission Control and leverage a policy engine to establish guardrails. Specifically, operators will apply policies for access, quotas, back-up, security and more to individual clusters or groups of clusters.
Meanwhile, developer teams will have access to workspaces in which they can freely consume resources and collaborate. Again, VMware’s portfolio puts us in a unique position to bridge the operator-developer gap and propel modern application development forward.
In Summary…
It has been a wild week (heck, not even a full week), and VMware has announced a significant plan to acquire Pivotal AND introduced the VMware Tanzu portfolio of products and services. We have combined developer tools and a modern application supply chain with long-standing infrastructure leadership.
There is so much energy and innovation to harness here—this is only the beginning. The VMware Tanzu portfolio will continue to grow and reinforce our ability to lead customers to build modern applications, run Kubernetes with consistency across environments, and manage their entire Kubernetes estate with total control and confidence.
P.S. To satisfy your curiosity, what’s a Tanzu? Well, in Swahili the word Tanzu refers to a branch. In Japanese the word Tansu (spelled with an ‘s’) is a modular cabinet that generally takes the form of stairs. But as far as we’re concerned at VMware, Tanzu is the best way to build, manage and run modern applications across any cloud. _______________________________________________________________________________
Forward-Looking Statements
This post contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding the proposed acquisition of Pivotal Software by VMware, such as the growth opportunities and expansion of VMware’s offerings associated with each acquisition and potential benefits to VMware and its customers. These forward-looking statements are subject to applicable safe harbor provisions under federal securities laws. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, including but not limited to: (1) the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions to closing the proposed acquisition (including the failure to obtain necessary regulatory approvals) in the anticipated timeframe or at all; (2) uncertainties as to the outcome of the vote by Pivotal stockholders to approve the Pivotal acquisition; (3) the possibility that the acquisition does not close; (4) the possibility that competing offers may be made; (5) the possibility that the expected benefits from the proposed acquisition will not be realized or will not be realized within the expected time period; (6) the risk that the business will not be integrated successfully; (7) the risk of litigation and regulatory actions related to the proposed acquisition; (8) other business effects, including the effects of industry, market, economic, political or regulatory conditions; and (9) other unexpected costs or delays in connection with the acquisition. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including VMware’s most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.
Additional Information about the Pivotal Acquisition and Where to Find It
This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed merger with Pivotal (the “Pivotal Merger”). This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy VMware securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval. The proposed Pivotal Merger will be submitted to Pivotal’s stockholders for their consideration. In connection with the proposed transaction, Pivotal intends to file a proxy statement and other relevant materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in connection with the solicitation of proxies by Pivotal, the Company and Dell Technologies in connection with the proposed transaction. The definitive proxy statement will be mailed to Pivotal’s stockholders.
BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION, INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS OF PIVOTAL ARE URGED TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND OTHER RELEVANT MATERIALS CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The proxy statement, any amendments or supplements thereto and other relevant materials, and any other documents filed by Pivotal with the SEC, may be obtained once such documents are filed with the SEC free of charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. In addition, Pivotal’s stockholders may obtain free copies of the documents filed with the SEC through the Investors portion of Pivotal’s website at pivotal.io/investors or by contacting Pivotal’s Investor Relations Department via e-mail at ir@pivotal.io.
Pivotal, VMware, Dell Technologies Inc. and certain of their respective executive officers, directors, other members of management and employees, may under the rules of the SEC, be deemed to be “participants” in the solicitation of proxies from Pivotal’s stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. Information regarding the persons who may be considered “participants” in the solicitation of proxies will be set forth in Pivotal’s preliminary and definitive proxy statements when filed with the SEC and other relevant documents to be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction, each of which can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above when they become available. Information regarding certain of these persons and their beneficial ownership of Pivotal’s common stock is also set forth in Pivotal’s proxy statement for its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders filed on May 3, 2019 with the SEC, which may be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.
* There is no commitment or obligation that technology preview features will become generally available.
