Partnership and Collaboration:
NVIDIA and VMware announced a strategic partnership two years ago, resulting in remarkable progress and a shared vision for the future of data centers.

AI in the Enterprise:
The partnership focuses on bringing NVIDIA’s AI stack onto VMware’s platform, transforming enterprise computing. Customers are deploying NVIDIA AI on VMware’s cloud platform, revolutionizing enterprise computing and making AI accessible to every enterprise.

Project Monterey:
Two years ago, Project Monterey was announced, aiming to reimagine data center architecture for next-generation applications. VMware and NVIDIA engineering teams have worked closely to bring this vision to life.

vSphere on NVIDIA DPUs:
The availability of vSphere running on NVIDIA DPUs (formerly known as Project Monterey) is a significant milestone.

Recognizing the Modern Workload:
The collaboration acknowledges artificial intelligence as a modern workload that requires a fundamentally different approach to software development and deployment.

Reimagining the Data Center:
To accommodate this new way of computing, the entire data center needed to be reimagined. VMware and NVIDIA, as leaders in their respective fields, formed a natural partnership for this transformation.

NVIDIA’s AI Engine and VMware’s Operating System:
VMware’s position as the operating system of the modern enterprise complements NVIDIA’s role as the AI engine for modern AI workloads.

AI’s Impact:
AI represents a paradigm shift in software development, necessitating a complete overhaul of the data center’s architecture. The partnership’s success is a testament to the intensive engineering collaboration between VMware and NVIDIA.

Introduction of AI Solutions:
NVIDIA and VMware collaborate to provide a comprehensive AI solution, from workflow and development to deployment. Customers can access the best in AI management on platforms they trust, such as VMware’s Tanzu platform with full Kubernetes, containers, and VMs. This solution enables the efficient running of AI alongside mainstream application workloads for better efficacy, cost management, and overall data center management.

AI Transformation and AI Factories:
AI is deemed transformative and will revolutionize every business in the future, driving companies to utilize machine learning and harvest intelligence from their data. “AI factories,” where companies refine data and develop predictive models, will become a common feature in modern enterprises.

Distributed AI Supercomputer and Hyperscale Cloud Computer:
Modern enterprises will operate as distributed AI supercomputers, requiring the simultaneous processing of large amounts of data. High-performance computing applications and disaggregated applications deployed with Tanzu and Kubernetes will be the norm in data centers. This unique characteristic of AI presents a grand challenge for computer scientists, addressed by the capabilities of NVIDIA’s Project Monterey. Project Monterey enables data centers to function as both high-performance computers and hyperscale cloud computers, a groundbreaking capability.

DPUs and Project Monterey:
DPUs (Data Processing Units) play a crucial role in accelerating performance, freeing up CPU cycles, and providing enhanced security in the new infrastructure architecture. vSphere has been re-architected to leverage NVIDIA’s DPUs, offloading software-defined infrastructure tasks to DPUs for accelerated IO and agility for developers. This enables the entire cluster of CPUs to manage the distributed workload, improving agility for both containerized and VM workloads.

vSphere 8 as a Revolutionary Launch:
vSphere 8 is considered the most significant launch since the platform’s inception, transforming enterprise computing. It combines high-performance computing with the benefits of virtualization, management, security, and workload orchestration. vSphere 8 revolutionizes how applications are deployed, enabling distributed high-performance computing for AI model development and containerized deployment.

The DPU: A New Processor for the Data Center:
The Bluefield DPU is introduced as a new type of processor specifically designed for the infrastructure software of data centers. The DPU is essentially an accelerated computing platform that offloads, accelerates, and isolates the data center’s operating system, freeing up CPU and GPU resources for computation.

Benefits and Return on Investment:
vSphere 8 with NVIDIA Bluefield promises a fast return on investment due to freed-up resources and accelerated computing. The payback is instantaneous, making it a fantastic return for enterprises that adopt this solution.

Reprogrammable Data Center:
The beauty of this architecture lies in the ability to reconfigure data centers at will. Regular servers can be enhanced with advanced storage and networking capabilities on demand by connecting them to the DPU. This flexibility makes the data center highly fungible, another unique advantage of the DPU.

Introduction:
VMware’s CEO, Raghu Raghuram, and NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang, discussed the groundbreaking collaboration between their companies that has led to the development of vSphere 8 and the Bluefield Data Processing Unit (DPU). This collaboration aims to revolutionize enterprise computing by providing a comprehensive solution for modern enterprises.

Bluefield DPU’s Impact on Data Centers:
Raghu Raghuram expressed his pride in Bluefield and its revolutionary benefits for modern enterprises. Jensen Huang emphasized that every data center and server will eventually be powered by a DPU, serving as the foundation for the data center’s operating system.

Security Enhancement through Isolation:
With the DPU, vSphere and NSX codebases can run in isolation, enabling east-west traffic handling at line speed and post-security without disruption.

Increased Attack Surface and the Need for NSX:
The modernization and disaggregation of applications in data centers lead to a significant increase in east-west traffic, expanding the attack surface for companies. NSX running on Bluefield becomes vital in mitigating this increased risk by implementing firewalls in every computer, protecting every container, and ensuring security in future architectures.

Seamless Integration with vSphere Architecture:
The management model remains unchanged, allowing administrators to manage the DPU like any other server using the same vCenter, DRS, and vMotion constructs.

vSphere 8, Bluefield, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise:
The combination of vSphere 8, Bluefield, and NVIDIA AI Enterprise creates a comprehensive stack for AI computing. This stack provides a new approach to deploying applications, from traditional monolithic virtualized applications to distributed AI computing and disaggregated AI deployment.

Availability for Trial on NVIDIA Launchpad:
Enterprises can experience the vSphere platform with NSX on NVIDIA Bluefield DPUs without procurement or setup through NVIDIA Launchpad.

Deep Engineering Collaboration between VMware and NVIDIA:
The collaboration between VMware and NVIDIA stemmed from deep engineering collaboration on foundational technologies, AI stack, vSphere 8 technology, and the DPU. This relationship promises further advancements and innovations for enterprise customers.
Conclusion:
The partnership between VMware and NVIDIA marks a significant milestone in enterprise computing. vSphere 8 and the Bluefield DPU bring revolutionary benefits to modern enterprises, addressing critical challenges in security, performance, and efficiency. The availability of the vSphere platform on NVIDIA Launchpad allows enterprises to experience firsthand the transformative power of this collaboration.