VMware Aligns with Samsung on IoT

VMware has already let it be known that it intends to extend the reach of its virtualization technologies all the way out to the Internet of Things (IoT) edge. Now is has enlisted Samsung to help further that agenda.

Mimi Spier, vice president of IoT for VMware, says the two companies have agreed to collaboratively extend the reach of VMware Pulse IoT Center, which combines VMware AirWatch device management software with VMware vRealize IT automation software, to the Samsung ARTIK IoT platform. The Samsung ARTIK IoT platform provides developers with both the hardware and software required to develop IoT applications using Samsung hardware and software development kits (SDKs).

As IoT applications evolve, Spier says, it’s becoming apparent that IT organizations will need to push the equivalent of a software-defined data center environment all the way out to the IoT gateway being employed to connect devices to the internet.

“Compute, networking and storage resources will all need to move to the edge,” says Spier.

The challenge facing IT organizations is that IoT environments are highly distributed. In fact, most of the gateways will be based on different classes of processors running any number of types of operating systems. Spier says managing IoT environments at scale will require IT organizations to apply the same software-defined approach used inside traditional data centers on gateways that can be located almost anywhere.

Obviously, VMware is not the only IT vendor eying IoT opportunities. But given its current dominance of the data center, VMware clearly likes its chances when it comes to extending the reach of software-defined infrastructure as far out to the IoT edge as possible.