Virtual networking with HPE Morpheus VM Essentials & HPE Aruba Networking CX 10000

[NetworkExperts]

Integrating HPE Morpheus VM Essentials with HPE Aruba Networking CX 10000 unifies orchestration of virtualized networking services: distributed firewall, ESXi microsegmentation, & bare metal hosts.

Since the advent of server virtualization around 2001, networking has consistently stood apart from other components of typical IT infrastructure, such as compute and storage.

Various approaches have been taken to address the requirements for networking in virtualized environment since then, while none have truly succeeded in solving the problems in a holistic way. Just like physical networks and any services delivered through them are always the afterthoughts in application deployment.

Historically, hypervisor vendors have been in the best position to offer the solutions that are closest to what customers would expect, simply because their presence is closest to the workload. However, this also means that in a hybrid environment where communications are expected between workloads that are virtualized, and workloads running on bare metal, additional resources are required to simply bridge the two sides through some gateway functionality, which would further complicate the solution.

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has complicated this even further with sweeping changes to VMware’s licensing model, leaving many customers frustrated and scrambling for alternatives.

I continue to hear stories from customers dealing with VMware licensing cost increase—from 200% to 300% or even more. For many VMware customers, the licensing model and price changes were abrupt. Other customers have time—until the end of their current contracts—to explore their options.

One of the most controversial moves Broadcom has made was replacing perpetual licenses in favor of a subscription-only model. While these new bundles may simplify the VMware product structure, they also often require customers to pay for items they would otherwise not want, need, or use. This is true of what were previously à la carte VMware products, such as NSX Networking and vSAN, which are now available only as part of higher cost, fully featured bundle. These changes have forced businesses to reconsider their reliance on VMware products.

Many organizations are now exploring alternative virtualization solutions, including open source–based solutions, to break free from vendor lock-in. These open-source solutions offer cost-effective virtualization management while lowering reliance on VMware’s ecosystem. With rising costs and licensing restrictions, a growing number of enterprises are considering these alternatives as they migrate their virtualization estate.

HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software

HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Software is a unified solution that enables customers to simplify their VMware deployments and replatform workloads to KVM to reduce cost, complexity, and lock-in.

VM Essentials integration with HPE Aruba Networking CX 10000 helps organizations unify the orchestration of VMware NSX-like network and security services, such as distributed firewall, microsegmentation across ESXi, VM Essentials, and bare-metal hosts at 10x the scale/performance at a fraction of the licensing cost.[1] 

 
 Figure 1. GUI of VM Essentials / CX 10000 (distributed services switch) plug-in

 This integration also offers the added benefits of securing the entire virtual and physical data center infrastructure, providing additional services such as 800G encryption, network address translation (NAT), and high-resolution telemetry. It does this by embedding accelerated services into the network fabric without any impact or disruption by having to install costly performance-impacting software agents on servers.

Learn more at

HPE Aruba Networking CX 10000 Switch Series

Microsegmentation to underpin service excellence—reduces DC firewalls costs by 50%

¹ Based on HPE internal analysis

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Meet HPE Author:

John Gray,
HPE Aruba Networking Data Center Network Lead, HPE