VMware has has launched its new secure, enterprise-grade IoT infrastructure management solution, VMware Pulse IoT Center.
The company claims this will give organizations “complete control” of IoT infrastructure and things to IT [information technology] and OT [operational technology] teams. It is also the first in a line of new IoT solutions the company is punting that it says will help to “more efficiently manage, operate, scale and protect their IoT projects from the edge to the cloud.”
Pulse IoT Center is focused on enterprise IoT and pulls in technologies from both VMware AirWatch and VMware vRealize Operations, with the goal of enabling customers to get real-time visibility into the health of “things”, as well as the ability to proactively address issues, where these are found.
In a blog post, VMware claims that enterprises are “struggling to manage IoT operations across their fragmented ecosystems, prioritize the data from things to platforms, and deploy strategies with speed and efficiency”.
“Simultaneously, these IT and OT departments are not necessarily communicating well or working together on strategies, even though they both need to implement and scale IoT use cases quickly and cost-effectively.”
End-to-end management
Among its other claims, VMware proposes that its offering will accelerate return on investment (ROI), by streamlining how IoT projects get deployed and scaled. Additionally, it will enable security across things, edge, network and applications to further protect IoT infrastructure and data access.
It also said this would be more secure as it minimizes data exposed by creating a tunnel from data point to application by using VMware NSX as an add-on, and wipes data from devices at any time if they are exposed to security threats.
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Research from Gartner estimates that, through 2020, 90 percent of IoT projects will use some form of IoT gateway. According to IDC, there were 12.1 billion IoT endpoints in 2015 and in 2020 there will be over 30 billion. VMware says that as IoT becomes prevalent in the enterprises, organisations need a simplified approach to manage, monitor and secure their infrastructure and data.
“As enterprises look to transform into digital businesses, this creates an opportunity for IT and OT teams to collaborate as they embrace IoT to improve operations within their business while generating new forms of revenue,” said Mimi Spier, vice president of IoT at VMware.
“We’re leveraging our expertise and proven success in the enterprise and applying it to IoT infrastructure and across all ‘things.’ VMware Pulse IoT Center will provide IT and OT teams visibility and control across their IoT use cases, while offering peace of mind with security capabilities throughout the IoT value chain.”
VMware Pulse IoT Center is expected to be available this year. The solution will be sold as both a standalone solution by VMware and partners as well as a bundled offering via partners such as Dell EMC and others.
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