VMware unveiled on Tuesday VMware Pulse IoT Center, a secure, enterprise grade Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure management solution that will enable information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) teams to have complete control of their IoT infrastructure and things. The first solution in a new family of VMware IoT offerings, VMware Pulse IoT Center will help customers to manage, operate, scale and protect their IoT projects from the edge to the cloud.
VMware Pulse IoT Center is an end to end IoT infrastructure management solution which allows OT and IT to have complete control over their IoT use cases, from the edge all the way to the cloud. It simplifies IoT complexity by managing across diverse set of things as easily as one; improves reliability by providing accurate and real-time visibility of ‘thing’ health and act on anomalies as they arise; accelerating ROI by streamlining and accelerating how IoT gets deployed and scaled; and securing IoT infrastructure across things, edge, network, and applications.
With VMware Pulse IoT Center, customers will be able to simplify the complexities of managing connected ‘things’ including on-board, manage, monitor and secure diverse IoT edge systems, connected devices and applications from a single console; interoperate between heterogeneous edge systems and connected devices with different hardware, operating systems and communication protocols; and define and track what, where and when things are updated over the air (OTA) or changed — with a flexible rules engine.
The offerings also deliver access to accurate and real-time visibility of ‘thing’ health and ability to act on anomalies before they arise including real-time infrastructure analytics and monitoring; ability to visualize all edge systems, connected devices and their relationships (i.e., status, location, dependencies) IoT use case grouping; and defining KPIs / measures, alerts, and actions.
VMware Pulse IoT Center also secures IoT infrastructure across things, edge, network and applications, including the ability to minimize data exposed by creating a tunnel from data point to application by using VMware NSX as an add-on; enterprise wipe of data from devices at any time if they are exposed to security threats; and maintain up-to-date firmware and security patches and upgrade software OTA via an integrated policy engine.
It also streamlines and accelerates how IoT gets deployed and scaled to simplify the deployment of an IoT use case with one management tool for all devices; speeds time to value with a simple way to onboard devices and update them over time; and delivers the right information to the right thing at the right time — from edge to cloud with software lifecycle management.
Customers investing in IoT face significant challenges as they move from Proof of Concept to production. They are seeking a simpler way to track, visualize, monitor and secure hundreds of thousands of different types of edge systems and connected devices across their IoT use cases. VMware Pulse IoT Center will simplify the complexity of managing customers’ IoT infrastructure and their diverse types of things as easily as one. It will help improve reliability of infrastructure by providing accurate and real-time visibility of ‘thing’ health to enable customers to proactively address anomalies before they arise.
VMware Pulse IoT Center will help accelerate ROI by streamlining how IoT projects gets deployed and scaled. Additionally, it will enable security across things, edge, network and applications to further protect IoT infrastructure and data access.
This new solution, focused on enterprise IoT, leverages existing, proven technologies from both VMware AirWatch for device management and VMware vRealize Operations for infrastructure monitoring and troubleshooting. It has been built to meet the specific, complex needs of IoT for both IT and OT teams, while supporting a broad range of edge systems and their connected devices. VMware Pulse IoT Center, which will be available as both a simple to deploy on-premise solution and as a Service offering, is currently in private beta with customers across automotive, entertainment, retail banking, health care and manufacturing industries.
Gartner estimates that through 2020, 90 percent of IoT projects will use some form of IoT gateway. Additionally, the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints is expected to grow from 12.1 billion at the end of 2015 to more than 30 billion in 2020, according to IDC. As IoT becomes prevalent in the enterprises, organizations 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, IoT, 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 become available this year. Pricing will be announced upon general availability. 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.
