VMware Tanzu is a large, innovative platform developed by VMware and now owned by Broadcom, designed to manage modern applications in multi-cloud environments. Tanzu provides tools for developing, deploying, and managing containerized applications using Kubernetes. In this article, we’ll look at key aspects of the VMware Tanzu ecosystem and how it helps organizations effectively manage their applications.
Here are the key components of VMware Tanzu:
• Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG)
• Tanzu Application Service (TAS)
• Tanzu Mission Control (TMC)
• Tanzu Observability (formerly Wavefront)
• Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC)
• Spring Boot
Many of the products and technologies that you previously knew in the VMware product portfolio (see below about Wavefront and Cloud Foundry) have been brought under the Tanzu umbrella, which brings together many interesting areas. For example, the Tanzu ecosystem includes Greenplum, a powerful, scalable, open-source analytics database designed to handle complex queries and large volumes of data.
By the way, the image below show how the value of Broadcom, which acquired VMware, has changed since the consolidation of the latter’s assets, which include Tanzu solutions:
VMware Tanzu Core Components
VMware Tanzu includes several core components that together form a powerful application management ecosystem:
1. Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG)
TKG provides a ready-to-use Kubernetes distribution that can be deployed in a variety of environments, including on-premises data centers and public clouds. TKG provides consistency and scalability, making it easier to manage Kubernetes clusters across multiple environments.
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid is a key component of VMware Tanzu designed to simplify the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters in multi-cloud and on-premises environments. TKG offers a unified approach to managing Kubernetes, providing the flexibility and consistency needed for modern applications.
Key features of TKG:
- Single distribution of Kubernetes
TKG provides a ready-to-use Kubernetes distribution that includes all the necessary components to deploy and manage K8s clusters.
- Multi-cloud support
TKG supports deployment in various cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, as well as in local data centers based on vSphere.
- Automation of cluster management
TKG automates many aspects of managing Kubernetes clusters, including deployment, upgrades, scaling, and monitoring. This reduces labor costs and improves operational efficiency.
- Integration with the VMware ecosystem
TKG integrates with other VMware products such as vSphere, vSAN, and NSX to provide a high degree of control and security for containerized applications.
- Support for modern workloads
TKG supports the deployment and management of modern cloud applications, including microservices and serverless architectures, allowing organizations to quickly adapt to changing business requirements.
TKG architecture:
- Control cluster
Management Cluster is the basis of the TKG infrastructure. It is responsible for managing all workload clusters, including their deployment, updating, and scaling. The management cluster also provides centralized management of policies and security.
- Workload clusters
Workload Clusters are designed for application deployment and running workloads. Each production cluster is a fully managed Kubernetes instance that can be configured and scaled based on application needs.
- Tanzu CLI
It is a command line that allows administrators and developers to manage Kubernetes clusters and interact with TKG components. Tanzu CLI simplifies tasks such as deploying clusters, upgrading Kubernetes versions, and managing surity policiesec.
- Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Extensions
TKG Extensions include additional components and integrations that extend the capabilities of Kubernetes. This includes monitoring, logging, configuration, and network policy management.
Benefits of using TKG:
- Simplify Kubernetes management
TKG greatly simplifies the management of Kubernetes clusters by providing ready-to-use tools and automating many routine tasks. This allows administrators to focus on more strategic tasks.
- Flexibility and scalability
With support for multi-cloud environments, TKG provides high flexibility and scalability, allowing organizations to deploy Kubernetes clusters where it makes the most sense from a performance and cost perspective.
- Increased security
TKG integrates with VMware security tools such as NSX to provide high security for containerized applications. This includes network segmentation, access control, and data encryption.
- Fast application deployment
TKG allows you to quickly deploy and scale applications, which is especially important in the face of dynamically changing business requirements. This provides a competitive advantage and brings new products to market faster.
Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) is a powerful and flexible solution for managing Kubernetes clusters in multi-cloud and on-premises environments.
2. Tanzu Application Service (TAS)
TAS is a platform as a service (PaaS) that allows developers to quickly develop, test, and deploy applications. It automates many aspects of the application lifecycle, including scaling, monitoring, and updates, reducing time to market.
Formerly known as Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF), TAS provides high performance and automation.
Main components of TAS:
- Cloud Controller
It manages the application lifecycle, including deployment, scaling, and decommission. It accepts requests from developers and distributes them to the appropriate platform components.
- Router
It routes incoming HTTP requests to the appropriate application instances. This ensures load balancing and high application availability.
- Diego Cells
They are the compute nodes that run application instances. They manage container placement, resource allocation, and application health monitoring.
- Loggregator
It collects and aggregates logs and metrics from all platform components and applications. This provides centralized data collection and analysis for monitoring and troubleshooting.
- User Account and Authentication (UAA)
UAA provides authentication and authorization functionality for users and applications. It supports various authentication methods including OAuth2 and SAML.
- BOSH
It is a lifecycle management system for deploying and updating TAS. It provides infrastructure management and automation of operations.
Key features of TAS:
- Automation of deployment and management
TAS automates the application deployment process, ensuring fast and reliable deployment with minimal effort. This allows developers to focus on writing code rather than managing infrastructure.
- Supports multiple programming languages
TAS supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks, including Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Ruby, and Go. This makes the platform universal and allows it to be used for various types of applications.
- Scalability
TAS automatically scales applications based on load and needs. This ensures stable operation of applications even during peak loads.
- High availability and fault tolerance
The platform ensures high availability and fault tolerance of applications through automatic instance management and load balancing.
- Safety
TAS includes built-in security features such as data encryption, access control, and integration with enterprise security systems. This helps protect applications and data from threats.
Tanzu Application Service (TAS) is a powerful PaaS platform that provides organizations with all the tools they need to develop, deploy and manage modern applications. With automation, support for multiple programming languages, scalability, and high security standards, TAS helps organizations speed up development processes, improve product quality, and ensure applications run reliably in any environment.
3. Tanzu Mission Control
Tanzu Mission Control (TMC) is a centralized management console that provides a single place to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters. This tool makes it easy to manage security policies, updates, and monitoring for all clusters, regardless of location.
Main components of Tanzu Mission Control:
- Management Console
A centralized web console that provides a single interface for managing all Kubernetes clusters. It allows administrators to gain visibility into the status of all clusters, manage security policies and access as well as perform monitoring and diagnostics.
- Cluster groups
Cluster groups allow you to logically combine clusters for easier management. This simplifies policy enforcement and monitoring, allowing administrators to manage groups of clusters as a single unit.
- Cluster lifecycle management
TMC provides tools for managing the lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters, including creating, updating, and deleting clusters.
- Security and Compliance
TMC provides centralized management of security and compliance policies for all clusters. This includes access control, data encryption, and security policy monitoring.
- Monitoring and surveillance
TMC provides powerful tools for monitoring the health of clusters and applications, including collecting metrics and logs, as well as diagnosing problems.
Key features of Tanzu Mission Control:
- Centralized management
TMC provides a single place to manage all your Kubernetes clusters, regardless of location.
- Policy management
TMC allows administrators to create and enforce security and compliance policies across all clusters. This includes managing access, network policies, storage policies, and other security aspects.
- Automation of operations
TMC automates many routine cluster management tasks, including deploying, updating, and scaling clusters. This reduces labor costs and improves DevOps team productivity.
- Integration with the VMware ecosystem
TMC integrates with other VMware products such as Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG), VMware vSphere, and VMware NSX. This enables seamless management of your entire cloud infrastructure and applications.
- Multi-cloud support
TMC supports management of clusters deployed in various cloud environments, including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, as well as in local data centers. This provides flexibility and freedom of choice.
Tanzu Mission Control (TMC) is a powerful solution for centralized management of Kubernetes clusters. With security policy management, operations automation, multi-cloud support, and integration with the VMware ecosystem, TMC helps organizations effectively manage their cloud infrastructure and applications.
4. Tanzu Observability
Tanzu Observability provides powerful tools for monitoring and analyzing application and infrastructure performance. The tool allows you to identify and eliminate performance bottlenecks, ensuring high levels of application availability and reliability.
VMware Tanzu Observability, formerly known as VMware Wavefront, is a powerful platform for monitoring and analyzing the performance of applications and infrastructure in real time. Tanzu Observability provides in-depth analysis of metrics, logs and traces, allowing organizations to gain valuable insights into the performance of their systems and respond to problems in a timely manner.
Main components of Tanzu Observability:
- Metrics
Tanzu Observability collects and analyzes metrics from a variety of sources, including containers, Kubernetes clusters, virtual machines, and physical servers.
- Logs
The platform integrates with popular log management solutions such as Fluentd and Logstash, allowing you to centrally collect, store, and analyze application and system logs.
- Traces
Tanzu Observability supports distributed tracing, which allows you to track requests across all components of distributed systems and identify bottlenecks.
- Dashboards
Users can create custom dashboards to visualize metrics, logs, and traces in real time. This provides an intuitive and clear view of system status and simplifies monitoring.
- Alerts
The platform supports a flexible alert system that notifies users of emerging problems or deviations from the normal state. Alerts can be configured based on different conditions and thresholds, helping to quickly respond to incidents.
Key features of Tanzu Observability:
- Real-time Monitoring
Tanzu Observability provides real-time monitoring, allowing you to instantly obtain information about the status of the system and quickly respond to changes and incidents.
- Scalability
The platform supports the collection and analysis of a huge amount of data, which makes it suitable for large organizations with large-scale IT infrastructures.
- Integration with popular DevOps tools
Tanzu Observability integrates with a variety of DevOps tools and management systems such as Prometheus, Grafana, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, and more. This provides a seamless experience and improves overall manageability.
- Machine Learning
The platform uses machine learning to analyze data and identify anomalies. This helps automatically detect deviations from normal behavior and predict possible problems.
- Support for various data sources
Tanzu Observability can collect data from a variety of sources, including applications, databases, networks, and cloud services. This provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the IT infrastructure.
Tanzu Observability is a powerful and comprehensive platform for monitoring and analyzing the performance of modern applications and infrastructure. With its capabilities to collect and analyze metrics, logs and traces, support for real-time monitoring, integration with popular DevOps tools and the use of machine learning, Tanzu Observability helps organizations improve the performance, reliability and security of their systems.
5. VMware Tanzu Application Catalog
VMware Tanzu Application Catalog (TAC) is a containerized application management and distribution platform for enterprise customers. TAC’s primary goal is to provide developers and IT professionals with reliable, secure, ready-to-deploy and production-ready software containers to speed up application development and deployment.
Key Features:
- Tested containers
TAC provides a library of containers that have been thoroughly tested for vulnerabilities and compatibility.
- Custom repositories
Organizations can create their own container repositories that include validated versions of software components specific to their needs.
- Deployment flexibility
TAC supports the deployment of containers in various environments, such as on-premises data centers, public and private clouds, providing flexibility and scalability.
- Automation and CI/CD
TAC integrates with CI/CD tools to automate application development and deployment processes.
Architecture and components:
- Container images
The main component of TAC is container images, which include applications and all the necessary dependencies for them to work.
- Container repository
A central repository for container images that can be configured to meet security and availability requirements.
- Integration with CI/CD
Support for tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, and others to automate the process of building, testing, and deploying applications.
- Control Panel
Web interface for managing containers, monitoring their status and performing update operations.
VMware Tanzu Application Catalog is a powerful containerized application management tool that provides security, flexibility, and ease of use for developers and IT professionals. With support for various languages and frameworks, as well as integration with CI/CD tools, TAC helps speed up application development and deployment processes.
6. VMware Spring Boot
VMware Spring Boot is part of the Open Source Spring ecosystem, designed to simplify the process of creating and deploying stand-alone, production-ready applications on the Java platform. Spring Boot provides a convenient way for developers to build microservices and cloud-native applications with minimal setup and configuration effort.
Key Features:
- Auto configuration
Spring Boot automatically configures your application based on class dependencies. This allows developers to focus on writing business logic without wasting time on configuration.
- Built-in server
Spring Boot includes built-in servers such as Tomcat, Jetty, and Undertow, allowing applications to run as standalone executables. This simplifies the deployment and testing process.
- Spring Initializer
Spring Boot provides a convenient web-based tool called Spring Initializr for generating projects. Developers can select dependencies and project settings, and get a ready-made project structure that they can start using right away.
- Support for microservices
Spring Boot is ideal for creating a microservice architecture due to its integration with other Spring projects such as Spring Cloud.
- Performance and scalability
Spring Boot is optimized for performance and scalability. It supports various approaches to caching configuration, asynchronous processing, and other performance techniques.
- Safety
Spring Boot has powerful security mechanisms, including integration with Spring Security, which makes it easy to add authentication and authorization to applications.
Architecture and components:
- Spring Boot Starter POMs
Starter POM (Project Object Model) files make dependency management easier. They group required dependencies for specific tasks, such as developing web applications or connecting to a database.
- Spring Boot Actuator
Actuator provides monitoring and management features for Spring Boot applications, including metrics, health checks, auditing, and more. This is important for real-time monitoring of application performance and health.
- Spring Boot DevTools
DevTools is designed to speed up development by providing automatic reloading, debugging, and convenient development settings.
- Spring Boot CLI
The Command Line Interface (CLI) allows you to quickly create Spring applications using Groovy. This is a convenient tool for prototyping and quick experiments.
VMware Spring Boot is a powerful tool for building modern, production-ready Java applications. Its features such as auto-configuration, built-in servers, and support for microservices make it an ideal choice for developers looking for fast application development and easy application deployment.
Benefits of using the VMware Tanzu solution suite
Multi-cloud support
VMware Tanzu allows organizations to deploy and manage their applications across a variety of cloud environments, including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, as well as on-premises data centers. This provides flexibility and choice, allowing you to leverage the best capabilities of each cloud.
Automate and simplify DevOps
Tanzu automates many aspects of application development and operation, including deployment, scaling, and updates. This reduces the effort and time required to bring a product to market and improves collaboration between development and operations teams.
Security and Compliance
Tanzu offers powerful tools for managing security and compliance policies. This includes access control, data encryption, and security monitoring to help organizations protect their applications and data.
Scalability and performance
With VMware Tanzu, organizations can easily scale their applications based on business needs. The platform provides high performance and reliability, which is especially important for mission-critical applications.
VMware Tanzu Use Cases
Financial sector
Banks and financial institutions use VMware Tanzu to manage their mission-critical applications, ensuring high availability and data security. Tanzu helps speed up the development of new features and services, which is important in a competitive environment.
Healthcare
Healthcare organizations use Tanzu to manage applications related to electronic health records and other critical data. The platform ensures compliance with regulatory requirements and protects confidential patient information.
E-commerce
E-commerce companies use Tanzu to scale their applications during peak periods, such as seasonal sales. This allows you to provide a high level of customer service and increase revenue.
Conclusion
VMware Tanzu provides a powerful and comprehensive solution for managing modern applications. With multi-cloud support, DevOps process automation, advanced security and scalability, Tanzu helps organizations effectively manage their applications and achieve business goals. In a rapidly changing technology landscape, VMware Tanzu is becoming an essential tool for companies looking to stay competitive and innovative.
