New Growth Opportunities for Enterprises with AMD and VMware.
For more than five decades since their inception, microprocessors have wrought profound transformations in the operational landscape of individuals and enterprises alike. The advent and ceaseless evolution of silicon-based chips have yielded an array of unprecedented possibilities. As exemplified by pioneering companies like AMD, ongoing breakthroughs in this domain perpetuate the accrual of technological advantages.
For VMware partner AMD, the focus has always been solving real-world problems for their customers. A challenge all companies have is that as each new microprocessor iteration becomes more powerful and opens the door to new possibilities, it often becomes more complex to benefit from the advantages they offer. They need a way to simplify this complexity. "Customers are looking for a common operational framework to streamline and automate their processes," says Robert Hormuth, corporate vice president of architecture and strategy of AMD's data center solutions business group.
Enabling Enterprise Modernization and Scalability
As any server admin knows, migrating from one set of hardware to another can be difficult, even if staying with the same technology vendor. It’s even harder when switching manufacturers. To help customers make the move in a way best suited to their goals, AMD and VMware partnered to create the VMware Architecture Migration Tool. "We didn't want this to be just about AMD. Our goal was to help customers migrate within or across architectures during their upgrade cycles, no matter their current or future state," says Hormuth.
For customers, the potential with the VMware Architecture Migration Tool is great. From automating individual VMware tasks—especially during code migrations—to handling large-scale deployments from one cluster to another, the tool enables customers to more easily grow and scale their environments.
Shifting from CPUs to DPUs Opens Possibilities for AI
Technological advances usually come with their own sets of benefits and challenges. AI is no exception. As enterprises begin to use AI for better analysis and decision-making, many realize the massive requirements for computing power. In recent years, however, data processing units (DPUs) have created new opportunities, and the VMware vSphere Distributed Services Engine enables enterprises to capitalize on them.
For some time, hyperscalers have been utilizing DPUs to be more efficient with their computing and power usage. Now, AMD and VMware can provide the same value to the enterprise through the vSphere Distributed Services Engine. "We're moving infrastructure services from the CPU to the DPU to help businesses run more applications more efficiently, with higher performance and more security. It’s enabling enterprises to do more with less," says Frank Palumbo, corporate vice president at AMD.
Smarter multi-cloud and AI Adoption
As enterprises free up resources, many question how to create a multi-cloud strategy to best use new technology such as AI. While customers must first determine what AI project would further the business the most, they must then quickly figure out the right infrastructure for that project.
Each type of cloud has its strengths and weaknesses, so knowing how to identify these details upfront is essential. "Some clouds may be stronger for enterprise AI, others for edge AI. Not all AI is the same, so companies need to be cloud smart," says Hormuth. Additionally, as generative AI continues to garner interest, more enterprises are experiencing hardware constraints such as a lack of space, power, or cooling.
But with VMware and AMD, enterprises can more easily manage the resources required to move into the world of AI and realize their goals. "Especially as more computing moves to the edge, AMD and VMware can help even the companies without traditional data centers run their infrastructure more efficiently and take advantage of new technology," says Palumbo.
Facilitating Simpler, Automated Upgrades
Demonstrating the effect of the AMD and VMware partnership, several large box retailers have streamlined and automated their upgrade processes. Since each store operates what is effectively a miniature data center, it can be expensive and time-consuming to physically upgrade thousands of locations. “With the VMware Architecture Migration Tool, you can consolidate 20 or so legacy core machines down to five of the latest and greatest,” says Hormuth.
After consolidation, the retailers can recover massive amounts of resources. Not only do they save on the staffing required for server management and maintenance, but they also save on power consumption by reducing the number of servers in their environment. Plus, automating the upgrade process drastically reduces the risk of human error.
"The collaboration between VMware and AMD has been excellent, especially with our recent projects. As we innovate together, AMD is excited to help enterprises achieve their goals with VMware," says Palumbo.
