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The Terror — and Thrill — of Transformational Change

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Mariam Sorond: Head and Heart

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Abe Ankumah: Lifelong Learner

Abe Ankumah

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Professional Development programmer working in programming website a software and coding technology, writing codes and data code, Programming with HTML, PHP and javascript - VMware News and Stories

More Secure Open Source Software: A Shared Responsibility

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VMware: A Look Ahead at 2022

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Podcast: VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram with IDC President Crawford Del Prete

Podcast Raghu Raghuram CEO with IDC President

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Girl reading book with a coffe mug - VMware News and Stories

Upskilling Is the Answer to Closing Tech&#8217;s Gender Gap

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Sandy Hogan: Partner in Chief

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A New Chapter for VMware: Spin-Off from Dell Technologies Completed

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Our Mission: Deliver the Trusted Foundation to Accelerate Innovation

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Dr. Moogega Cooper interview the Duncan Hewett at VMworld 2021.

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The Value of Perseverance: Why Rocky Starts Can Make Us Stronger

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PHodgins photo

Kit Colbert, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, VMware

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“It’s so hard … can we skip to the good part?”

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You’ve probably heard this lyric from <a href="https://youtu.be/hqrWXNMTaKY">AJR</a> on TikTok at some point over the past few months. It’s the soundtrack to countless clips that all follow the same pattern — someone starts out with one thing, then effortlessly segues into another. From pregnancy tests that turn into babies to outdated bathrooms that turn into modern spas, the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/skiptothegoodpart">#skiptothegoodpart</a> tag has racked up more than 140 million views … and counting.

What’s behind the popularity of this trend? A lot more than just a catchy song. It gets at a fundamental truth about how most people feel about change. We like the idea of transformation and the better, brighter outcomes it can create. But the process and work of actually getting there? Not so much.

It makes sense. The prospect of change is designed to make us feel uncomfortable and on edge. Chalk it up to instinct — the result of ancestors who constantly scanned their surroundings for any sign of movement that might threaten their survival.

But like it or not, doing the work of change is a constant — in life and in business. So, how can we get more comfortable with it?

I spend a lot of time thinking about this as part of my work at VMware — because in many ways, our business is change. We help drive digital transformation for our customers, particularly in their push to the cloud. But this is a major transition that a lot of organizations struggle with.

We’ve heard the same story, time and time again. Cloud migrations take too long and are too complex. They demand not just technical changes, but process and support changes that require significant leadership buy-in over the long-term. And the pressure to get it right — right now — is tremendous. The pandemic not only turned five-year plans into one-year plans, but fundamentally changed expectations about how quickly an organization should be able to pivot in the digital space. It’s no wonder our customers want to skip to the good part.

While we can’t make the process of change quite as easy as TikTok creators make it look, figuring out how digital transformation can be simpler and faster for our customers is a huge priority for VMware. We know it’s not enough to just create great products — we also have to deliver the business outcomes our customers need, on the timelines they want, with the resources they have.

The only way to succeed at doing this is by getting comfortable with change ourselves. We have to constantly push ourselves to innovate and evolve so that we can stay one step ahead of our customers’ needs.

This dual push for change — transforming ourselves so that we can help our customers transform — is a unique challenge. It’s a bit like trying to change a tire while you’re cruising down the highway. And the desire to solve it is what drew me to VMware a little more than a year ago.

I’ve always been drawn to the change process and the opportunity to create, rather than just sustain. And as a leader, it’s my responsibility to help get my team excited about it too — not only for ourselves, but for our customers. So over the next few months, I’ll be sharing my best tips for navigating the terror — and thrill — of transformational change.

Until then … what change would you love to skip to the good part of?

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We like the idea of transformational change and the better, brighter outcomes it can create. But the process of getting there? Not so much.

The Terror — and Thrill — of Transformational Change - VMware News and Stories

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Paula Hodgins currently serves as Senior Vice President, WW Cloud Sales, at VMware. As the leader of the worldwide Cloud Sales Team, she and her team work across the sales and partner organizations to sell the entire VMware Cloud Portfolio, drive time-to-value for both enterprise and commercial customers and lead VMware’s evolution to become a Multi-Cloud leader. In February 2021, Hodgins joined VMware as Senior Vice President, Worldwide Global Accounts and Telco Sales. In that role, she successfully led a team of trusted advisors focused on driving value and leading transformation for VMware and its largest and most strategic global customers. Prior to joining VMware in 2021, Hodgins was President of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Canada. As the top executive in Canada, she ran all customer segments and supported some of Canada’s largest companies and government agencies through their digital transformation journeys. Hodgins also spent 13 years at Microsoft, where she held multiple leadership positions working across global, US and Canadian subsidiaries. Most recently, Paula led Azure sales in the enterprise customer segment at Microsoft Canada, moving some of the country’s largest companies to public cloud for the first time. Hodgins holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Communications from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with her husband, Gary, and two children, Dylan and Danielle.

Paula Hodgins

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Welcome to VMware! You have more than 27 years of experience in the telecommunications industry across mobile, wireless, fixed, satellite and cable technologies. What brought you to VMware?

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I gained much of my experience while working on the operator side. I saw what it takes to run a network and understand what operators will need to deploy future networks. I want to focus the next part of my career on creating solutions for these future needs.

VMware sits at the crossroads of many emerging technologies that will shape the future of telecommunications. Multi-cloud, disaggregation, open interfaces, and automation, to name a few. We have an opportunity to create solutions that will evolve the way we build and operate networks, as well as evolve and grow how we communicate.

The telecommunications industry has not historically been known for its pace of innovation. Do you think this is changing?

It must change and it must change quickly as more agile competitors are moving in on new markets like private networks. Take hyperscalers for instance. They can innovate and implement new technology quickly because they are starting with a blank sheet of paper. And they are partnering with telcos to gain much-needed experience in how to build and operate networks. I think these are exciting times as this kind of competition will drive innovation.

While it may seem like telcos are at a disadvantage, I think they will rise to the challenge. The way we communicate is changing and they are more familiar with current and future users. It’s not just about connecting people but also about connecting things and entities that have different needs. A new type of network is needed that is agile and can grow in a modular fashion as user demands change. New use cases mean new market opportunity. Telcos know they must move fast to take advantage of new revenue streams.

In your estimation, how are 5G rollouts going?

When the industry first started talking about 5G, we focused on outcomes in three areas:

We’ve seen progress in the first pillar. But to me, faster speeds is only unleashing a small subset of new use cases. The other two pillars – uRLLC and mMTC – will enable technologies that will change society as we know it today. These are harder to move forward faster as they require more investment from operators.

Also, when we mention 5G, we should couple it with other technological evolutions happening alongside it such as virtualization, Open RAN and edge compute-enabled architectures. We have seen new operators make strides in these areas with new networks. We have also seen existing operators make very aggressive and impressive announcements about their future plans. These investments will require a monetization plan; therefore, it’s important to identify things like the edge-native killer use case.

What is your experience as a woman in the telecommunications industry?

I consider myself fortunate to have worked at many amazing companies throughout my career. I’ve gained a variety of experience that spans many technologies. But rising as a woman in this industry is challenging.

It’s great to see companies focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) but there is a lot of work to be done. I can’t tell you how many LinkedIn messages I receive that start with “we want to talk with you because we need more women on our leadership team.” They are missing the point. I’m not interested in helping you improve a statistic. I am interested in bringing my unique experience and lens to a team. That’s the power of DEI – bringing together a group of people who represent diverse communities and perspectives.

My hope is that the work I am doing today and the challenges I have overcome will create a more inclusive workplace for my 7-year-old daughter. For most of my career, I’ve been the only woman in the room. By the time my daughter enters the workforce, I hope she is working with a much more representative group of colleagues than what I experienced.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I try to lead with empathy. Great leaders lead from the heart and not just the head. So, while much of my work must be from the head, I often remind myself I must lead from the heart. Believing in people and diversity. Mentoring and coaching others to bring their talents and value forward for their company’s and customers’ success – as well as for their own career accomplishments.

Dream Big, then Stay Curious, Be Passionate. I’ve always loved “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, but believe in addition to need and openness, you must also have passion and curiosity to make the most out of life.

Mariam Sorond has joined VMware as the Chief Technology Officer of the Service Provider and Edge business unit.

Mariam Sorond has joined VMware as the Chief Technology Officer of the Service Provider and Edge business unit. Learn more about her outlook on the telco industry, her career path, and her leadership style.

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Mariam Sorond has joined @VMware as the CTO of the Service Provider and Edge business unit. Learn more about her outlook on the telco industry, her career path, and her leadership style.

Bessie Yuan, you are responsible for VMware's business in Greater China. How did your career path lead you to such wide responsibility?

I didn’t grow up with a dream to be in technology. I wanted to be in the airline industry so I could travel and see the world. But I listened to my parents who wanted me to study computer science and then I did my master’s in economics. At the time that I graduated, I didn’t come across a job opportunity in economics that made me excited, so I had to switch back to computer science. 

I started my career as a trainee at Oracle then worked for several multinational companies. Most recently, I was general manager of the Enterprise Commercial Group for Microsoft China. I think one important thing that enabled me to take my current VMware position is that all along my career path, I accessed opportunities that allowed me to gain experience through increased responsibilities.

<a href="https://www.forbeschina.com/business/%E5%95%86%E4%B8%9A/59831">Forbes China</a> recently named you as one of the Top 100 Outstanding Businesswomen in China. That’s a wonderful way to be recognized for your contribution. Would you say your success derives from some mission you have?

I don’t call it a mission, but I’m passionate about helping other women in the technology industry and beyond this industry, as well. I want to be the person who can really contribute and give back to the community. And I want to see other women succeed and emerge as leaders.

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Your answer aligns to the International Women's Day global theme, “Break the Bias.” How do you knowingly or unknowingly break the bias?

I was fortunate in that I worked for companies with very good cultures that respect diversity. While I personally didn’t experience any bias, I see many opportunities across the board where there are very few or even no women leaders at senior board member levels. So that’s part of my passion―to influence the local companies and promote women leadership development. I want to support other women entering technology and in the workforce. And in my role, I see an incredible opportunity to influence our partners and customers to promote greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the industry.

Another important way I provide influence is with my own children. Your children are the closest people you can influence, and you must lead by example. I strive to be a mother my children can be proud of.

Speaking of leading by example, is there a mentor or someone in your life whom you’ve admired and has inspired you?

A lot of people have helped me, and I have learned different things from each one. As an example, I learned a lot from Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and I am inspired by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla. Actually, so many people have inspired me and shaped who I am. I couldn’t name them all! However, I do want to mention a manager I had about 15 to 20 years ago.

This manager saw my potential. He told me that if I want to lead a company, I’d need to get more customer-facing experience in sales. At that time in my life, I thought of myself as someone that is just good at working with computers and coding. I didn’t value sales as a career path, so I didn’t want to try it. But when I did try it, I realized that sales is not the simple job that I thought it was. It’s an incredibly discerning role that requires heightened awareness and empathy for your customer. 

This is such an exciting time to be at VMware because there’s so much transformation going on. You joined the company late last year, so what motivated you to join VMware? 

Honestly, it was the role and the opportunity to lead the business in the region. When <a href="https://news.vmware.com/author/duncan-hewett">Duncan Hewett</a> (erstwhile leader for VMware in Asia Pacific and Japan) talked to me about this role, I realized I could really make things happen because I know this local market and I’ve got solid experience. I also wanted this role because of the way it has been set up. I feel that I can make a large impact and I can realize my potential.

As I shared when I was hired, I look forward to leading this incredible team to accelerate the further development of the Greater China business. I want to do that by injecting an innovative drive into the digital transformation process of more companies.

I also want to say that I’ve been hired for my potential, and this is a great practice that’s important for women. Hiring to potential enlarges the opportunities for women leaders in the corporate world. And my advice to women would be, don’t limit your imagination, even if something may be beyond your current capability. The format of an enterprise is continually changing so the relationship between an employer and an employee will evolve and perhaps become more flexible than what it is today. My general advice to women is just don’t limit your imagination or creativity.

Bessie Yuan shares her career path to Vice President and General Manager of VMware's Greater China Region.

Bessie Yuan shares her career path and passion in helping develop more women as leaders in the community.

Bessie Yuan: Leading With Influence

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Bessie Yuan: Leading with Influence- VMware News and Stories

"I want to see more women pursue their passion, and to develop and invest in themselves," Bessie Yuan, @vmware VP and GM of the Greater China Region, shares. #IWD2022

You are executive sponsor for the Black@VMware <a href="https://news.vmware.com/dei/the-power-of-difference">Power of Difference (POD) community</a>. What does that mean, and why is it important?

People don’t join companies; they join communities. We all want to be part of a workplace that is inspiring and supportive, where we can bring our most authentic selves to work. When we embrace a variety of styles and voices, both common and different, we become a wiser and more inclusive community. Within this context, I view the role of an executive sponsor as critical to strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at VMware.

As an executive sponsor, I lend my perspectives, experience, voice and passion to Black employee representation at every level of VMware. My goal is to support the work of our POD leaders and serve as a sounding board to them. I see an opportunity in working with allies both internal and external. I’m also committed to educating and being a key voice among my executive peers on issues affecting our community and POD members.

I am grateful for the opportunity to pay it forward, whether it’s by mentorship or using the platform I have been given to motivate and inspire others in any way that I’m able.

VMware has been celebrating national Black History Month, which we refer to as Black Heritage Month, and our own theme this year is “Living Heritage.” What does that mean to you?

Black heritage has a deep and personal meaning to me — something I have evolved my thinking on since I didn’t grow up in the U.S. For me, it starts with the rich history and cultural diversity on the African continent and my educational and professional life in the U.S.  

Being born in Ghana and then having the opportunity to move to the U.S. for college, a key part of Black heritage is the recognition, appreciation and indebtedness for all Black people and allies who came before me. Their struggles and sacrifices through the civil rights movement opened up possibilities for me to secure a world-class education and benefit from the career opportunities that I’ve had.

I also think about celebrating the success of Black people who have accomplished remarkable things and made an impact in many areas in the U.S. and the diaspora, whether it is in business, education, sports and public service: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks; Kwame Nkrumah; Daniel Hale Williams; W.E.B. Du Bois; Thurgood Marshall; Kofi Annan; President Barack Obama; Colin Kaepernick; and many others. This is particularly important for my wife and me to share and educate our two young children about what they can achieve as human beings.

Finally, I also see it as an opportunity for dialogue with people in other groups. It's about learning the representation gaps and adversities we go through, whether at work or outside, irrespective of what you might have accomplished. 

Where does <a href="https://asalh.org/black-history-themes/">Black health and wellness</a> — this year’s national theme — fit into Black heritage?

This reminds me of the well documented, long-standing <a href="https://octo.vmware.com/getting-real-about-black-healthcare/">health disparities</a> that exist in the Black community, and the lack of trust some of these challenges have created within parts of the Black community. These disparities range from the lack of establishing a trusted relationship with healthcare professionals who treat their patients with respect, to under representation in clinical trials, which ultimately gets amplified with precision medicine.

Wellness is more than physical well-being. It’s also our mental, spiritual, emotional, social and financial well-being. Coupled with the pandemic, wellness was a significant point of emphasis during the social justice movement and demonstrations against police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks. I’d also say that the recent trials and convictions have reopened old wounds.

How do employee communities, like Black@VMware, support employee health and wellness?

Communities like Black@VMware can create an intentional engagement and dialogue. Members of the community can share their experiences, celebrate accomplishments and be each other's advocates. It also helps enable and encourage people within the community to bring their whole self to work — something that is critical for individual wellness!

Switching gears, you’re at Mobile World Congress this week to talk about <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/bt-selects-vmware-sase">VMware SASE</a>. What drives your work in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)?

Solving customer problems in ways that they didn’t think was possible and that make their business successful. If my customers are able to realize their goals, then I’m successful.   

What is your biggest takeaway from the leap into remote work and cloud networking?

The last two years at VMware have been about learning and adapting in the face of change for all of us. Remote work can be extremely productive, but we have to invest in building and strengthening our social capital and personal bonds with our teams.

Remote work, in so many ways, allows and enables people to bring a bit more of their whole self to work. It emphasizes a dimension of people’s personal lives, which hasn’t easily come through in the office — a window into their homework space, their video background, a family member Zoom-bombing a meeting.

Remote work also highlights, for me, two extremes: Many of us in white-collar jobs can simply log on to our computers and do our work, but there is a whole segment of people for whom this isn’t an option. 

For those of us who can work remotely, we see the massive impact of cloud technology and networking. It enables our customers to provide virtual healthcare, facilitate collaboration among teams and run retail and logistics facilities 24/7.

How would you describe your leadership style? 

Having run a startup, I can tell you firsthand how it can put you in unique situations. It gets competitive, and everyone is constantly reacting or responding to market demands and opportunities. It’s easy, in those moments, to take yourself too seriously or get consumed by the stress.

Humor and radical candor, in equal measure, have worked for me, kept me grounded and shaped the way that I show up as a leader to my team. I think it has helped us build a community and a culture that values transparency. One that allows our people to be vulnerable and to learn from each other. 

What is the best career advice you’ve received?

To never stop learning. It’s my mantra. The world is changing, constantly. I’m a consummate student, and I find it is a useful trait.

Being curious allows you to open up to people. You want to collaborate to learn, so that attitude brings many opportunities with it.  

Abe Ankumah talks about being executive sponsor for Black@VMware, Black History Month, VMware SASE, remote work and leadership.

Abe Ankumah talks about being executive sponsor for Black@VMware, celebrating Black History Month, leading VMware SASE and moving to remote work.

Q&A With VMware's Abe Ankumah

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Abe Ankumah: Lifelong Learner - VMware News and Stories

VMware Comment Letter in Advance of the White House Open Source Security Summit

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Last week, I attended the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/13/readout-of-white-house-meeting-on-software-security/">White House Open Source Software Security Summit,</a> along with VMware’s Chief Security Officer, Alex Tosheff, and Michael Kennedy, our VP of Global Government Relations and Public Policy. Led by Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger, the summit was attended by both private industry leaders and government agencies.

This important gathering was precipitated by the Log4j vulnerability, but the real issue is — how can we ensure source code, build, and distribution integrity in <a>all open source</a> software (OSS)?

Building open source software and contributing to its many communities is a big part of VMware’s engineering and innovation spirit, and we believe the way forward hinges on continued collaboration. As such, we brought some practical recommendations to the table for accelerating both industry and public/private partnerships, as detailed in the following letter we submitted in advance of the summit.

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Anne Neuberger Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest Washington, D.C.  20500

Thank you again for inviting VMware to the Open Source Software Security Summit at the White House. As you may be aware, VMware is both a heavy user of and contributor to open source software. As such, VMware takes open source, and in particular open source security, very seriously. To that end, we participate in and contribute to many open source-related industry consortia, such as the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation and the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), to name just a few. <del></del>

VMware believes that open source software has been and will continue to be an important source of innovation, industry collaboration, and industry standardization. It has enabled both new and existing businesses to rapidly build out new technologies on openly available, proven software capabilities. And because of the above-mentioned consortia, open source enables industry participants to collaborate around common standards and interoperability, which benefit all participants as well as consumers.  Much of this benefit is due to the fundamental “openness” of open source.<del></del>

Unfortunately, the increasing use of open source in commercial software has also meant that it is increasingly targeted by cyber-attackers. This increased threat of cyber-attacks is not unique to open source software, as evidenced by SolarWinds, Colonial Pipeline, and other recent high-profile cyber attacks. However, while companies have taken steps to address security issues in their proprietary software, the same degree of security hardening has not happened at scale across the thousands of open source projects regularly used by businesses. Security challenges with open source software stems neither from its openness nor because the projects are maintained by “hobbyists”<a href="#_ftn1">[1]</a>. Rather, data shows that historically the main cause of open source vulnerabilities are a lack of security education and awareness, discipline in open-source sourcing, secure build-and-release pipeline, and best practices and reference architectures for properly applying tooling. It is exactly these areas we must address collectively as an industry in order to enhance the aggregate security of open source projects.<del></del>

We recognize the many security issues that we and our industry peers face with open source, and we are firmly committed to addressing them. While we as an industry strive to address open source security issues, we must ensure that we do not unintentionally eliminate what makes open source a critical enabler of innovation – its inherent accessibility and openness. We believe the common guiding principle should be to provide education and apply safeguards to dramatically improve open source security while continuing to enable innovation and collaboration.  On balance, we believe open source is good for the industry and consumers, and that we should be doing more of it, but doing it the right way!<del></del>

VMware recommends that the open source community and industry participants take the following actions. As the responsibility is a shared one, we recommend coordinating and implementing these recommendations across the community in two ways:

VMware is committed to continuing to improve open source security, and we look forward to addressing these issues live in our meeting on Tuesday and at the Summit on Thursday. Thank you for your leadership and the opportunity to engage on these important issues.

Michael Kennedy, Vice President, Global Government Relations and Public Policy

<a href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> The majority of open source contributors are employed by technology companies, as shown in many studies, e.g., the Linux Foundation OSS Contributor Survey: <a href="https://www.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020FOSSContributorSurveyReport_121020.pdf">https://www.linuxfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020FOSSContributorSurveyReport_121020.pdf</a>.

Recommended Actions

Open Source Community and Projects

Businesses Incorporating OSS Into Their Products and Services

VMware firmly believes that working with industry and government is key to building more innovative, interoperable, scalable and secure solutions so that innovation can continue to drive benefits for all. To participate in this dialog, visit my <a href="https://octo.vmware.com/strength-in-numbers-the-white-house-open-source-security-summit">Strength in Numbers</a> blog and share your thoughts with the OSS community.

VMware recommendations for ensuring more secure open source software through industry collaboration and public-private partnership.

Building open source software and contributing to its many communities is a big part of VMware’s engineering and innovation spirit, and we believe the way forward hinges on continued collaboration.

More Secure Open Source Software is a Shared Responsibility

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Kit Colbert joined VMware in September 2003 (following an internship in 2002) and currently serves as senior vice president and chief technology officer. He is responsible for ensuring VMware’s long term technology leadership through research and innovation programs, with the primary goal of positively impacting and shaping the future of VMware, its ecosystem, and its customers. As CTO, Colbert’s will shape the technical vision for the company, and the transformation to a cloud and subscription-centric R&amp;D organization. His oversight includes advancing research and development efforts, overseeing the VMware Engineering Services team, the Design/UX team and the company’s ESG commitments. Prior to September 2021, Colbert served in multiple roles, including VMware’s Cloud CTO, General Manager of VMware’s Cloud-Native Apps business, CTO for VMware’s End-User Computing Business, and as the lead architect for the VMware vRealize Operations Suite. Colbert joined VMware as the technical lead behind the creation, development and delivery of the vMotion and Storage vMotion features in VMware vSphere. Colbert is a recognized thought-leader on application modernization and multi-cloud trends. He speaks regularly at industry conferences and serves as the multi-cloud voice for the VMware Office of the CTO blog. Colbert holds a bachelor’s of science in computer science from Brown University.

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Kit Colbert

VMware recommends industry collaboration to ensure source code, build, and distribution integrity in all open source software.

Happy new year, 2022! It’s time to look deep into our enterprise-technology crystal ball to see what we might expect over the coming year. But first, some context: no psychic powers are required to predict that the trend towards a multi-cloud approach will continue. Multi-cloud gives the enterprise freedom to pursue a best-of-breed cloud strategy to accelerate business transformation and innovative app development. So, we’ll look through the lens of a multi-cloud environment as we consider VMware leaders’ 2022 predictions from cloud, security, apps, and anywhere workspace. I’ll share my own prediction near the end of this post, along with one from a customer.  

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Most companies have already identified solutions for application portability across clouds (although some environments are more conducive to app migration than others). Data portability, however, remains the big challenge — and data is the fuel that propels apps. Traditional storage systems cannot deliver a cloud-like experience. They are defined by fixed hardware boundaries that confine resources. This can result in trapped data, stranded capacity, limited scalability and elasticity, complex placement decisions, and high sunrise and sunset costs. The industry’s march towards the multi-cloud/zettabyte era will only exacerbate these limitations. In the next two years, we predict that we will see the emergence of a cloud-agnostic federated data fabric, which will enable organizations to mitigate data gravity as a key inhibitor to successfully operationalizing a multi-cloud architecture. 

As organizations implement network segmentation to stop the spread of ransomware, attackers have begun to leverage trusted credentials to move freely throughout the network. With a valid set of credentials, attackers can accomplish much of their nefarious activity without raising a single alarm.  

Some of the stealthiest credential attacks use native, authorized tools like PowerShell to gain access by appearing as legitimate activity. Once an attacker can move laterally across an organization’s network, they have the “keys to the kingdom” and can access sensitive customer information and corporate proprietary data.  

Enter the double-extortion ransomware attack, in which an attacker quietly exfiltrates this sensitive information before encrypting a victim’s files and threatening to make sensitive data public. This ensures financial gain for cybercriminals who force organizations to not only pay to decrypt their files, but to prevent harmful data from being sold or publicly disclosed. 

While ransomware attacks like Kaseya and Colonial Pipeline made the nightly news this year, we think that threat actors will take this one step further in 2022 by using a double-extortion ransomware attack as a result of stolen credentials. 

The good news is that we can expect a cadre of tech companies, the open-source community, academia, cybersecurity institutions and government agencies around the world to unite to meet this challenge. We’ve done it before, and we will do it again.

We will see the emergence of tools that bring the Kubernetes (K8s) patterns to new domains —solving new problems and changing the intersection of development, security, and operations practices. K8s has proven to be successful for containerized infrastructure, but its embedded ideas have broader applicability. We will see an increasing number of systems (build systems, infrastructure management, and federated application-control planes) leverage the manifest-based model popularized by K8s. This will mean a transition to a manifest-based approach and will mark a shift from imperative DevSecOps practices to the consumption of intent-driven services that apply a declarative approach to management. This will lead to something of an inversion of IT — moving from systems that try to make sense of what is running and provide APIs to change what is running, to systems that consume manifests that represent intended state and then allow for reconciliation of actual state with intended state. This will allow them to tackle challenges in areas like AI/ML, stream-based processing, app integration and other areas without having to make significant 'full stack' investments in platforms. 

One of the major trends we predict in the end-user computing space is the broad adoption and general acceptance of password-less authentication — something we believe is a “must-have” moving forward. Most attacks can be avoided by using stronger methods of authentication. 

Password-less authentication is a type of multifactor authentication that replaces the user’s password with a different factor (typically a client-side certificate unlocked via biometrics). This would allow users to authenticate to corporate resources from a fingerprint or face scan throughout the course of a day, rather than having to remember a constantly rotating password or using an authenticator app. 

We see 2022 as the year where VPNs start to die off in huge numbers. During the course of the pandemic, companies realized that VPNs were one of their most vulnerable areas. They did not provide sufficient security for remote users who required broad access to the corporate network. Micro-perimeters, real-time security posture checks, and the wide availability of SASE offerings will be VPNs’ successors. 

Today’s multi-party enterprise workflows are fragmented and highly complex to maintain. This causes delays, increased costs and hinders innovation. Workflow data is often siloed within the enterprise — resulting in inefficient and costly steps to share and reconcile data across boundaries. This is where blockchain/digital ledger technology (DLT) enters the picture. While trendy cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) - which are also built on blockchain - capture memes and headlines, blockchain is quietly making waves in the enterprise driving real productivity. Blockchain’s real power lies in how it enables multiple parties to work together on a shared trustworthy source of data, fully and securely digitizing transactions. Maturing technologies, new delivery models, adoption of standards and the energy of an extensive and vibrant ecosystem are accelerating enterprise adoption. In 2022, we suspect that we’ll  see the value of enterprise blockchain becoming increasingly clear, as well as strong acceleration in production deployments across many industries (such as supply-chain use cases, for example), fundamentally changing the nature of doing business across organizational boundaries. In the financial-services industry, it is already meeting customers’ needs for high-frequency, complex business operations. We expect there will be an even broader enterprise blockchain adoption in 2022 and we’ll see major financial institutions more confident to deploy blockchain technology into production.  

A key area of focus for NKI will be applying AI and ML to cancer recognition through imaging and research models. It can support the automatic analysis of medical images for decision support of healthcare providers, as well as the analysis of cells to better understand the origin of cancer. 

To support researchers in conducting their work, we need a capable infrastructure for a wide variety of workloads. It must be a scalable and secure environment that supports data exchange with other institutions. We must work together to amplify our impact. Network virtualization, containerization, and sharing a single platform with workload isolation are all technologies we hope to leverage in the coming years. 

These new technological possibilities will allow researchers to work more flexibly and safely to help make our mission — a cure for every cancer — a reality in the near future.

What do you think of the VMware leaders' predictions for 2022? Let us know and feel free to share your own predictions for the coming year.  

VMware leaders share their technology predictions for 2022 in cloud, security, apps, anywhere workspace, enterprise blockchain and more.

VMware leaders share their 2022 predictions in cloud, security, apps, anywhere workspace and enterprise blockchain.

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VMware Leaders' 2022 Predictions - VMware News and Stories

Check out VMware's 2022 tech predictions featuring CTO @kitcolbert on #enterpriseblockchain, @marcfleischmann on #cloud, @_tomgillis on #security, @patelajayp on #apps, and @brianmadden on #anywhereworkspace.

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