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Close up of a woman's hand paying with her smartphone in a cafe, scan and pay a bill on a card machine making a quick and easy contactless payment. NFC technology, tap and go concept

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The Future of Retail Is Now. Are You Ready?

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More Secure Open Source Software: A Shared Responsibility

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Building &#8211; Down to Earth Blog Series

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VMware: A Look Ahead at 2022

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Securing the Future: 7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2022

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VMware Responds to Log4j Vulnerability

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

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For This CIO, “Technology Is the Basis of Change”

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Sandy Hogan: Partner in Chief

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Joe Baguley, Vice President and CTO, EMEA, VMWARE

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

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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.

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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:

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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>.

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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.

ESG<meta charset="utf-8">—Environmental, Social, Governance. Everybody is talking about it, and certainly many organisations are acting on it. In 2020, ESG funds <a href="https://www.ii.co.uk/analysis-commentary/investors-put-almost-ps1-billion-month-esg-funds-2020-ii515374">attracted £1 billion a month on average</a> from investors.

Yet, for many businesses one big issue remains: how to translate their vision for ESG into a tangible strategy?

This is largely due to an information gap—between “what you should do,” “what you actually need to prioritise and why” and “how you can do what’s most important.” There’s an undeniable desire to see business through the lens of ESG but a lack of clarity over how to really get started.

Which is where this new content series—Down to Earth, of which I am honoured to be the first to contribute to—comes in. Along with select colleagues who are leading voices in their respective fields, we are hoping to provide clarity and tangible guidance on how to bridge the gap between aspiration and the reality of making responsible organisational change.

So, what exactly is ESG? To be clear, it is not CSR 2.0. It’s a response to rising pressure from consumers for businesses to commit to and demonstrate their part in driving change to be more sustainable, inclusive and socially responsible. And to do that in a way that is measurable.

And with that in mind, this first piece looks at how to sell the ESG vision to the board and, from there, make it a commercial success. Because, ultimately, it needs to make business sense and deliver commercially to be an intrinsic part of your business.

From my perspective, there are three key steps that you need to take when selling your ESG vision.

Step 1: Be a Leader of Change

There are various stakeholder groups when it comes to ESG—external (investors, customers), internal (board members, employees) and those in between (suppliers, communities). They all have an interest and are impacted by any ESG strategy that a company introduces.

That said, in its simplest form, an ESG programme is a change programme—one that needs to be led from the top. <a href="https://blogs.idc.com/2021/01/22/capitalizing-on-esg-the-business-case-for-sustainability/">Studies have shown</a> that it’s the CEOs and CFOs that are held responsible for ESG strategies today—a big change from previous corporate sustainability initiatives that tended to sit with HR, office managers or particularly passionate employees.

So the first step is to acknowledge the responsibility of leading ESG change at the executive level, and to then build the case for why the board needs to consider this strategically significant. Identify willing and relevant stakeholders within the business, to develop a holistic strategy that represents the passion and needs of the whole business and goes deeper on the practicalities of introducing change. This was exactly the approach we took to develop 30 cross-functional ESG goals to meet by 2030. This is what we call our <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg.html">2030 Agenda</a>—all of which are a blueprint to achieve three business outcomes of sustainability, equity and trust.

Step 2: Create Your Business Plan

Once the direction is established, your stakeholders will need to be able to see how you can get there.

There is already a huge amount of data and examples publicly available showing why ESG is commercially vital. Take advantage of these, use them to reinforce your conviction and also inform the different tangents of your business plan.

It is a fact, for example, that customer loyalty lies with ESG. VMware research found that more than one in every three consumers (35%) would be willing to pay more for goods or services from a firm that has demonstrated how it is using renewable energy and supporting the transition to net-zero emissions. A further third say they would stop engaging with companies/buying brands if they don’t publicly share their ethical policies.

Investors, meanwhile, are clear that they want to keep investing in “good” and are planning to <a href="https://www.cityam.com/blackrock-sustainable-investments-to-accelerate-in-2021-as-esg-focus-intensifies/">double their allocations</a> to sustainable products over the next five years. Scottish Widows also <a href="https://www.cityam.com/scottish-widows-pulls-440m-from-investments-in-esg-push/">recently announced</a> that it is pulling millions in investment money from companies that don’t meet its ESG standards. As securing support increasingly relies on strong ESG credentials, audit and investigate what genuine proof points you can weave into your plan.

And take inspiration from the trailblazers. Research from McKinsey confirms that the most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers. The return on equity for European listed companies was calculated as <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/49638/the_business_case_for_equality_and_diversity.pdf">11.4% compared to 10.3% on average</a> between 2005 and 2007.

Step 3: Don’t Rewrite the Rule Book

We of course can’t all redesign our companies from the ground upwards to be a purely green player. But the truth is that most companies already have an element of ESG in some form or another. So, this is not about blindly hitting CTRL, ALT, DELETE and starting again or shoehorning something new into the business for the sake of it. If it doesn’t feel right for your business today, it won’t likely survive to shape positive change tomorrow.

Rather, this is looking at how to build on current approaches through an ESG lens and working with your select group of internal stakeholders to narrow down a workable list of questions to address. For example:

Honestly, the main thing is to get started. Patagonia, one of the world’s most well-recognised purposeful brands, <a href="https://www.raconteur.net/corporate-social-responsibility/patagonia-ceo-on-leading-a-company-with-a-cause/">still uses fossil fuels to produce some of the outer shells of its coats</a>. But it is transparent about this and the fact that it is still searching for better ways to produce its products. Customers don’t expect you to be perfect from day one.

This is my rallying cry to you to get started today in evolving the collection of “good” executions that your company likely has in place already to develop a strong, impactful ESG strategy that will deliver commercially.

I hope these tips will act as a starting block to help you launch your company’s own strategy forward. And remember to keep an eye out for further blogs in this series coming soon with more down-to-earth, practical guidance on ESG.

If you’d like to hear more about how we are enabling our customers and partners to achieve their own ESG goals, visit <a></a><a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ESG at VMware</a> and also read our<a> </a><a href="http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/company/vmware-esg-report-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2021 ESG Report</a>.

How do you sell your ESG vision to the board? VMware's Joe Baguley discusses how businesses can translate vision into a tangible strategy.

How do you sell your ESG vision to the board? VMware's Joe Baguley discusses how businesses can translate their ESG vision into a tangible strategy.

Down to Earth: Is There Really a Commercial Case to Take ESG Seriously?

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Down to Earth: Is There a Commercial Case to Take ESG Seriously?

Joe Baguley is VMware’s Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for EMEA, joining VMware in July 2011. He helps develop and communicate VMware’s strategy and vision with customers and partners, using his wealth of experience to help organizations reduce costs and better support users and business needs. As part of VMware’s Office of the CTO and its representative in EMEA, Joe assists VMware’s customers in understanding how to use today’s advances in technology to deliver real business impact and plan for disruptive technologies of the future, as well as working with them to inform VMware’s R&amp;D processes. Joe is a recognized leader within the European technical community and is considered one of the world’s most influential IT global leaders, currently positioned 26th on Tenfold’s global list of the top 79 Chief Technology Officers. He speaks regularly at industry events, including The Economist’s Innovation Summit, to the broadcast media, including BBC World News and BBC Talking Business, and appeared in the Computer Weekly UKtech50 and the Information Age Top 50 Data Leaders. He has played a key role in CloudCamp and other events, communicating how cloud technology fits into the broader IT landscape. Joe previously spent 10 years at Quest Software where he was CTO of EMEA, shaping its direction and strategy. He is a member of VMware’s Executive Sustainability Council, a formalized component of the company’s Corporate Sustainability Strategy to provide insight and oversight, and to drive cross-company initiatives. In addition, Joe is also on several advisory boards at the European Commission and ETSI and is a founding committee member of the Data Centre Specialist Group at the British Computer Society, which helped shape the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres. Joe is based in the U.K. with a remit across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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Joe Baguley

How do you sell your #ESG vision to the board? @VMware VP & CTO EMEA @JoeBaguley discusses how businesses can translate their ESG vision into a tangible strategy. #VMware2030

NRF 2022: VMware Powers Global Retailers to Drive Accelerated Innovation

“From unpredictable supply chains to evolving customer expectations and increased competition, there is no shortage of challenges facing retailers today,” said Ed Durbin, director, global retail industry group, VMware. “The stakes are high for survival and growth as retailers look to reinvent themselves with digital business models to navigate changing market dynamics. We give our customers the power to innovate faster, transforming the customer and employee experience to maintain a competitive edge and build resilient retail operations on a trusted digital foundation.”

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The New Reality of Retail in a Digital World

Amid the pandemic’s unpredictable trajectory, retailers are facing a new reality. And as consumer patterns and expectations evolve, the industry must embrace the growing role of technologies like cloud and apps as part of business strategies. Since the start of the pandemic, VMware found that 88% of retail executives increased investment in new digital-first experiences.1

However, as retailers look to innovate across clouds and apps, they must also consider security. Last year, 73% of retail executives experienced a major security breach.2 Increased digital operations have expanded the attack landscape. Retailers now need a faster and smarter path to cloud for their digital businesses, with the ability to build, run and better secure apps across any cloud with freedom and flexibility.

OFS Powers Resilient Operations with VMware

OFS is a family-owned contract furniture manufacturer dedicated to crafting experiences and products that contribute to places where people want to be.

“Our time to value with VMware Carbon Black was almost instantaneous. I’m spending less time tracking down false positives and spending more time triaging and acting on legitimate threats,” said Jeremy Wilkins, Security Administrator, OFS. “We don’t bog down our internal network with legacy virus updates.”

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/products/carbon-black-cloud.html">VMware Carbon Black Cloud</a> delivers cloud native endpoint, workload, and container protection that combines the intelligent system hardening and behavioral prevention needed to help retailers stay one step ahead of attackers.

At Retail’s Big Show, here’s where you can find VMware:   

For more on how VMware is helping global retailers innovate and transform, check out:

VMware Survey Methodology

VMware conducted online surveys with retail executives exploring recent trends. In June 2021, 65 global retail technology executives participated in the executive pulse survey. In September 2021, 110 global retail technology executives participated in the executive pulse survey.

VMware and Carbon Black are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions.

This article may contain hyperlinks to non-VMware websites that are created and maintained by third parties who are solely responsible for the content on such websites.

Samantha Mayowa, VMware Global Communications, + 1 (781) 552-3062, <a href="mailto:smayowa@vmware.com">smayowa@vmware.com</a>

Introducing Managed Detection and Response for endpoints and workloads to help security teams stay one step ahead of attackers.

Today, at Retail’s Big Show, VMware showcases the latest solutions to help global retailers innovate faster, boost customer engagement and loyalty and drive business models for the future. Learn more:

VMware at Retail's Big Show

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VMware Answers 'SOS' of Understaffed Security Teams

Today, at #NRF2022, VMware showcases the latest solutions to help global retailers innovate faster, boost customer engagement and loyalty and drive business models for the future. Learn more:

VMware has been recognized by JUST Capital, along with its media partner CNBC, in its annual <a href="https://justcapital.com/companies/vmware-inc">JUST 100</a>, a comprehensive ranking of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and stakeholder performance.

VMware was named one of America’s Most JUST Companies—the fifth consecutive year the company has been awarded for its commitment to serving its employees, customers, partners, shareholders and communities.

VMware ranked number one overall in the environment category, leading all companies in the JUST 100 in sustainable products and pollution reduction, and achieved high scores in climate change and resource efficiency.

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VMware achieved exceptional scores in multiple areas, including employee investment and community support. The company scored the top ranking across all industries in both <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/diversity.html">diversity, equity, and inclusion</a> and transparent communication. VMware also scored a Top 6 ranking in benefits and work-life balance. The company ranked within the software industry’s Top 10 in worker health and safety, community development, local job creation, and beneficial products.

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For their annual rankings, JUST collects and analyzes corporate data to evaluate the 1,000 largest public U.S. companies across 20 stakeholder-focused Issues as identified through the most comprehensive ongoing public opinion research on Americans’ attitudes toward responsible corporate behavior, engaging more than 150,000 participants since 2015.

In addition to JUST Capital’s recognition, VMware was recently recognized for ESG leadership with its invitation to be a member of the <a href="https://news.vmware.com/releases/vmware-recognized-dow-jones-sustainability-indices">2021 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI)</a>, one of the world’s leading ESG benchmarks, for the second consecutive year.

VMware is building a more sustainable, equitable and secure future by integrating ESG goals across the company and aligning them with its core business strategy. These goals are reflected in the company’s 2030 Agenda, a decade-long ESG commitment and call to action to build a world in which its technology will make a positive impact on all its stakeholders. Learn <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg.html">more</a> about ESG at VMware.

VMware was named one of America’s Most JUST Companies for the fifth consecutive year and this year was awarded the top environment ranking.

We’re honored to be a #JUST100 leader and ranked number one in the environment category by @justcapitalfoundation @CNBC.

VMware Named One of America’s Most JUST Companies for 5th Consecutive Year, Awarded Top Environmental Ranking

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VMware Named One of America’s Most JUST Companies

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We're proud to be recognized for our #ESG leadership with the top environment ranking in the 2022 #JUST100 by @justcapital_ and @CNBC. #vmware2030

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.  

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.

Once you see inequity, there’s no way to unsee it. The first time I really understood this was during my first year at the University of California, Berkeley. College in America was a culture shock—so different from the life I’d left behind in Johannesburg, South Africa. But what surprised me most was just how much my classmates knew of and cared about what was going on back home.

Berkeley had been at the center of America’s anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s, with protests held on Sproul Plaza against South Africa’s racial segregation policy. I had spent my entire life up until that point in Johannesburg, and I had never really grappled with the injustice playing out in my own country. Going to Berkeley rocked my world view.

I had grown up in a bubble. And by the next time I returned to South Africa, that bubble had burst. I saw my homeland through new eyes. I still loved my country—but I now understood the systemic injustice for what it was. How it needed to change. And how I needed to change with it too.

That experience taught me that inequity thrives in darkness and misinformation. It feeds off fear. It is amplified by systems of all kinds. So when people ask me why equity is important to me and why it plays such a prominent role in VMware’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/esg.html">2030 Agenda</a>, the answer is simple: because it has to. Because combating inequity is a shared responsibility. Because there is no such thing as a sustainable future without an equitable future.

Equity, of course, comes in different shapes and forms. It can be a complex concept with multiple dimensions. VMware’s own origin story can be traced back to one such dimension: digital equity. Our co-founders laid out a simple vision: that our technology free people and businesses from the digital constraints holding them back from reaching their full potential.

VMware’s approach to equity today is rooted in this simple idea. And today we’re going much further by striving to embed equity into every part of our business, from the products we make to the outcomes we create for all our stakeholders.

Our efforts span from the individual to the organization and industry. It starts with creating a diverse and inclusive work environment that allows every person in our organization to feel a sense of belonging and part of a community. Creating this environment is a collective effort that we empower every employee to take part in. For example, our numerous <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/diversity.html">geographic- and identity-based employee groups</a> called PODs (Power of Difference) help to connect, network and grow our diverse community of leaders.

Responsibility also spans to the team. One of the most profound insights I gained from our very first diversity training at VMware was that unconscious biases are part of the human condition. Even when you recognize them and work to combat them, they can be persistent. As leaders we therefore must create systems that short circuit these biases to drive more equitable outcomes in our teams. This is where VMware is concentrating a lot of our efforts, particularly when it comes to how we recruit, hire and promote people.

Expanding outward, we have commitments to driving equity as an organization and within our industry. As a big company that makes a lot of purchasing decisions each year—and by prioritizing supplier diversity through our <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/responsible-sourcing.html">Responsible Sourcing</a> program—we can intervene in the procurement system and direct our dollars to have an impact in our communities. As part of our 2030 Agenda, for example, we have committed to spending a cumulative $1.5 billion with diverse suppliers by 2030.

At the product level, we’re making equity a desired outcome for our solutions by focusing on accessibility. And at an industry level, our technology like <a href="https://www.vmware.com/solutions/anywhere-workspace.html">Anywhere Workspace</a> solutions are supporting social equity by enabling people to work where and how they choose and access greater opportunities through remote and distributed work.

Finally, we recognize that technology is driving fundamental changes in the world and that it has the potential to serve as a bridge—or as a wedge—between people. That’s why we’ve made the conscious decision to do our part to be a bridge—using our expertise and technology to promote digital access and transformation for communities that need it. We’re doing things like providing students and women returning to the workforce with digital skills training, and helping nonprofits design and build technology that helps them accomplish their missions.

VMware—like all companies and organizations—still has a long way to go before we can achieve true equity. Equity work is a constant practice that requires ongoing learning and action. And even with all the good work we’re doing, we recognize that we most likely still have unconscious biases and areas we could improve. But we are committed to remaining curious—to being part of a community of learning that is constantly asking questions, testing assumptions and striving to get better.

In the end, the only way to make progress against inequity is through dedicated, consistent and collective action. There’s a quote I like from Desmond Tutu, one of the world’s most prominent activists and a key figure in finally ending apartheid. He said, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

As I reflect during this time of year, I can say with confidence that people at VMware are doing their little bit of good. There is certainly more to do. And my great hope is that our actions can inspire—and enable—others to do the same.

Why is equity so prominent in our 2030 Agenda? Because there’s no such thing as a sustainable future without an equitable future.

Why is equity so prominent in our 2030 Agenda? Because there’s no sustainable future without an equitable future.

Equity Requires Doing a Little Bit of Good, Wherever You Are

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Equity Requires Doing a Little Bit of Good - VMware News and Stories

Nicola Acutt

Why is #equity so prominent in our #VMware2030 Agenda? Because combatting inequity is a shared responsibility. Because there’s no such thing as a sustainable future without an equitable future. #ESG

The past year has thrust cybersecurity into the spotlight and created a renewed focus on evolving security strategies for both the private and public sector. This month, we witnessed the <a href="https://news.vmware.com/security/vmware-responds-to-log4j-vulnerability">critical Log4j vulnerability</a>, which further revealed the fragility of the world’s digital infrastructure. 2021 also saw cyberattacks like Colonial Pipeline, JBS and Kaseya make mainstream headlines and impact everyday consumers.

With cybercrime <a href="https://cybersecurityventures.com/cybercrime-damages-6-trillion-by-2021/">predicted</a> to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $6 trillion in 2021, defenders are in a race to stay one step ahead of attackers. We interviewed VMware security experts to get their take on predictions heading into the new year as the threat landscape continues to evolve. Here are the attack trends and emerging threats that should be top of mind for all organizations as we approach 2022.

The Log4j Zero Day will motivate organizations to rapidly adopt a Zero Trust approach.

"In 2021, we saw a massive proliferation of hacking tools, vulnerabilities and attack capabilities on the Dark Web,” said Eric O’Neill, national security strategist at VMware. “Defenders caught the highest number of Zero Days ever recorded, including closing out the year with the severe Apache Log4j vulnerability being exploited in the wild. As a response, 2022 will be the year of Zero Trust where organizations 'verify everything' versus trusting it’s safe. We’ve seen the Biden administration mandate a Zero Trust approach for federal agencies, and this will influence other industries to adopt a similar mindset with the assumption that they will eventually be breached. A Zero Trust approach will be a key element to fending off new attacks in 2022, while also mitigating the fallout from the Log4j vulnerability.”

Supply chain attacks have just gotten started.