Modern IT demands agility and scalability. They are common buzzwords in IT, but it’s true that enterprises are increasingly seeking hybrid cloud strategies that blend the stability of virtualized environments with the flexibility of containerized applications. vSphere with presents a compelling solution, but its implementation requires careful planning and expertise – something WEI is ready and willing to assist with.

This blog post delves into the advantages of vSphere with Tanzu and outlines how our detailed approach facilitates a seamless transition to a modern, agile, and innovation-ready cloud infrastructure.

Understanding Your Kubernetes Journey

WEI recognizes the critical role of collaboration between IT and DevOps teams in achieving optimal container deployments, scaling, and management. VMware Tanzu for Kubernetes Operations empowers this collaboration by providing a unified platform with automation tools and insightful monitoring. This approach fosters a continuous cycle of optimization to ensure deployments are efficient, scalable, and secure.

Furthermore, WEI’s Tanzu expertise secures the supply chain and CI/CD pipeline for protected containerized application development.

The Tanzu Advantage

Here’s how Tanzu can transform your approach to application management:

• Streamlined Development Lifecycle: Tanzu capitalizes on VMware’s cloud-native and agile know-how to streamline the application lifecycle. A unified platform with pre-built templates and integrated tools empowers developers for rapid development and deployment.
• Enhanced Developer Productivity: This solution automates infrastructure tasks, which frees developers to focus on building innovative applications. The approach aligns with modern workflows to boost development efficiency.
• Robust Security Without Compromise: Tanzu prioritizes security by integrating automated measures into the development pipeline. This “left-of-bang” approach ensures consistent enforcement and a strong foundation, freeing operations teams to optimize developer experience and application performance.
• Cloud-Agnostic Flexibility: The cloud-neutral approach empowers organizations to choose optimal cloud solutions. It simplifies deployments and ensures application portability across any cloud environment, private, public, or hybrid.

Adopting Tanzu unlocks a suite of advantages for organizations. This flexibility, combined with the ability to operate in any cloud environment, empowers businesses to stay ahead of the curve and deliver exceptional value to their customers.

Streamline Your Path To Kubernetes

WEI is your trusted guide throughout your Kubernetes adoption journey. Through a thorough kickoff assessment, our proven architects evaluate your existing cloud environment and align it with your long-term goals. Leveraging this analysis, WEI develops a secure and compliant Kubernetes environment tailored to your private cloud, adhering to the rigorous standards set forth by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF).

WEI also provides a full range of services to empower your vSphere with Tanzu journey, such as:

• Assessment and Design: Collaborate with WEI to review best practices, identify potential issues, and design a compliant cloud-native environment.
• Workload Management And Deployment: Enable efficient workload management and deploy (TKG) clusters.
• Migration And Management: WEI offers extensive vSphere with Tanzu services, including migrations, RBAC implementation, patching upgrades, backups & disaster recovery, and connectivity solutions.
• Infrastructure Automation: WEI’s infrastructure as code (IaC) and configuration management expertise automates infrastructure provisioning and management.

Choosing A Strategic Partner For Seamless Implementation

A successful vSphere with Tanzu deployment hinges on partnering with an expert who prioritizes customer success. WEI distinguishes itself as the premier choice, bringing its proven track record of excellence to ensure a seamless and successful implementation.

1. Unparalleled Expertise And Customer Focus

For over 35 years, WEI has prioritized customer satisfaction by assembling a team of highly trained and certified professionals. We consistently recruit the industry’s top engineers, empowering them to create best-in-class solutions tailored to your specific needs. This dedication is reflected in our recognition as a three-time CRN Triple Crown Award winner, signifying our unwavering commitment to exceptional service, technical proficiency, and exceeding customer expectations.

2. Validated Skills For Modern Application Management

WEI’s team boasts a robust portfolio of industry-recognized certifications, demonstrating their in-depth knowledge of Kubernetes concepts and practical experience managing cloud-based applications.

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA): Our CKAs excel in deploying, configuring, and managing production-grade Kubernetes clusters. Their expertise encompasses and goes beyond core Kubernetes functionalities, application lifecycle management, networking, and security.
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD): WEI’s CKADs possess the skills to design, build, configure, and manage cloud-native applications seamlessly within Kubernetes environments.
• VMware Cloud Native Master Specialist: Leverage the expertise of our specialists to architect a robust Kubernetes platform that integrates seamlessly with complementary cloud-native technologies, ensuring a smooth and continuous application delivery pipeline.
• VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX): As we’ve written before, WEI is proud to have one of the few VCDX professionals in the New England region. This vast and exceptional knowledge base enables our customers to design, plan, and test vSphere-based solutions that perfectly align with their unique business objectives.

When you partner with WEI, you gain a trusted advisor with the expertise to navigate the complexities of vSphere with Tanzu implementation so you can focus on core business innovation.

Final Thoughts

WEI is committed to supporting you throughout your Kubernetes journey with vSphere and Tanzu. Our expertise, combined with Tanzu’s robust capabilities, empowers your enterprise to efficiently modernize applications, enhance security, and seamlessly operate across any cloud environment.

A WEI partnership is more than an innovative solution; we provide dedicated strategic advisors who will remain actively engaged with your business to ensure your long-term success. Contact our team today to discuss your needs and learn more about how we can help you achieve your Kubernetes goals.

Next Steps: discover the vSphere with Tanzu services that WEI offers as well as an understanding of our deep certification portfolio. When you work with WEI, you get more than an innovative solution. You get a team of dedicated strategic partners and advisors who stay connected to ensure your long-term satisfaction and success.

Bonus Podcast Content: the WEI Tech Talk Podcast welcomes WEI Senior Architect and Virtualization Ambassador Mark Gabryjelski. Mark has been practicing VMware since 2000 and is VCDX #23. Known as “Gabs” around the industry, he is one of the first non-VMware employees to have earned the certification.

Today’s episode will explain what the VCDX certification is and why it elevates WEI as an IT solutions provider. Mark also explains what his journey was like in earning his certification and how the program has evolved over the past several years. The content for this episode was recorded in January 2024.

The post Leverage Comprehensive Cloud Expertise For Your Cloud-Native Journey appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Can you name a common promise that never comes to fruition? We have one – technology will eventually get simpler. Take the cloud for instance. At one point, this technology sounded as straightforward as could be. Just lift and shift business-critical applications from a legacy data center to a cloud provider! No more hardware or virtual infrastructure to manage and support! 

Truth is, modernized cloud application environments are highly complex, so much so that internal IT and data center monitoring tools can’t handle it without the right resources. Without these, IT operations teams run blind.

Why The Complexity?

Why are modern applications so complex today? Unlike monolithic applications that were hosted by individual VMs in an on-prem environment, modern applications are broken down into microservices that are each assigned a defined task or capability. Each container acts like a tiny server, which multiplies the number of endpoints that require monitoring. On top of that, many companies utilize multiple clouds to match each of their critical apps with their optimum cloud environment.

Companies believe this complexity is worth it because it allows for incredible agility to respond to fluctuating dynamic workloads and to serve users at a scale that monolithic applications could never achieve. For all these wonderful benefits, however, there are some real challenges:

• Container Orchestration: Applications are hosted within so many containers running in different environments.
• Security: Containers are more prone to security threats due to vulnerabilities, insecure configurations, and supply chain attacks
• Integration: Modernized container applications often integrate with other applications and services that require a deep understanding of different systems and interactions.
• Monitoring and Troubleshooting: Companies have invested heavily in monitoring tools over the years, but traditional monitoring tools don’t work in the dynamic world of speed and scale that cloud computing enables.
• Multiple Clouds: The use of multiple clouds creates learning curves for support personnel that must rotate through portal admin consoles.

The complexity of container ecospheres doesn’t stop there. Most companies that employ the cloud still utilize on-prem environments. Some of this is due to legacy applications that cannot be modernized. To avoid cloud lock-in, some organizations store their data in a separate data center adjacent to the cloud to avoid data transfer costs if they change cloud providers. Despite the complexity of it all, the benefits that modernized applications bring cannot be ignored. It is one of the reasons why predicts that almost two-thirds of spending on application software will be directed toward cloud technology in 2025.

Internal IT Requires The Right Tools To Support The Cloud

There’s no doubt that IT teams are developing legitimate value-added innovation and containers can make this process easier. Developers can deploy microservices in different languages and technologies while time to market is reduced with added functionality. But all this innovation can’t be fully leveraged without the proper support from IT operation teams. For many organizations, IT operations aren’t modernized to do the job because the data center monitoring tools they are saddled with are not applicable to cloud applications.

• Infrastructures of data centers and cloud environments are fundamentally different. Data centers reside in a fixed location with dedicated hardware while cloud environments are distributed across shared hardware over dispersed locations.
• Data center applications often have static predictable workloads whereas cloud applications are highly elastic and scalable. Traditional monitoring tools may not be designed to keep up.
• Cloud applications are API-driven, and many traditional monitoring tools aren’t optimized for them.
• Traditional monitoring tools can’t act fast enough due to their reliance on human intervention and dashboard rotation.

When you consider everything, you begin to understand why say that monitoring containerized microservices in real-time is almost impossible.

How AIOps Makes Monitoring Containerized Microservices A Reality

It is possible to monitor containerized microservices to ensure that your cloud-based applications run optimally. But how? The answer is AI automation. Gartner states that many IT organizations who fail to adapt AI will no longer be operationally viable. Only automated AI systems can handle the scale, speed, complexity, and dynamic nature of today’s modernized applications that rely on cloud-hosted containers and microservices.

• AI monitoring can perform root cause analysis, enabling problems to be identified and resolved at speed.
• AI monitoring can handle large data sets from disparate systems and recognize when related anomalies occur within an environment. This helps prevent alert storms.
• When implemented into your integration and deployment pipelines, AI monitoring can ensure that problems are detected so that remediation or roll back processes can be implemented instantly.

In 2022, Forrester evaluated 11 AI for IT Operations (AIOps) providers and named Dynatrace a in that industry, giving them top scores in the Current Offering and Strategy categories. AIOps provides the ability to leverage machine learning and other AI technologies to automate and improve the performance, availability, and security of IT systems and applications. It only makes sense that a new application architecture requires a new operational approach.

Contact WEI to find out more how Dynatrace has the solutions you need to keep your IT operations in pace with your application innovations.

Next Steps: Thanks to Dynatrace, full stack application analytics and observability is fully achievable for your AWS-hosted application environments. Converting terabytes of data about your cloud application environment and converting it to real answers and actionable, intelligent automation, companies can maximize their modernized application strategies.

In this tech brief, we expand on:

• Application Modernization
• Cloud scalability
• Monitoring vs. observability

The post Why Modernized Applications Also Require Modernized IT Operations appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

It’s Tuesday and you are waiting for work colleagues to join you at lunch for a quick reprieve from the office. You pull out your smartphone and begin browsing to pass the time. An interesting technology article catches your eye and you tap to access the page. Unfortunately, the session times out and your engagement with that journey ends prematurely. Does this experience sound familiar?

According to a recent Google study, 53% of mobile users will abandon a session if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Fair or not, this is the bar that has been set, and serves as a reminder to enterprises of how important it is to modernize applications. Once users leave you behind, it is difficult to get them back as 79% of participants in the same mentioned study said they will not return after a negative experience.

What Makes an Application Modern Today?

Applications used to consist of one singular block of monolithic interdependent code hosted on a single virtual machine (VM), a design considered innovative in its day. But things are different now. To gain greater agility and flexibility, companies hastily transitioned to microservices and container environments. Here, a single application is broken up into small individual modules where each module performs a single defined task or capability. These services are then coupled together to communicate with one another, creating a highly flexible coalition of services that we call the modern application. Here, all necessary components are then contained within a single container.

Benefits of Application Modernization

Application modernization provides greater flexibility as microservices can be deployed in different programing languages and technologies. Modern applications are far more resilient as containers can be easily migrated or deployed to other systems. Updating is easier as each service can be updated and deployed independently of others and new application features and functionality can be released more rapidly to market. Containers and the microservices they host can be scaled up or down to meet fluctuating workload demands in real time.

The 6 R’s of Application Modernization

So, how do you go about updating monolithic and legacy applications to the modern era? AWS created a set of six best practice strategy options that be applied to any business application you may consider modernizing.

1. Retain: Keep the existing application in its present form as it still meets the needs of the organization.
2. Refactor: Improve the code and architecture of the existing application to attain greater scalability and flexibility.
3. Rehost: Move the existing application to a new infrastructure, such as a cloud platform, without changing its code.
4. Replace: Replace the existing application with a pre-built solution or different technology.
5. Rebuild: Create a new application from scratch to replace the existing one.
6. Retire: Discontinue support for the application and retire it. The application is no longer needed

The Paradox of Application Modernization

The speed, dynamics, and scalability of modernized applications will outpace and out scale traditional management and monitoring tools. While they may have been sufficient for an on-prem legacy environment, their product cycle is ending. If your applications are delivering workloads differently, it only makes sense that they need to be managed differently. It isn’t just programmers who need greater agility to increase the velocity of new feature releases and updates. The application admins need greater speed and agility to ensure application environments are always optimized. If not, they will fail to attain the full benefit potential of modernization efforts, thus diminishing ROI and risking losing users along the way.

Monitoring vs. Observability

Monitoring and observability may sound alike, but one is superior in scope to the other. Monitoring was appropriate for traditional on-prem environments. It helped IT personnel track problems, issues, and performance using a list of prescribed metrics that provided a snapshot of the systems that comprised the application environment.

While sufficient for the application models of yesteryear, monitoring no longer cuts it for today’s cloud application environments. The architecture that interconnects an application’s services and interdependencies together is highly complex and visibility is a challenge. Enter observability.

Observability takes monitoring to the next level by aggregating and analyzing data from multiple sources and uses AI intelligence to put the puzzle pieces together. Observability isn’t restricted to alerts and metrics. It also provides insights and context to your environment so IT can properly understand the issues at hand. While monitoring provides a view into your application environment, observability provides full comprehension and understanding.

Intelligent Observability with Dynatrace and Davis

Meet Davis (short for Davis AI-Powered Detection and Response). Davis is part of the Dynatrace performance monitoring and management solution platform for modern applications and cloud environments. Davis uses AI and ML to identify and prioritize issues and security risks in real-time on its own. Besides delivering comprehensive contextual insights to your support team, the platform automatically remediates issues before users are affected and IT can review them. Don’t just upgrade your applications to the modern era, upgrade your application operational tools in tandem with Dynatrace.

Next Steps: Thanks to Dynatrace, full stack application analytics and observability is fully achievable for your AWS-hosted application environments. Converting terabytes of data about your cloud application environment and converting it to real answers and actionable, intelligent automation, companies can maximize their modernized application strategies. We expand on this in our free tech brief,

In this tech brief, we expand on:

• Application Modernization
• Cloud scalability
• Monitoring vs. observability

The post Application Management: Keep Pace With Your Application Modernization appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

As enterprises push forward with digital transformation initiatives in the face of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s apparent that modernization of application and software development is a critical part of a holistic approach. In fact, according to a recent survey of 5,000 executive-level respondents:

• 88% believe enterprises with software-minded leaders are more successful.
• 79% state organizations will not be able to deliver a best-in-class end-user experience without successfully modernizing application development processes.

If you’re still unsure about modernizing application development for your enterprise, let’s look at three reasons why it’s critical for your digital transformation journey.

3 Reasons To Modernize Application Development

1. Legacy infrastructure is costly. Maintaining and replacing legacy applications, which are overly dependent on platform infrastructures and internal monolithic architectures, account for a large portion of IT budgets each year. Additionally, the time and money required to train new employees on legacy IT applications can also prove costly and time-consuming. Application modernization needs to be a business-centric, multiplatform, and continuous process. Enterprises that understand the value in modernizing applications can:

• Innovate faster and win a greater market share
• Quickly release software to keep up with demand
• Take advantage of cloud elasticity

Just as workers today must continuously update their skills, applications must also be updated to truly benefit from new computing approaches, languages, frameworks, and infrastructure platforms.

2. Free Your Apps. Modernizing application development for your enterprise will free them to be used from anywhere within your multi-cloud hybrid architectures through containerization. By the end of this year, estimates are that 90% of new enterprise applications will be delivered using cloud-native approaches, with around 500 million applications by 2025.

Kubernetes, the other piece of the application modernization puzzle, is a portable, extensible open-source platform used to manage containerized workloads and servers. It increases agility, accelerates software delivery, and simplifies the work of both developers and operators. With Kubernetes, applications are now free from underlying infrastructures and platforms. By releasing applications and removing their complex dependencies, you provide the space developers need to do what they do best: build great apps.

3. The Power of Kubernetes. Kubernetes is the leading container management platform because of the agility it offers modernized applications. Kubernetes clusters can host them independently as well as encompass multiple machines and environments. That means that a single cluster can span multiple clouds, virtual machines, and operating systems. What’s more, you can even run applications on-premise and in the cloud simultaneously, moving workloads in between them. Modernized applications with Kubernetes give your enterprise the flexibility and ability to use what you need when you need it.

Further, Kubernetes will help ensure new applications are properly aligned with your enterprise’s needs and goals. With greater collaboration between stakeholders and influencers such as the development teams, IT support teams, and application owners, new applications can be created that provide value immediately.

While legacy applications had their time to shine, these three reasons show why modernizing application development is a must as you take on the process of digitally transforming your enterprise.

Modernize Application Development Using VMWare

While there are multiple Kubernetes offerings on the market today that will assist you on the path to application modernization, VMWare is among the top. VMware Tanzu allows users to run multiple Kubernetes clusters and microservices across both public and private clouds in an automated fashion. With the suite of products offered by Tanzu, you can run all your clusters from a single command center and proactively manage policies to optimize and securely protect them. According to customer , results have shown:

• Provisioning time reduction of 90%
• Developers spend 37% more time coding
• New features released 61% faster

Are you sold on modernizing application development with VMWare Tanzu? Contact WEI today to find out how we can help you every step of the way.

Next Steps: Download WEI’s executive brief titled, “” to learn more about the importance of modernizing application development.

The post 3 Reasons Why It’s Critical To Modernize Application Development appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

Every enterprise has its own library of applications and many of these libraries include a core set of applications that, while older, still play an incredibly important part in the day-to-day operations of your enterprise. However, as enterprises prioritize digital transformation these legacy applications may start lagging behind and integration complexity grows. That’s where application modernization comes in.

Through application modernization enterprises can protect their investments and refresh their software portfolios to take advantage of new advances in technology, without creating large disruptions for the rest of the digital environment.

Once an enterprise understands the value of undertaking an application modernization project, the next question is which applications should we prioritize, and how do we get started? has been a leading answer for countless enterprise organizations, and it could be the right answer for your business as well. Keep reading to find out why.

What Is VMware Tanzu?

The suite of products offers enterprises the tools they need to tackle the modernization of application and infrastructure, and in doing so, these tools provide a number of benefits to the business, a key one being improved productivity. Through VMware Tanzu enterprises can take full advantage of cloud native infrastructure throughout their application portfolio.

How Does VMware Tanzu Support Enterprises Through Application Modernization?

Beyond the technical aspects of VMware Tanzu, it’s important to understand ‘s philosophy for application modernization. In their own words, the following are four tenants to a successful application modernization initiative:

1. Start small – Regardless of the size of your entire application portfolio, it’s important to start small and choose one business unit or group with just a handful of applications.
2. Automate everything – Reduce manual processes however you can with IT automation, whether that’s test-drive development, continuous integration or continuous deployment.
3. Learn by doing – Take your mistakes and learn from them. Keep your successes and losses in mind and use them to inform your strategy and build new skills and playbooks as you go.
4. Break things down – Take a larger problem and break it down to its component pieces. In other words, “Iterate quickly and continually on thin slices of complex systems.”

Additionally, before beginning an application modernization project, there are few prerequisites that VMware recommends every enterprise have:

1. A list of viable application candidates
   Start your application modernization journey by selecting a set of custom apps that have relevance to your current business model and are actively being used.
2. Organizational commitment
   Ensure that the business unit or group selected at the start of the project is committed to cloud computing and can invest the time and resources required for transformation.
3. The right people
   Select your team carefully. Pick people that understand the application domains. It’s also important to ensure the application modernization team are allowed to focus entirely on this project.

Which VMWare Tanzu Edition Is Right For You?

Once enterprises decide to move forward with VMware Tanzu for their application modernization needs, they must decide is the right fit for their business goals.

All editions share several common principles, including multicloud enabled, open source-aligned, and tools that allow enterprises to facilitate a environment.

That’s where the similarities end. In choosing the right VMware Tanzu edition for your enterprise, you must consider which specific challenges you’re looking to address and the resources you have at your disposal.

VMware Tanzu is available in the following formats:

• Tanzu Basic. This edition offers the tools enterprises need to handle simple, containerized off-the-shelf workloads and is also the most affordable and accessible of the four editions.
• Tanzu Standard. This version caters to enterprises that need to manage at scale on public cloud or across multiple clouds.
• Tanzu Advanced. Tanzu Advanced builds off the previous versions and offers additional functionality to enable enterprises to full embrace a DevOps practice, even stretching towards DevSecOps.
• Tanzu Enterprise. The last and most powerful in the lineup is Tanzu Enterprise. This edition is perfect if you need to address important objects for operators and developers, such as more efficiency and control, and more speed and freedom.

Regardless of the edition you choose, VMware Tanzu can help your enterprise throughout your application modernization journey.

Partner with WEI for Application Modernization

VMware offers enterprises solutions that will help them manage and run consistent infrastructure, across on-premises data centers and public clouds, improving user experience and overall business operations. Their innovative approach to cloud offers architecture that is easy to deploy and manage, increasing enterprise agility and flexibility.

Now, couple industry leading VMware technology solutions with the virtualization, infrastructure, cloud and modern apps experience WEI provides. Our team’s collective expertise is light years ahead of other VARs. In fact, WEI holds four VMware master services competencies and employs an early VCDX recipient. If you’re wondering how to get started with application modernization, or you’re hitting roadblocks on your journey, . We’re here to help!

Next steps: Get insights from our experts about getting started with containers in our eBook, IT Leader’s Guide to Preparing for Containers, by clicking below.

The post How VMware Tanzu Supports Your Journey To Application Modernization appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.