With public and private clouds, hybrid models, and a need to manage data flowing from “internet of things” devices at the edge, the enterprise world is dealing with a lot of moving parts. Like rivers coming together in the geographic landscape, the streams of information are on a collision course where managing that data will be crucial.

VMware Inc. sees itself as playing an important role in managing the shifting information technology picture. “Our focus is on what it means to be the infrastructure management story for that new form of multicloud-age IoT narrative,” said Ray O’Farrell (pictured), executive vice president and chief technology officer at VMware. “A lot of where we focus comes back to NSX [VMware’s network virtualization platform]. We do believe that software-defined networking is a key way of being able to deliver a new fluidity for when you get that confluence.”

O’Farrell spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Radio 2018 event in San Francisco. They discussed the importance of communications in managing data from the edge and promising research from the Radio gathering. (* Disclosure below.)

Expanding role for NSX

There are already signals that VMware is positioning NSX to be the product for an expanding multicloud and IoT market. The company discussed making simpler versions of the technology available to its midmarket vSphere customers during an earnings call last week.

The approach is a recognition by VMware’s senior executives that the need for cross-platform and device communications will drive the need for technology to treat the edge as more than a standalone entity. “The edge must talk to the cloud, the cloud must talk to the telco, the telco must talk to the IoT device,” O’Farrell explained. “I believe you’re going to see the emergence of edge infrastructure. But isolated? That’s not powerful.”

What could be powerful are emerging new technologies that address the edge confluence and a lot more. Last week’s Radio gathering has already shown promise as developers and engineers present research and collaborate on new ideas.

“This show alone … has already generated nearly 240 IDFs [invention disclosure forms], and a lot of those have the potential to become patents,” O’Farrell said. “You don’t necessarily see the product announcement coming from Radio itself. What you see is the core of that idea, and then a few months later … you begin to see these things emerge.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Radio 2018. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Radio 2018. Neither VMware Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE