As the reality of the digital-first world sets in, businesses feel more and more pressure to modernize operations and innovate. VMware Inc. promises to make this job faster and easier with its recently released Tanzu Application Platform.

The solution establishes foundational elements for building a unified experience on Kubernetes for both development and operations teams, while shortening the time between idea and production, according to Ajay Patel (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of the modern application platform business at VMware.

App modernization “is really a transformation around existing application to deliver a business outcome, and we’re focusing it through our Tanzu Lab services, our capabilities of Tanzu Application Platform, all the way to the operations and management of getting these products in production or these applications in production,” he said. “It’s the full life cycle from idea to production what customers are looking for. They’re looking to compress the cycle time.”

Patel spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during theCUBE on VMworld event. They discussed how application modernization has become a business imperative, VMware’s strategy and solutions for this area, and the importance of security across the entire software supply chain. (* Disclosure below.)

Pre-paved and automated path

Tanzu Application Platform eases development and operation teams tasks through a kind of pre-paved path to production that includes: Application templates with baked-in compliance and best practices; automated container image builds; runtimes for serving and event capabilities; API discovery and routing; and insights into running applications for quick troubleshooting.

The new solution is likely to be used by different types of industries, as app modernization is a broad imperative for the digital world, according to Patel. For example, VMware is partnering with the U.S. Army in a joint effort to build its first software development unit – the Army Software Factory. Over the next five years, the initiative will equip soldiers to take up cloud native development practices and help produce software to address current and future mission priorities.

“This came back with strong sponsorship from the top. They just said the next battleground is going to be a digital backup power hub,” Patel stated. “It’s something we’re going to have to put our troops in place and have modernized, not just the Army, but modernize the way we deliver it through software.”

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE