Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said today it’s cozying up to the software virtualization giant VMware Inc., optimizing its AMD Pensando Distributed Services Card to run VMware vSphere 8.

The AMD Pensando data processing units will be available in a range of new servers from partners including Dell Technologies Ltd., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd., the chipmaker said.

DPUs, as they’re known, are specialized chips designed to handle networking, storage and security, freeing up the main central processing units to focus on core computing tasks. AMD said the first servers powered by its chips and optimized for VMware vSphere 8 will be available in the coming months.

VSphere 8 is the latest version of VMware’s popular virtualization software platform, which is widely used by enterprises in both cloud environments and on-premises data centers to squeeze more efficiency out of their server resources. Announced at VMware Explore 2022 today, vSphere 8 supports a composable information technology infrastructure that enables workloads to be shared across DPUs and CPUs through its new Distributed Services Engine.

It all boils down to more efficiency, as the CPUs will be used solely for business functions and revenue-generating applications. That will lead to lower operational costs and also enhanced security, AMD said.

“VMware vSphere 8, running on AMD Pensando DPUs, is a key step in bringing the industry closer to composable hardware systems and truly pervasive heterogeneous computing,” said Forrest Norrod, AMD’s senior vice president and general manager of its Data Center Solutions Group.

In addition to the performance boost, vSphere 8 has been optimized to leverage AMD Infinity Guard features such as Secure Encrypted Virtualization and Secure Encrypted Virtualization – Encrypted State, ensuring the strongest level of security for all virtualized workloads, AMD said.

“With combined solutions featuring VMware vSphere 8 with Distributed Services Engine capabilities and AMD Pensando DPUs and EPYC CPUs, customers can improve infrastructure performance, boost infrastructure security and support the evolution of cloud infrastructure for modern applications,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s Cloud Platform Business.

International Data Corp. analyst Ashish Nadkarni said composable IT infrastructure means a cloudlike experience no matter where a customer’s data lives or is processed. “AMD Pensando’s volume deployments with cloud providers are a clear indication of the capabilities of the platform, we expect to see a high degree of interest from enterprises interested in vSphere Distributed Services Engine deployments,” he said.

Image: AMD