Data is the center of gravity in the modern digital enterprise. It also simply has gravity; in large quantities, it’s hard to move to and fro.

That’s why the compute, via a virtual network, must be the mover and shaker in a multicloud environment, according to Pat Gelsinger (pictured), chief executive officer of VMware Inc.

“We can use age-old computer science tricks like caching, but ultimately these petabytes of data get to be very heavy,” Gelsinger said in a live interview today at the VMworld conference in Las Vegas. On the other hand, compute is increasingly easy to transport, he explained to John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio. “We have more and more flexibility to move the compute to the data wherever it is in the future,” he said. (* Disclosure below.)

The ability to truck compute around to different datasets gives businesses options. They can choose different environments based on their affinity for the data. These affinities may come down to price, availability or governance. This is the point of hybrid or multicloud infrastructure models, Gelsinger stated. The mobility of compute will increase as network bottlenecks break, he added.

Softer side of networking

Last May, Gelsinger said the NSX virtualized network and security platform is now VMware’s top priority. It will be a key enabler of multicloud operations for its ability to span environments, he said.

VMware continues to improve the NSX platform by making network functions consumable at the software layer. “You’re going to see more and more routing functions and load-balancer functions — obviously with micro-segmentation, firewall functions — moving into that layer,” Gelsinger said. The result is more intelligent networking. Emerging 5G and software-defined wide area networks will help stretch compute power out to Internet of Things edge devices, he added.

VMware just landed a major telco customer in Vodafone Group Plc, validating its network functions virtualization and NSX initiatives. Between Amazon Web Services Inc. and Google Cloud Platform partnerships, NSX adds an in-house stroke to VMware’s multicloud picture.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMworld 2017. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMworld 2017. Neither VMware Inc. nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE