VMware Inc. is hoping to convince telecommunications providers to embrace the software-defined data center with the release of a new version of its Network Function Virtualization suite.

The new product sports a bunch of telco-friendly features that should allow them to introduce new services faster. The announcement was one of three that VMware made at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Wednesday.

VMware vCloud NFV 2.0, as the new suite is called, is a vSphere bundle that includes a long list of the company’s products, including NSX, VSAN and many others. The company’s pitch is that telecommunications companies and network carriers, which it likes to call “Communications Service Providers,” can use vCloud NFV 2.0 to build an infrastructure platform that makes it easier for them to quickly introduce new services. Using the vCloud NFV bundle, telcos and network carriers can create virtual networks on which to run their new services, monitor those networks and also protect them with data recovery tools, VMware said.

“In today’s highly competitive environment, CSPs must deliver innovative services faster, with the best end-to-end customer experience and at the lowest cost,” said Gabriele Di Piazza, vice president of solutions, Telco NFV Group at VMware. “Current network architectures, including some virtualized deployments, remain rigid and expensive to build and manage.”

The company said telcos can use its NFV platform to create new services in “months,” which might be slow compared with the standards of today’s agile software development methods, but is still pretty fast for telecommunications providers.

VMware’s second announcement at MWC concerns its new AirWatch-as-a-Service for carriers. The company believes there will be lots of takers for its mobile-device-management-as-a-service offering, which provides customers with all the benefits of its AirWatch service without investing in their own application infrastructure.

Finally, VMware said it’s teaming up with connected car product maker Harman International Industries Inc. to deliver a range of Internet of Things solutions for enterprises in the industrial, retail, building management, automotive and energy efficiency industries. The idea is that Harman’s products will run inside VMware’s NFV suite, allowing telecommunication firms to better manage their burgeoning fleets of connected things.

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