With enterprises adoption of the hybrid cloud computing model picking up faster than expected, VMware Inc. is rolling out a series of updates to its popular vRealize suite of cloud management tools.

VMware’s vRealize suite is used by enterprises to manage and provision workloads such as compute, storage, network and application services at scale in hybrid cloud environments. The platform offers management capabilities for software-defined data centers and multiple-cloud setups that help customers to address three crucial business use cases, namely intelligent operations, automated information technology and DevOps-ready IT that combines development and operations staff for more efficient application development.

“VMware is committed to supporting our customers’ digital transformation initiatives by helping them to modernize their data centers as well as integrate their public clouds,” said Ajay Singh, senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s cloud management business unit. “These latest updates to our vRealize platform will help customers get more out of their hybrid cloud investments today, and put them on a path for cross-cloud management of applications and infrastructure regardless of where the workload is running.”

To do so, VMware has created a new user interface that features more than 20 new dashboards to provide insights into intelligent operations. VMware says the new dashboards are designed for those who are not familiar with vRealize, giving them more options to carry out research into their business operations using natural language.

vRealize Operations 6.6 has gained new native virtual storage-area network management features, as well as additional multi-cloud support features for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. In addition, the platform has been strengthened with automated workload balancing to make life for operators that much easier.

For DevOps IT, VMware is improving container management in vRealize Automation 7.3. It’s doing so with added support for Docker volumes and support for the Docker Remote API. In addition, the platform now comes with a configuration management tool framework and enhancements to database-as-a-service.

VMware said the vRealize Automation 7.3 and vRealize Network Insight 3.4 platforms are generally available now. The other products that make up the vRealize suite, including vRealize Operations 6.6, vRealize Business for Cloud 7.3 and vRealize Log Insight 4.5, will launch in the summer.

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