VMware updated its data services manager for VMware Cloud Foundation with an emphasis on powering generative artificial intelligence (genAI) workloads and maintaining consistency throughout multicloud and distributed environments. The soon-to-be-Broadcom-owned company also unveiled a PostrgeSQL-compatible database with Google Cloud's AlloyDB technology.

"It's very critical for our customers to have a unified way of provisioning their infrastructure," VP of Marketing for VMware's cloud infrastructure business group Prashanth Shenoy told press last week. To that point, the data service manager updates are designed to make the vendor's data services as unified and easy to consume as VMware's virtualization technologies.

Shenoy said VMware's cloud data service strategy hinges on the data services manager, which includes a unified control plane and cloud software for managing databases and data services like object stores, streaming, warehouse, caching and query. These functions are increasingly "critical for all of these modern applications ... like AI workloads and data-intensive applications," Shenoy said.

Another key aspect of the vendor's strategy is the VMware Cloud Foundation, which underpins its private AI platform and improves the management, scalability, security and resource use of genAI workloads. This cloud software is offered as-a-service through VMware's partner ecosystem of cloud service providers.

The data services manager, available in VMware's Q4 2024, offers data teams and database admins control over data policies and a self-service database offering. "Whether residing on premises, across hybrid clouds or in a sovereign cloud environment, data is the fuel for digital transformation," SVP and GM for VMware's cloud infrastructure business group Krish Prasad added. "Through our new data services innovations and partnerships, we are making VMware Cloud Foundation the best platform to power the traditional, modern and AI/[machine learning] applications that are central to business."

VMware also extended its partnership with Google Cloud to offer the PostgreSQL-compatible database AlloyDB Omni on VMware Cloud Foundation in private, on-prem cloud environments. This joint offer will help customers modernize their more demanding applications and databases to accelerate AI and genAI application development.

This integration represents the first third-party, PostgreSQL-compatible database natively combined with VMware Cloud Foundation using the vendor's data services manager.

"Many VMware cloud customers are embracing modern application development practices, and they are looking to standardize on open technologies such as PostgreSQL," VMware Fellow Christos Karamanolis told SDxCentral. "However, standing up and operationalizing open source PostgreSQL is complex, error prone and costly given all the moving parts involved." The integration "will give customers access to an enterprise-grade version of PostgreSQL with full enterprise support from Google Cloud," he said.

AlloyDB Omni on VMware Cloud Foundation also provide Google-powered AI tools; simplified management; improved performance and scalability; and developer-oriented consumption models.

AlloyDB AI, a key part of Omni, gives users a likely familiar interface in PostgreSQL to work with vectors, data and AI models in Google Cloud's ML platform, Vertex AI. And by integrating data workflows with AlloyDB Omni, developers can automate database patching, scaling, backups and replication without extensive technical expertise.

The database platform's updated read and write scaling, plus its integrated columnar engine, improve performance on VMware vSAN by two times compared to standard PostgreSQL and process analytical queries 100-times faster than standard PostgreSQL, according to the vendors.

This integration is currently in tech preview, but "once available, customers will be able to deploy and manage AlloyDB instances in their VMware Cloud Foundation environments with minimal – if any – additional personnel training or tool development," Karamanolis said. "For teams that are already familiar operating their IT infrastructure using VMware Cloud Foundation, operationalizing AlloyDB Omni will be a straightforward and cost-effective exercise. Customers can expect to benefit immediately," he said.