As we wrap up our coverage of  VMware Explore (formerly known as VMworld), it's hard to believe that this whole month wasn't about VMware.

Don't get us wrong — three of our top 10 stories were about VMware, including our pre- and post-event analysis pieces from executive editor Dan Meyer. When it comes to the Broadcom acquisition of VMware and all the sticky pieces that go along with it, Meyer is keeping track of it all.

In addition to our VMware coverage, our top story of the month was about MPLS technology, which has defied the typical short lifetime for tech and managed to hang on for more than 20 years.  See what's keeping it hanging on.

And as with every month, cloud, security and telecom are top of mind and on our Top 10 list. Check it out here. Rankings are based on unique visitors aggregated during the month.

SD-WAN and secure access service edge vendors often deride MPLS, but if those critiques are accurate, why is MPLS still a force in the WAN market?

“What we think lies ahead is the need for security to stop bad actors midflight, real time, as it's happening,” Palo Alto CEO Nikesh Arora said.

With that outcome potentially weeks away, the question could be whether VMware's business as usual remains a model for the vendor going forward.

Microsoft announced general availability (GA) of its telecom-focused Azure Operator Nexus platform that underpins the cloud giant’s 5G telecom aspirations. The GA launch also includes updates that are expected to be adopted by its “lighthouse” customer AT&T.

Several industry analysts have pointed out the lack of a unified experience for Cisco’s secure access service edge (SASE) solution and the vendor is rolling the management into its Meraki console to address this concern.

In the latest Forrester Wave for zero-trust edge (aka SASE) solutions report, the firm identified Cisco as one of the contenders, noting the vendor’s struggle to integrate and unify its SASE portfolio that includes several product lines or platforms such as Secure Connect, Umbrella and Meraki.

Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia continued to lead a rapidly slowing radio access network (RAN) market that Dell’Oro Group noted had “faded” more intensely than expected during the second quarter and is heading an overall revenue drop for the full year.

Dell’Oro Group’s latest research found the RAN market in Q2 slowed at the most dramatic pace in nearly seven years, hitting that sales wall much faster than expected. VP Stefan Pongratz placed that wall’s creation at the feet of the North American market.

The tech industry is looking for some peace of mind as the expected closing date for Broadcom‘s acquisition of VMware draws closer, especially following the release of VMware’s new private artificial intelligence (AI) platform designed to work with Nvidia chips.

Nokia struck an agreement with Wisconsin-based equipment manufacturer Sanmina to produce fiber-optic broadband network equipment targeted specifically at the United States’ recently implemented Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. That agreement included a presentation that drew local officials and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

As expected, Broadcom’s pending acquisition of VMware cast a large shadow over the latter’s Explore event this week, with many still questioning what VMware might look like if the event has a 2024 edition.

VMware’s management did its best to balance the fact that it’s still an ongoing independent entity until Broadcom’s pending acquisition closes. This included CEO Raghu Raghuram reiterating that fact when asked about what might change with VMware’s operations once/if that deal closes.

“We have always prospered in the intersection of networking and security,” Larry Lunetta, VP of portfolio solutions marketing at HPE Aruba. “We are now very aggressively doubling down on the security side of our business.”

“And what we’re going to be offering is a single security policy enforced, no matter how you connect and where you go,” he added.