#081 - Diving into the vSphere IaaS Control Plane with Katarina Brookfield

Unexplored Territory

In this conversation, Katarina Brookfield discusses her career trajectory and her current role at Broadcom. She shares defining moments in her career, including her experience working on the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology project. The conversation then shifts to the newly announced vSphere IaaS control plane and its benefits. Katarina explains that the control plane provides a comprehensive solution for deploying workloads, including additional services like storage provisioning and load balancing. The conversation also covers the self-service nature of the control plane, the different interfaces for consumers and admins, and the integration of HashiCorp Packer for building and customizing VM images. The TKG service, which allows for the deployment of managed Kubernetes clusters, is also discussed, highlighting its ease of use and integration with vSphere. The conversation concludes with a discussion of the new features in the latest version of the TKG service, including cluster auto-scaling and the decoupling of TKG from vCenter.

Takeaways

• The vSphere IaaS control plane provides a comprehensive solution for deploying workloads, including additional services like storage provisioning and load balancing.
• The control plane offers a self-service experience for consumers, allowing them to easily deploy the services they need.
• Different interfaces, including APIs, CLI, and UI, cater to the preferences of different users, making it accessible to both admins and consumers.
• The integration of HashiCorp Packer allows for the building and customization of VM images, providing flexibility and automation.
• The TKG service simplifies the deployment of managed Kubernetes clusters, making it accessible to users with little Kubernetes experience.
• The latest version of the TKG service decouples it from vCenter, allowing for faster delivery of new Kubernetes versions.
• New features in the TKG service include cluster auto-scaling and the integration of HashiCorp Packer for building and customizing VM images.

Chapters

00:00 - Kat's Career Trajectory and the Role of Defining Moments

09:20 - The Comprehensive Solution of the vSphere IaaS Control Plane

11:02 - Enabling Self-Service and Catering to Different User Preferences

18:14 - Flexibility and Automation with HashiCorp Packer Integration

22:47 - Simplifying Kubernetes Deployment with the TKG Service

29:14 - Decoupling TKG from vCenter for Faster Delivery of Kubernetes Versions

38:36 - New Features in the Latest Version of the TKG Service

Links

Check Katarina's sessions at VMware Explore in Las Vegas here
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.