On Monday, March 25, IBM Cloud released the latest updates to our VMware Solutions offerings. The enhancements in this release include:

• As we announced at Think 2019, IBM Cloud now offers Caveonix RiskForesight as an add–on service for your VMware vCenter Server (VCS) instance. Caveonix RiskForesight helps you to manage compliance risks with proactive monitoring and automated defense controls to protect against threats and to meet industry and government regulations.
• You now have the option to deploy a VMware vCenter Server (VCS), hybridity bundle, or VMware vSphere Server (VSS) instance using VMware vSphere 6.7u1 and vCenter Server 6.7u1, in addition to version 6.5u2. Note that vSphere 6.7u1 is not available on all hardware combinations.
• You now have the option to deploy a VMware vCenter Server (VCS) or hybridity bundle instance using VMware NSX-T version 2.4, in addition to NSX-V version 6.4.4. We offer NSX-T at this time for proof of concept, test, and sandbox purposes to test drive this exciting new network technology from VMware.
• IBM Cloud has updated the versions of several add–on services available for VCS. F5 BIG–IP Virtual Edition is updated to V14.1.0.2; HyTrust Cloud Control is updated to V5.4.2; Zerto Virtual Replication is updated to V6.5 update 3; and Veeam Backup & Replication is updated to V9.5 update 4.
• The latest version of Veeam now supports IBM Cloud Object Storage as a storage tier, which enables much more cost effective long–term storage for your virtual machine backups.
• IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions now deploys new ESXi servers for your VCS instance with secure shell (SSH) disabled.
• You can now simultaneously add or remove ESXi servers from multiple clusters in a VCS instance.
• You now have the option to add new ESXi servers to their VCS clusters in maintenance mode. This allows you to perform custom configuration on these servers before any virtual machines run on that server.
• IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions now provides a REST API that you can use to deploy and delete VCS instances, clusters, and hosts.
• IBM Cloud increased the maximum size of Endurance file storage for a VCS instance from 12 TB to 24 TB. The larger sizes are available at performance levels of 0.25, 2, and 4 IOPS/GB.
• IBM Cloud’s KMIP for VMware key management service offering is now available in the Sydney multi–zone region (MZR).
• You can now display the VLANs and subnets allocated to your VCS instance on the instance’s Infrastructure view in the IBM Cloud portal.

Additionally, you should be aware of the following announcements:

• Beginning May 13, IBM Cloud will no longer support VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). IBM Cloud is actively working with existing VCF customers on a transition or migration plan.
• Beginning in August, IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions will no longer support VLAN spanning. If you are using VLAN spanning, you should convert your account to Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) by this time. Additionally, you will be required to enable Service Endpoints for your account by this time.

For details on all of these features and announcements, see the IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions release notes and related documentation.