A new version of VMware vSphere, launched on Monday at the 2017 VMworld conference, could help businesses more easily virtualize their big data and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

According to a VMware press release, big data and HPC represent the second fastest-growing workloads on x86 architecture. The new VMware vSphere Scale-Out Edition aims to reduce the complexity associated with these use cases by simplifying operations, while boosting efficiency and agility.

At the conference, VMware also announced a new effort to help accelerate customer efforts in hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) as well. The company unveiled its new HCI Acceleration Kit, which offers cost-effective HCI systems powered by VMware vSAN.

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By extending vSAN to the edge, the press release noted, it can more easily enable distributed processing for real-time data. The kit could also potentially help lower the cost of edge deployments as well, as it makes it cheaper to process the data closer to its source, has lower bandwidth requirements, and lower costs for data transport.

VMware is working with hardware partners such as Dell, Fujitsu, NEC, and Supermicro on the kits, which will start at $7,852. Customers will be limited to one kit per site.

Other efforts to help customers modernize their data centers were also touted at the conference, including a host of product updates across the company’s portfolio.

VMware vRealize Network Insight 3.5 offers additional compliance capabilities, a new NSX dashboard, and support for more firewalls. The new VMware Integrated OpenStack 4 brings support for OpenStack Ocata and improved support for containerized applications. Finally, VMware Validated Designs 4.1 is introducing a new consolidated data center design for a smaller footprint in certain deployments.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers

  1. A new version of the vSphere platform from VMware will make it easier for businesses to virtualize their HPC and big data workloads.
  2. VMware’s $7,852 HCI acceleration kit offers a plug-and-play option for customers to boost their efforts in HCI.
  3. A host of other VMware products are being updated in an effort to help modernize customer data centers.