VMware has quietly walked back its SmartNIC ambitions

VMware has quietly ceased selling SmartNIC-based firewalls, according to recent statements from the company. SmartNICs, or data processing units (DPUs), are specialized network cards that contain a small processor. These devices are utilized in hyperscale clouds to manage security and networking tasks by executing network functions as virtual machines on the SmartNIC's processor.

Cloud operators favor SmartNICs as they enable CPU cores to be rented out to customers, enhancing isolation and security. AWS promotes the benefits of its "Nitro" system, which relies on SmartNICs. VMware's efforts in the private cloud space were predicated on customers wanting an on-premises version of public cloud services. To this end, VMware adapted its hypervisor to support SmartNICs, creating a version of its NSX distributed firewall for the devices.

However, at VMware Explore this month, Umesh Mahajan, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's application networking and security division, revealed that VMware has "walked back" from the SmartNIC space. The company faced challenges integrating its products with Intel hardware, due in part to microcode complexities. Despite initial product work, buyers were not enthusiastic, stating that customers expressed interest but failed to make purchases.

Consequently, VMware has quietly discontinued selling the distributed firewall. Nonetheless, the Distributed Services Engine that enables VMware's Cloud Foundation suite to leverage SmartNICs remains a part of the product and will continue to receive support. VMware has also continued exploring ways to simplify customer experiences and adapt its product approach as necessary.

This includes developing a direct offloading capability that accelerates network traffic using ConnectX-7, an alternative method to the Distributed Services Engine. VMware remains committed to innovation, as evidenced by their advancements in memory tiering, global deduplication, and the AI Factory. Moreover, VMware's partnership with Nvidia, who also utilize the term "AI factory" to describe hardware necessary for scale inferencing, further solidifies their ongoing relationship with SmartNICs.