VMware rolled out its Tanzu portfolio in late 2019, and executives later said the company is “all-in on Kubernetes.” According to Ajay Patel, VMware already has “hundreds” of customers adopting the Tanzu portfolio each quarter, VMware’s SVP and GM of the Modern Apps and Management Business Group. The portfolio has customers in a range of industries, including the US Army Software Factory, Cerner, Humana and Voya Financial. The company has also encouraged Kubernetes adoption with Kube Academy, the free educational program it launched in 2019. Then in October, VMware introduced Tanzu Community Edition, a freely available Kubernetes platform for learners and users. “Kubernetes is not a developer platform,” Patel said to reporters. “It’s great for infrastructure and power users. But as we talked to many enterprise customers, there’s been a clear gap… in terms of an application platform.” The platform, introduced in 2021, is designed to help customers quickly build and deploy software on any public cloud or on-premises Kubernetes cluster.
